Nilo-Saharan languages. Linguistic encyclopedic dictionary. North and South American languages

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AFRICAN LANGUAGES. Africa, especially sub-Saharan Africa, speaks a great variety of languages. An exact figure cannot be given, since there is no generally accepted method for distinguishing between languages ​​and dialects. However, by any reasonable estimate, there are over 800 different languages ​​in Africa. Estimates of the number of speakers for most African languages ​​vary greatly, due to the use of different methods of counting, the widespread use of many of the largest languages ​​as languages ​​of interethnic communication, as well as the exceptionally high dynamics of demographic processes (rapid population growth in some countries, such as Nigeria, and intensive migration to cities), leading to the rapid obsolescence of statistical data. Some local languages, such as Swahili in East Africa and Hausa in West Africa, were widely used as a lingua franca, i.e. as intermediary languages ​​in the communication of multilingual groups, even before the introduction of European languages, now Zulu, Lingala and some others have been added to their number.

With all their diversity, African languages ​​can be grouped into four large families of different origins: Afro-Asiatic, Niger-Congo (formerly known as Western Sudanese and also includes Bantu languages), Nilo-Saharan (Sudanese) and the family of click languages ​​(formerly called Bushman). and also including Hottentot and two East African languages).

Although the thesis of the origin of these four families from one source cannot be proved, there are a number of linguistic features that are common to a large number African languages ​​and rare or absent outside of Africa, which allows us to consider this continent an independent language area. These features include tones discussed below, nominal classification systems, and verbal derivation. Vocalism is generally simple, with no umlaut or other sound modifications, except for a very common nasalization. Syllables are usually open, i.e. ending only in vowels (except in most Afroasian languages). Typical initial combinations "nasal consonant + voiced stop", such as mb- and nd-. Widespread in African languages ​​and rarely found outside of Africa, click consonants, labiovelar consonants, which are characterized by a double - labial and back lingual - stop (kp and gb), and implosive stop, accompanied by not pushing the air stream out of oral cavity, but by its retraction. Tonal systems usually include two or three significant registers (pitch levels), unlike languages ​​such as Chinese, which use contour tones (rising, falling, etc.). Many characteristic semantic idioms are common throughout Africa, for example, the phrase literally meaning "mouth of the house" is used to refer to a door, literally "children of the hand" is used to refer to fingers, the word meaning "child" is used as a diminutive (diminutive indicator).

Any significant information about African languages, especially common in South Africa, became available only in the 19th century, when Europeans penetrated deep into the continent. This has led to attempts general classification African languages ​​(R. Lepsius, F. Muller, R. Kast). In the first two decades of the 20th century, mainly due to the efforts of K. Meinhof and D. Westerman (the first one is a specialist in Bantu, the second one is a specialist in the languages ​​of Sudan), a widely used classification was developed, according to which all African languages ​​were divided into five families: Semitic , Hamitic, Sudanese, Bantu and Bushmen. Approximately in this order, these families were distributed over the territory of the African continent in the direction from north to south. Initially, it was believed that the languages ​​of the first two families were spoken by representatives of the white race (Caucasians), the next two by the black race (Negroids), and the languages ​​of the last family were spoken by representatives of the Bushman race. The main disadvantages of this classification were as follows. 1) As Westerman himself has shown, the Bantu languages ​​are combined with a large group of languages ​​of Western Sudan into a single family, in general, not related to the languages ​​of Eastern Sudan. 2) The Semitic group is not independent, it is related to the "Hamitic" languages. In addition, as M. Cohen and others pointed out, “Hamitic” languages ​​are not at all a separate taxonomic unit within some larger one, but just a traditional designation of all non-Semitic groups. 3) Regarding different offers Meinhof to attribute to a number of languages ​​​​(for example, Fula, Masai, Hottentot) the status of "Hamitic", then almost all of them are now recognized as incorrect. Only the Hausa language, which together with many of the languages ​​of Chad forms the Chadic group, can be considered "Hamitic" and therefore belongs to the Afroasian family (formerly called Semitic-Hamitic or Hamito-Semitic). This article presents the classification of African languages ​​that arose as a result of these major modifications.

