Afroasiatic: widespread throughout the Middle East, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and parts of the Sahel. It comprehends 374 languages spoken by over 350 million people. The main subfamilies of Afroasiatic are the Berber languages, Semitic languages, Chadic languages and the Cushitic languages. Some of the most widely spoken Afroasiatic languages include Arabic (Semitic), Berber (Berber), Hausa (Chadic), Amharic (Semitic), Oromo and Somali (Cushitic).
Niger-Congo: this is one of the largest group of the world in terms of the number of languages: 1532 languages. The area in which these languages are spoken stretches from Senegal east to Kenya and south to South Africa. About 600 million people (85 percent of the population of Africa) speak a Niger-Congo language. There are three main subfamilies: Niger-Congo A, Niger-Congo B (Bantu languages ) and Kordofanian languages. This classification has always been controversial, because some scholars think that kordofanian languages mustn't be classified separately, others think that Mande languages shouldn't be included in Niger-Congo family. Some of the most important languages of this group are: wolof, fula, swahili, yoruba, igbo.
Nilo-Saharan: is extremely diverse and thus a somewhat controversial grouping uniting 205 languages in 17 nations from southern Egypt to northern Tanzania and into Nigeria and DR Congo. They are spoken by 50 million people. Some of the better known Nilo-Saharan languages are Kanuri, Songhay, Nubian and Maasai
Khoisan : are 27 languages spoken by 200 thousand people. They include languages indigenous to Kalahari Desert, primarily in Namibia and Botswana, and to the Rift Valley in central Tanzania. Most of the languages are endangered, and several are moribund or extinct. Most have no written record. Khoisan languages are best known for their use of click consonants as phonemes. The classification of this group is controversial.
The "African Languages" collection of Language Sciences Library
The Library holds over 700 volumes (handbooks, grammar, thesis, Congresses Acts, etc.) relating African Languages. They are divided by genetic classification (click here to see the scheme). It is possible to consult all the books at the third floor of the Library.
Do you want to consult our collection online? It is possible to see and share all over the world our "Africanistics" section through Library Thing. All the volumes have bibliographic record and abstract . You can sort the list how you prefer by clicking the blue column titles (Author, Title, etc.), you can also choose the style of the catalog, different styles show different fields (you can choose one of the A-E style or edit your own). If you want to search the catalog insert a term (Author, Title, Keyword) in the box "Search this library" or in the following box.
Post a Comment