1036: 4P

LING 1030: The Diversity of Languages

The languages of Africa

Outline

1 Introduction

2 Afro-Asiatic

3 Nilo-Saharan languages

4 Niger-Congo languages The Mande subfamily The Atlantic subfamily The Kwa subfamily The Bantu subfamily

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The Khoisan group (not family)

Introduction

Outline

1 Introduction

2 Afro-Asiatic

3 Nilo-Saharan languages

4 Niger-Congo languages The Mande subfamily The Atlantic subfamily The Kwa subfamily The Bantu subfamily

5

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The Khoisan group (not family)

Introduction

Language families spoken in Africa

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Introduction

Language families spoken in Africa

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Introduction

General information

Out of over 7000 languages in the worlds, 2000 are indigenous to Africa

There is a great linguistic variety on that continent

Two of the African families are the 3rd and 4th most populous families in the world (after the first two: Indo-European and Sino-Tibetan): Niger-Congo and Afro-Asiatic. Together, the four families are spoken by 2/3 of the world’s population.

The study of African languages has opened the door to many new linguistic discoveries

46 African languages as nearly extinct

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Afro-Asiatic

Outline

1 Introduction

2 Afro-Asiatic

3 Nilo-Saharan languages

4 Niger-Congo languages The Mande subfamily The Atlantic subfamily The Kwa subfamily The Bantu subfamily

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The Khoisan group (not family)

Afro-Asiatic

The Afro-Asiatic family

The name reflects the geographic distribution

Northen Africa and the Middle East

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Nilo-Saharan languages

Outline

1 Introduction

2 Afro-Asiatic

3 Nilo-Saharan languages

4 Niger-Congo languages The Mande subfamily The Atlantic subfamily The Kwa subfamily The Bantu subfamily

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The Khoisan group (not family)

Nilo-Saharan languages

Nilo-Saharan languages

Around 205 languages in 15 countries, esp. Chad, Sudan, Ethiopia.

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Nilo-Saharan languages

Nilo-Saharan languages

Example languages: Dinka (South Sudan) Nuer (South Sudan) Songhai (Mali)

(3) Songhai: Garba neere-ndi bari

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di Musa se. Garba sell-CAUS horse the Musa to ‘Garba made someone sell the horse to Musa’

Anything interesting about this Songhai example? Yes! ⇒ It’s an SVO order with postpositions

Niger-Congo languages

Outline

1 Introduction

2 Afro-Asiatic

3 Nilo-Saharan languages

4 Niger-Congo languages The Mande subfamily The Atlantic subfamily The Kwa subfamily The Bantu subfamily

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The Khoisan group (not family)

Niger-Congo languages

The Niger-Congo language family

It has over 1,500 languages, more than any other language family in Africa.

The Niger-Congo family is named after the Niger and Congo Rivers

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Niger-Congo languages

Niger-Congo languages: basic properties

mostly SVO

tonal languages

no gender of the IE type, but noun classes

complex agreement systems (agreement with subjects and objects)

example languages of different subfamilies (incomplete):

Atlantic: Wolof, Fula Mende: Bambara (Mali) Kwa: Akan (e.g. Ghana) Bantu: Swahili, Zulu

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Niger-Congo languages The Mande subfamily

Outline

1 Introduction

2 Afro-Asiatic

3 Nilo-Saharan languages

4 Niger-Congo languages The Mande subfamily The Atlantic subfamily The Kwa subfamily The Bantu subfamily

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The Khoisan group (not family)

Niger-Congo languages The Mande subfamily

Mande languages

The 73 Mande languages are spoken in West Africa

The most peculiar thing about this subfamily: it lacks the noun class system that is so characteristic of Niger-Congo

Some linguistics hypothesized that this is a retention of the Proto-Niger-Congo state of affairs. Under this theory, other Niger-Congo languages developed their gender system after cladogenesis had separated them from Mande

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Niger-Congo languages The Atlantic subfamily

Outline

1 Introduction

2 Afro-Asiatic

3 Nilo-Saharan languages

4 Niger-Congo languages The Mande subfamily The Atlantic subfamily The Kwa subfamily The Bantu subfamily

5

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The Khoisan group (not family)

Niger-Congo languages The Atlantic subfamily

Atlantic languages

The Atlantic clade is best known from Wolof and Fula, both spoken mainly in Senegal

An interesting property of Wolof: tense can be expressed on pronouns (rather than on verbs).

