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The term African languages refers to the approximately 1800 languages spoken in Africa. Some African languages, such as Swahili, Hausa, and Yoruba, are spoken by millions of people. Others, such as Laal, Shabo, and Dahalo are spoken by a few hundred or less people. In addition, Africa has a wide variety of sign languages, many of whose genetic classification has yet to be worked out. Several African languages are also whistled for special purposes.
The abundant linguistic diversity of many African countries has made language policy an extremely important issue in the neo_colonial era. In recent years, African countries have become increasingly aware of the value of their linguistic inheritance. Language policies that are being developed nowadays are mostly aimed at multilingualism.
Language families Map showing the distribution of African language families and some major African languages. The African languages are generally divided into four language families: - Afro-Asiatic languages
- Nilo-Saharan languages
- Niger-Congo languages
- Khoisan languages
In addition, they include several unclassified languages, and of course sign languages.
Afro-Asiatic Main article: Afro-Asiatic languages
Formerly known as Hamito-Semitic languages, Afro-Asiatic languages are spoken in large parts of North Africa, East Africa, and Southwest Asia. The Afro-Asiatic language family comprises approximately 240 languages spoken by 285 million people. The main subfamilies of Afro-Asiatic are the Semitic languages, the Cushitic languages, Berber, and the Chadic languages. The Semitic languages are the only branch of Afro-Asiatic based outside of Africa. The Semitic, Berber and Egyptian branches are predominantly (though by no means exclusively) spoken by Caucasoid people, while Cushitic, Chadic, and Omotic are spoken by black Africans.
Some of the most widely spoken Afro_Asiatic languages include Arabic (Semitic), Oromo (Cushitic), and Hausa (Chadic). Of all the world's surviving language families, Afro-Asiatic has the longest written history - both Ancient Egyptian and Akkadian are members.
Nilo-Saharan Main article: Nilo-Saharan languages
The Nilo-Saharan languages are a group of languages mainly spoken in Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania. The family consists of more than a hundred languages spoken by 30 million people. Some of the better known Nilo-Saharan languages include Turkana (Kenya), Maasai (Kenya and Tanzania), Kanuri (Nigeria) and Songhay (Mali). Most Nilo_Saharan languages are tonal.
Nilo_Saharan is an extremely diverse and somewhat controversial family. The Kadu languages were formerly grouped with the Kordofanian languages, but are nowadays often considered part of the Nilo-Saharan family. The Nilotic languages, having expanded substantially with the Nilotic peoples in recent centuries, are geographically the most widespread sub-branch and have a large population.
Niger-Congo Main article: Niger-Congo languages
The Niger-Congo language family is the largest group of Africa (and probably of the world) in terms of different languages. One of its salient features, still shared by most of the Niger-Congo languages, is the noun class system. The vast majority of languages of this family is tonal. The Bantu family comprises a major branch of Niger-Congo, as visualized by the distinction between Niger-Congo A and B (Bantu) on the map above.
The Niger-Kordofanian language family, joining Niger-Congo with the Kordofanian languages of south-central Sudan, was proposed in 1950s by Joseph H. Greenberg. It is common today for linguists to use "Niger_Congo" to refer to this entire family, including Kordofanian as a subfamily. One reason for this is that it is not clear whether Kordofanian was the first branch to diverge from rest of Niger_Congo. Mandé has been claimed to be equally or more divergent.
Niger-Congo is generally accepted by linguists, though a few question the inclusion of Kordofanian or Mandé.
Khoi-San Main article: Khoi-San languages
The Khoi-San languages number about 50 and spoken by about 120 000 people. They are found mainly in Namibia, Botswana, and Angola. Two distant languages usually considered Khoi-San are Sandawe and Hadza of Tanzania. Many linguists regard the Khoi-San phylum as a yet unproven hypothesis.
A striking — and nearly unique — characteristic of the Khoi-San languages is their use of click consonants. Some neighbouring Bantu languages (notably Xhosa and Zulu) have borrowed click sounds from the Khoi-San languages, as has the Cushitic language Dahalo; but only a single language, the Australian ritual language Damin, is reported to use clicks without them being a result of Khoi-San influence. All of the Khoi-San langauges are Malagasy is an Austronesian language, and Afrikaans is Indo-European, as is the lexifier of most African creoles. Since the colonial era, European languages like Portuguese, French are also found on the African continent, as are Indian languages such as Gujarati.