African family.

In phonetics, the Afroasian languages ​​are characterized by the absence of tones so common in other African languages. An exception is the Chadic languages, which appear to have acquired tones under the influence of neighboring Niger-Congo and Sudanese languages. We can also note the frequent occurrence of pharyngeal and laryngeal consonants and complex consonantal groups, which are rare in other African languages. The most characteristic grammatical features: the category of gender (correlated with gender) in the pronoun, name and verb, including in the 2nd person; a variety of models for the formation of the plural of a name (including partial reduplication, alternation of vowels within a word, suffixation); a complex set of derived verb forms (passive, reflexive, causative, etc.). The predominance of triconsonant roots seems to be a purely Semitic language development.

Afro-Asiatic languages ​​almost completely dominate in North Africa, are widespread in East Africa (Ethiopia, Somalia, mainland Tanzania) and the Middle East. There are 5 branches: Ancient Egyptian, Semitic, Berber, Cushitic and Chadic.

Ancient Egyptian branch.

Ancient Egyptian, more late stages development, after the transition to an alphabetic script, known as Coptic, now extinct, supplanted by Arabic. However, the Monophysite Christian Church of Egypt still uses it for worship.

Semitic branch.

It is divided into subgroups: Akkadian (now extinct), Canaanite (Hebrew and Phoenician languages, including the Punic language that existed in ancient times in northern Africa), Aramaic, North Arabian (classical Arabic language) and South Arabian-Ethiosemitic. Classical Arabic during the Muslim conquests early medieval spread throughout North Africa and - through the Nile Valley - through the Sudan. Today it exists in the form of various local dialects. Arabic is the native language of some Negroid groups (such as the Shuwa of the Lake Chad region) and is used as the lingua franca by the Negroid peoples of the Wadai and Darfur regions east of Lake Chad.

The rest of the Semitic languages ​​of Africa belong to the Ethio-Semitic subgroup and are related to the South Arabian languages ​​of the Sabaean and Minean inscriptions. They entered Africa long before the Christian era, in the course of an elusive tribal migration from the south of the Arabian Peninsula. The Ethio-Semitic languages ​​are divided into 2 subgroups: northern (Tigre, Tigrinya and the now extinct Geez, or classical Ethiopian language) and southern (Gurage dialects; Harari, the local language of the city of Harar; and finally, Amharic, the most important of the Ethio-Semitic languages, official language Ethiopia).

Berber branch.

Berber languages, long considered dialects of a single language and formerly distributed throughout North Africa (except Egypt) and the Canary Islands, are now preserved mainly in the western part of this region and among the nomadic tribes of the Tuareg of the Sahara. Ancient Berber inscriptions have been found in an alphabet, apparently of Carthaginian origin, which is still used by the Tuareg.

Kushite branch.

The Cushitic languages ​​spoken in East Africa are divided into 5 subgroups: northern, consisting of the Beja language; eastern, among the most important representatives of which are the Somali, Oromo (Galla), Saho-Afar and Sidamo languages; the central one, consisting of the languages ​​of the Agau peoples, which have undergone strong Ethio-Semitic influence linguistically and culturally; the western one, which includes the Kaffa language and many other minor languages ​​of southwestern Ethiopia and adjacent areas; and a small southern one, consisting of several less widely spoken languages, such as Irakw in mainland Tanzania.

Chadian branch.

Numerous Chadian languages ​​are spoken mainly in northern Nigeria, in Niger and east of it in Cameroon and the Republic of Chad. In terms of the number of speakers, the largest among them is the Hausa language, which is spoken by several tens of millions of people. Hausa is the dominant language of Northern Nigeria and also the most commonly used lingua franca of West Africa. Hausa has literature based on a simplified version of the Arabic alphabet. Chadic also includes Boleva, Angas, Ankwe, Tangale, Bura, Margi, Higi, Mandara, Musgu, Mubi, Sokoro, and Kotoko-Buduma.

Niger-Congo family.

