Volta–Congo is a major branch of the Atlantic–Congo family. It includes all Atlantic-Congo except the families of the erstwhile

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...

and Kordofanian branches and possibly Senufo. In the infobox at the right, the languages which appear to be the most divergent (including the dubious Senufo) are placed at the top, whereas those closer to the core (the similar "Benue–Kwa" branches of Kwa, Volta–Niger and Benue–Congo) are near the bottom.Roger Blench
Niger-Congo: an alternative view
/ref> If the Kwa or Savannas branches prove to be invalid, the tree will be even more crowded.

Classification

Comparative linguistic research by John M. Stewart in the sixties and seventies helped establish the genetic unity of Volta–Congo and shed light on its internal structure, but the results remain tentative. Williamson and Blench (2000) note that in many cases it is difficult to draw clear lines between the branches of Volta–Congo and suggest that this might indicate the diversification of a

dialect continuum A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of Variety (linguistics), language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are Mutual intelligibility, mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulat ...

rather than a clear separation of families. This had been suggested before by Bennet (1983 as cited in Williamson and Blench 2000:17) in the case of the Gur and Adamawa–Ubangi languages, which apart from Ubangian are now linked together as

Savannas A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) biome and ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the Canopy (forest), canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient li ...

. Other branches are Kwa and Benue–Congo, which includes the well-known and particularly numerous Bantu group. The relationship of Kwa to Benue–Congo (named ''Benue–Kwa''), and the eastern and western branches of Benue–Congo to each other, remain obscure. The vowel systems of Volta–Congo languages have been the subject of much historical comparative linguistic debate. Casali (1995) defends the hypothesis that Proto-Volta–Congo had a nine- or ten-vowel system employing

vowel harmony In phonology, vowel harmony is a phonological rule in which the vowels of a given domain – typically a phonological word – must share certain distinctive features (thus "in harmony"). Vowel harmony is typically long distance, meaning tha ...

and that this set has been reduced to a seven vowel-system in many Volta–Congo languages. The

Ghana–Togo Mountain languages The Ghana–Togo Mountain languages, formerly called Togorestsprachen (''Togo Remnant languages'') and Central Togo languages, form a grouping of about fourteen languages spoken in the mountains of the Ghana–Togo borderland. They are part of t ...

are examples of languages where nine- or ten-vowel systems are still found.

Footnotes

References

* Casali, Roderic F. (1995) 'On the Reduction of Vowel Systems in Volta–Congo', '' African Languages and Cultures,'' 8, 2, Dec, 109–121. * Stewart, John M. (1976) ''Towards Volta–Congo reconstruction: a comparative study of some languages of Black-Africa''. (Inaugural speech, Leiden University) Leiden: Universitaire Pers Leiden. * Stewart, John M. (1985) 'Nasality patterns in the Volta–Congo foot.' Paper presented at the Colloquium on African Linguistics, Leiden, Sept. 1985. * Williamson, Kay & Blench, Roger (2000) 'Niger–Congo', in Heine, Bernd and Nurse, Derek (eds) ''African Languages — An Introduction.'' Cambridge: Cambridge University press, pp. 11–42. {{DEFAULTSORT:Volta-Congo languages Atlantic–Congo languages

Classification

See also

Footnotes

References