Creole languages Due partly to its multilingualism and its colonial past, a substantial proportion of the world's creole languages are to be found in Africa. Some are based on European languages (eg Krio from English in Sierra Leone, or Kriol from Portuguese in Guinea-Bissau); some are based on Arabic (eg Juba Arabic in the southern Sudan, or Nubi in parts of Uganda and Kenya); some are based on local languages (eg Sango, the main language of the Central African Republic.)
Unclassified languages A fair number of unclassified languages are reported in Africa; many remain unclassified simply for lack of data, but among the better-investigated ones may be listed: Less well investigated ones include Bete, Bung, Kujarge, Lufu, Mpre, Oropom, and Weyto. Several of these are extinct, and adequate comparative data is thus unlikely to be forthcoming.
In addition, the placement of Kadu, Kordofanian, Hadza, and Sandawe _ among others _ is controversial, as discussed above.
Sign languages Main article: African sign languages.
Many African countries have national sign languages _ such as Algerian Sign Language, Tunisian Sign Language, Ethiopian Sign Language - while other sign languages are restricted to small areas or single villages, eg Adamorobe Sign Language in Ghana. Little has been published on most of these languages.
Language in Africa Some important languages of wider communication in Africa. Draft version, please comment here Throughout the long multilingual history of the African continent, African languages have been subject to phenomena like language contact, language expansion, language shift, and language death. A case in point is the Bantu expansion, the process of Bantu-speaking peoples expanding over most of the sub-Saharan part of Africa, thereby displacing Khoi-San speaking peoples in much of East-Africa. Another example is the Islamic expansion in the 7th century AD, marking the start of a period of profound Arabic influence in North Africa.
Trade languages are another age-old phenomenon in the African linguistic landscape. Cultural and linguistic innovations spread along trade routes and languages of peoples dominant in trade developed into languages of wider communication (lingua francae). Of particular importance in this respect are Fulfulde (West Africa), Hausa (Nigeria, Niger), Lingala (Kongo), Swahili (East Africa) and Arabic (North Africa).
After gaining independence, many African countries, in the search for national unity, elected one language to be used in government and education. In recent years, African countries have become increasingly aware of the importance of linguistic diversity. Language policies that are being developed nowadays are mostly aimed at multilingualism.
Tone in African languages Tonal languages are found troughout the world, notably in Asia, Austronesia, America (indigenous languages), and South-America (Mexico and Brazil). In Africa, they are especially numerous. Both the Nilo-Saharan and the Khoi-San language families are fully tonal. The majority of the Niger-Congo languages is also tonal Tonal languages are furthermore found in the Omotic, Chadic, and South & East Cushitic branches of Afro-Asiatic. The Semitic, Berber and Egyptian branches are not tonal.
Many ethnic groups living in the rain forests of Africa transmit messages from one village to another by use of so called talking drums.
African languages differ in the number of tone levels they have. Most African tonal languages have a two tone system. (map based on Wedekind 19??)
Further reading
African languages - Heine, Bernd & Derek Nurse (eds.) (2000) African languages: an introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Webb, Vic and Kembo-Sure (eds.) (1998) African Voices. An introduction to the languages and linguistics of Africa. Cape Town: Oxford University Press Southern Africa.
Language policies in Africa - Ellis, Stephen (ed.) (1996) Africa Now. People – Policies – Institutions. The Hague: Ministry of Foreign Affairs (DGIS).
- Chimhundu, Herbert (2002) Language Policies in Africa. (Final report of the Intergovernmental conference on language policies in Africa) Revised version. UNESCO.
Classifications - Robert Needham Cust, Diedrich Westermann, John Bendor-Samuel, Malcolm Guthrie, Joseph Greenberg, Christopher Ehret, Roger Blench, etc.
- Ethnologue.com's Africa (http://www.ethnologue.com/country_index.asp?place=Africa) : More on African languages and language families.
See also
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