Nigéro-Congolese Languages

The nigéro-Congolese languages (or Niger-Congo according to the Anglo-Saxon terminology) constitute one of principal the families of languages of the world; it is most widespread of the groups of languages of Africa, in geographical extension, of many speakers and of many distinct languages. Almost all the languages of sub-Saharan Africa belong to this group. A frequent characteristic of the nigéro-Congolese languages is the use of a system of nominal kind.

Joseph Greenberg was the first to identify the zones where these languages were spoken, which it called “Niger - Congo” in a succession of articles published between 1949 and 1954. Little time before these articles were published in 1963 in a collection, it revised its classification by adding to it the Langues kordofaniennes like a subbranch of a more important group including the nigéro-Congolese languages. This family was renamed nigéro-kordofanienne. Simpleton and Sterk presented in 1977 a new classification based on the lexical statistics which leads to Bendor-Samuel classification in 1989. The languages kordofanniennes were classified there like a basic group, reintroducing the concept of nigéro-Congolese languages, term used nowadays among the linguists. Many classifications still consider the languages kordofaniennes as a branch very far away from the nigéro-Congolese languages, more for lack of evidence of membership that by the fact that these languages seem to form a group with share. Same manner, the mandé is often regarded as the second connects most distant.

The principal languages or sub-genera belonging to the nigéro-Congolese languages are:

  • the Languages kordofaniennes spoken in the south about the Sudan, around the hills of Nubie

  • the Languages mandé spoken in West Africa; they include the Bambara, principal language of the Mali, as well as the Soninké, a spoken language especially in Mali but also with the Senegal and in Mauritania.
  • the Atlantic Langues which include the wolof, spoken with the Senegal, and the Peul (fula), spoken in the area about the the Sahel
  • the Langues ijoïdes with the Nigeria, to which belonged the ijo and the Défaka
  • the Langues kwa, which gather the Langues akan, spoken with the Ghana, and Langues gbe, spoken in Ghana, with the Togo, the Bénin, and the Nigeria, whose most known member is the ewe
  • The bénoué-Congolese Languages including inter alia:
  • the languages Dogon spoken in Mali
  • the group Kru spoken in West Africa, to which belongbelong the Bété, the Nyabwa, and the dida
  • the group Gur, containing the Dagbani
  • the Langues adamawa-ubangi of which the Sango forms part.
----
Random links:Norbert Zongo | Julie Monette | Saint-Christophe (Vienna) | Karl Tremblay | Japanese whiskey | Saccharomyces_cerevisiae