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The Kordofanian languages have not been shown to be more distantly related than other branches of Niger–Congo, however, and they have not been shown to constitute a valid group. Today, the Kadu languages are excluded, and the others are usually included in Niger–Congo proper.
The Atlantic–Congo languages make up the largest demonstrated family of languages in Africa. They have characteristic noun class systems and form the core of the Niger–Congo family hypothesis. They comprise all of Niger–Congo apart from Mande , Dogon , Ijoid , Siamou , Kru , the Katla and Rashad languages (previously classified as ...
Niger–Congo is a hypothetical language family spoken over the majority of sub-Saharan Africa. [1] It unites the Mande languages, the Atlantic–Congo languages (which share a characteristic noun class system), and possibly several smaller groups of languages that are difficult to classify.
Ethnolinguistic map of Niger. Niger has 11 national languages, with French being the official language and Hausa the most spoken language. Depending on how they are counted, Niger has between 8 and 20 indigenous languages, belonging to the Afroasiatic, Nilo-Saharan and Niger–Congo families. The discrepancy comes from the fact that several are ...
A major branch of Niger–Congo languages is the Bantu phylum, which has a wider speech area than the rest of the family (see Niger–Congo B (Bantu) in the map above). The Niger–Kordofanian language family, joining Niger–Congo with the Kordofanian languages of south-central Sudan, was proposed in the 1950s by Joseph Greenberg. Today ...
"Laru [lro] is a Niger-Kordofanian language in the Heiban group (Schadeberg 1981) that includes the languages Heiban, Moro, Otoro, Kwalib, Tira, Hadra, and Shoai. The three main dialects of Laru are Yilaru, Yïdündïlï and Yogo'romany. The last two are close to the neighbouring language of Kwalib, and the intelligibility between them is high.
The relationship has been accepted, with the exception of the "Tumtum" group, though the Kordofanian languages are no longer seen as being a primary branch, and the name 'Congo–Kordofanian' is no longer used. Greenberg's four families became the dominant conception of African languages, though his subclassification did not fare as well.
An original Pygmy language has been postulated for at least some Pygmy groups. Merritt Ruhlen writes that "African Pygmies speak languages belonging to either to the Nilo-Saharan or Niger–Kordofanian families. It is assumed that Pygmies once spoke their own language(s), but that, through living in symbiosis with other Africans in ...