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(4) a. maa ngi b. I.now

dinaa I.soon

I.now go ‘I’m going now’

(5) a. maa-ngi dem b. dinaa dem I.soon go ‘I will go soon’

Niger-Congo languages The Kwasubfamily

Outline

1 Introduction

2 Afro-Asiatic

3 Nilo-Saharan languages

4 Niger-Congo languages The Mande subfamily The Atlantic subfamily The Kwa subfamily The Bantu subfamily

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The Khoisan group (not family)

Niger-Congo languages The Kwasubfamily

Kwa languages

The best studied language of the Kwa subfamily is Akan, a major language of Ghana

Its three major dialects are Asante (also spelled Ashanti), Akuapem, and Fante

Asante and Akuapem are often referred to collectively as Twi

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Niger-Congo languages The Bantu subfamily

Outline

1 Introduction

2 Afro-Asiatic

3 Nilo-Saharan languages

4 Niger-Congo languages The Mande subfamily The Atlantic subfamily The Kwa subfamily The Bantu subfamily

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The Khoisan group (not family)

Niger-Congo languages The Bantu subfamily

Bantu languages

There are about 250 Bantu languages by the criterion of mutual intelligibility, though the distinction between language and dialect is often unclear.

Bantu languages are classified into geographical zones:

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Niger-Congo languages The Bantu subfamily

Bantu languages

Example languages: Swahili Zulu Xhosa

Characteristic properties:

agglutinative, both prefixes and suffixes many are tonal they have click sounds➤ Miriam Makeba performing the "Click Song": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_V3YOBUKN58 noun class system Syllables are typically CV (consonant followed by a vowel)

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Niger-Congo languages The Bantu subfamily

Noun classes in Ndebele

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noun class class prefix root translation class 1 um- fana ‘boy’ class 2 aba- fana ‘boys’ class 5 i- luba ‘flower’ class 6 ama- luba ‘flowers’

(6) class 7 isi- lwane ‘lion’ class 8 izi- lwane ‘lions’ class 9 i- nja ‘dog’ class 10 izi- nja ‘dogs’ class 11 ulu- tho ‘thing’ class 15 uku- dla ‘food’

Niger-Congo languages The Bantu subfamily

Inflectional morphology on verbs: agreement

Verbs agree with subjects and object The agreement is in noun class

(7) Subject agreement:

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‘The boy is running’a. Umfana u-ya-gijima. 1boy 1s-PRES-run

b. Inja i-ya-gijima. 9dog 9s-PRES-run

‘The dog is running’

(8) Subject and object agreement:

a. Umfana u-ya-yi-bona inja. 1boy 1s-PRES-9o-see 9dog

‘The boy sees the dog’

b. Inja i-ya-m-bona umfana. 9dog 9s-PRES-see 1boy

‘The dog sees the boy’

Niger-Congo languages The Bantu subfamily

Inflectional morphology on verbs: tense and aspect

In addition to agreement, verbs can be inflected for tense and aspect

(9) Tense in Ndebele (S44)

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a. Ngi- ya- pheka. 1sg- PRES- cook ‘I cook’

b. Ngi- za- pheka. 1sg- FUT- cook ‘I will cook’

c. Ngi- á- pheka. 1sg- PST- cook ‘I cooked’

(10) Ngi- sa- za- pheka. 1sg- STILL- FUT- cook ‘I am still going to cook’

Niger-Congo languages The Bantu subfamily

Derivational morphology on verbs

In the literature on Bantu languages, the term derivational morphology refers to morphemes that change the transitivity of the verbs (they add or remove an argument)

An argument – subject or object of a verb

Examples of Bantu derivational morphemes

Applicative (adds an object) Causative (adds an object) Passive (removes the subject) Reciprocal (removes the object)

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Niger-Congo languages The Bantu subfamily

Applicatives: adding an object

Take a transitive verb (one object)

(11) Ngi-phek-a isuphu 1sg-cook-FV 9soup ‘I cook soup’

Add the applicative suffix -el: a new object appears (a benefactive)

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(12) Ngi-phek-el-a abantwana isuphu 1sg-cook-APPL-FV 2children 9soup ‘I cooked soup for the children ’

Niger-Congo languages The Bantu subfamily

Causatives: adding an object (a causee)

Take a transitive verb (one object)

(13) Ngi-phek-a isuphu 1sg-cook-FV 9soup ‘I cook soup’

Add the causative suffix -is: a new object appears (a causee)

(14) Ngi-phek-is-a abantwana isuphu 1sg-cook-CAUS-FV 2children 9soup ‘I make the children cook soup’

Now it’s not the subject who is doing the cooking, but the newly introduced object. (The subject is the causer, the new object is the causee).

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Niger-Congo languages The Bantu subfamily

Passives: removing the subject

Take a transitive verb (one object)

(15) Ngi-phek-a isuphu 1sg-cook-FV 9soup ‘I cook soup’

Add the passive suffix -w: subject is removed and the object becomes the subject.

(16) Isuphu i-phek-w-a. 9soup 9-cook-PASS-FV ‘The soup is (being) cooked’

Now it’s not the subject who is doing the cooking, but the newly introduced object. (The subject is the causer, the new object is the causee).

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Niger-Congo languages The Bantu subfamily

Reciprocal: removing the object

Take a transitive verb (one object)

(17) Si-bon-a abantwana 1pl-see-FV 2children ‘We see the children’

Add the reciprocal suffix -an: the object goes away

(18) Si-bon-an-a. 1pl-see-REC-FV ‘We see each other’

The verb now has a reciprocal interpretation.

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Niger-Congo languages The Bantu subfamily

Prefixal and suffixal morphology

Bantu languages have both prefixal and suffixal morphology (in this respect they differ from many language families we discussed so far, e.g. IE or Altaic, which are predominantly suffixal).

In verbal morphology, there is a split:

Inflectional morphology is usually prefixal Derivational morphology is usually suffixal

Inflectional morphology: e.g. tense, agreement Derivational morphology: e.g. applicative, causative, reciprocal

(19) Si- za- phek -el -an -a 1pl- FUT- cook -APPL -REC -FV ‘We will cook for each other.’

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Niger-Congo languages The Bantu subfamily

CV syllables

Bantu languages are known for avoiding consonant clusters (multiple consonants in a row) Syllables are typically CV (syllable boundaries are marked by dots below), which means vowels and consonants alternate.

(Zulu)(20) si.phe.ki.se.la.na ‘We are cooking for each other’

Bantu languages also avoid a vowel hiatus – a situation when there are two vowel in a row

(21) paella (Spanish)

⇒ Bantu languages don’t allow words like paella.

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Niger-Congo languages The Bantu subfamily

Vowel hiatus resolution

Sometimes, affixation can create a vowel hiatus

(22) Ndebele (S44, Zimbabwe) la-inkazana ⇒ lenkazana with-girl

Vowel hiatus resolution rule: [a] is deleted and causes lowering of the following high vowel into a mid vowel.

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Niger-Congo languages The Bantu subfamily

Vowel hiatus resolution

Vowel hiatus resolution rule: [a] is deleted and causes lowering of the following high vowel into a mid vowel.

(23)

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Ndebele (S44, Zimbabwe) la-inkazana lenkazana⇒

⇒ lomfana with-girl la-umfana with-boy

The Khoisan group (not family)

Outline

1 Introduction

2 Afro-Asiatic

3 Nilo-Saharan languages

4 Niger-Congo languages The Mande subfamily The Atlantic subfamily The Kwa subfamily The Bantu subfamily

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The Khoisan group (not family)

The Khoisan group (not family)

Khoisan language group

The Khoisan languages are found primarily in the Kalahari desert region of southwestern Africa

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The Khoisan group (not family)

Khoisan language group

Linguists use to think Khoisan languages form a family, but this hypothesis is no longer accepted

Rather, the Khoisan language group consists of 3 language families and 2 isolates

only about 300,000 people speak a Khoisan language, most of these being speakers of Nama (Namibia)

The Khoisan people are the indigenous hunter-gather people of southern Africa. They are often called Bushmen (the term is some considered pejorative, but it’s used to self-identify)

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The Khoisan group (not family)

Khoisan language group

Khoisan languages use click consonants

The click inventory is much larger than the one found in Bantu languages. Examples of click sounds include:

bilabial click lateral click palatal click palato-alveolar click

This proliferation of clicks contributes to very large consonant inventories in Khoisan languages, rivaling those of the West Caucasian languages.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6WO5XabD-s

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Fulani http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8vQ1w-I04I - Fulani people http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L175NlhkxFo - Fulani http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlnO1QDqpaQ - Fulani-Herzog

Toumani Diabate-Mali http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTNRHE1N2K4 - Toumani Diabate http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sdM-36eRGQ - Music from Mali

Dogon http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avVX_Xfb0Ok - Dogon

Swahili http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fK0wPpLryc4 - Swahili http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWxF-i0rHWw - Swahili movie

Xhosa http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrK-XVCwGnI - Xhosa http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Srqas7QZfk - Languages in Africa http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BF2nG48r-6s

Songhai http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9W67Od8oVgc - Songhai

Dinka: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-aAI0TpTNg - Dinka

Nuba: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJdIM2rU_5o - Nuba-Leni Riefenstahl

Maasai (VSO order) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5pDJvS_KCY - Maasai