The Niger-Congo languages, the largest sub-African language group, are predominantly tonal. A distinctive feature of the grammatical structure is a set of nominal classes expressed using affixes that are different for singular and plural. In many Niger-Congo languages, adjectives and pronouns agree in class with the noun they refer to. However, unlike European languages ​​(where a maximum of three genders are distinguished - masculine, feminine and neuter), the number of nominal classes is very large and gender is not the basis for their distinction. Thus, humans belong to one class, animals to another, trees (together with other hard-to-classify objects) to a third, and some classes have no discernible basis for semantic classification at all.

The Niger-Congo languages ​​can roughly be divided into eight subfamilies (in a west-east direction): Atlantic, Mandingo (or Mande), Woltaic (aka Gur), Kwa, Benue-Congo (including the Bantu languages), Ijo, Adamaua, and Eastern ( ubangian).

Atlantic subfamily.

Consists of languages ​​spoken primarily in Senegal, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau and Sierra Leone. Among them are Wolof - the local language of Dakar and a number of regions of Senegal, the Temne language (Sierra Leone) and the Fula language, which is spoken by several million people who migrated east as far as the Vadai region across Lake Chad.

Mandingo subfamily.

These languages ​​are spoken immediately to the east of the main body of Atlantic languages, mainly in Sierra Leone, Liberia and the upper Niger River. The most important languages ​​are Mande (Liberia), Malinke, Bambara and Diola (Mali). Diola is widely spoken as a trade lingua franca. Smaller Mandingo languages ​​are scattered as far northeast as Nigeria.

Voltai (or gur) subfamily.

The languages ​​of this subfamily are dominant in Burkina Faso and northern Ghana. Among them are the sea (the language of the native kingdom of Mossi), Dagomba and Dogon. The Senufo languages ​​spoken to the west also appear to be a subgroup of the Voltaic languages.

Qua subfamily.

Its distribution area is strongly elongated from west to east, and in the south it is limited by the Gulf of Guinea. The inclusion of the Kru languages ​​in the extreme west of its range, in Liberia, into this subfamily is highly doubtful. Among the most important languages ​​of the Kwa subfamily are the subgroup of the Akan languages ​​(Ivory Coast and Ghana); Fon, the language of the native kingdom of Benin; and the Gan language, spoken in Accra, the capital of Ghana. The two main languages ​​\u200b\u200bof Southern Nigeria, also belong to the Kwa subfamily, Yoruba and Ibo, as well as the Nupe and Bini languages ​​(the latter is spoken in the city of Benin, the center of fine arts).

Benue-Congo subfamily.

It includes as a separate division a large group of Bantu languages, which almost or completely replaced other languages ​​in most of the Congo (Zaire) basin, Angola, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi, and, along with clicking languages, are common in South Africa and her former possessions.

Of the Bantu languages, Swahili is the most widely spoken, with many millions of speakers and used as the lingua franca almost everywhere in East Africa and even in eastern Zaire, where it is known as Qingwana. In Swahili, there is a very extensive traditional literature based on a simplified version of the Arabic alphabet. Other major Bantu languages ​​are Zulu, Xhosa, Pedi, Sotho, and Chwana or Tswana in South Africa; Macua, Tonga and Shitswa in Mozambique; Nyanja in Malawi; Shona and Bemba in Zimbabwe and Zambia; the Kikuyu in Kenya; luganda, the main language of Uganda; Nyarwanda and Rundi in Rwanda and Burundi; umbundu and kimbundu in Angola; and the four main languages ​​of Zaire - Luba, Kikongo, Lingala and Mongo Nkundu. Other non-Bantu languages ​​of the Benue-Niger subfamily, often referred to as Semi-Bantu, are spoken in central and eastern Nigeria and Cameroon. Of these, we mention the Tiv, Jukin, and Efik languages.

Ijo language

(central part south coast Nigeria), in all likelihood, forms a separate subgroup within the Niger-Congo family.

Adamawa subfamily

consists of several relatively obscure languages ​​spoken in eastern Central Nigeria and the surrounding areas of Cameroon.

Eastern (Ubangi) subfamily.

The eastern (Ubangi) subfamily is distributed in the watershed of the Niger and Congo rivers north of the Bantu range, reaching Sudan in the east. The most important languages ​​are Zande, Banda and Sango; the latter is the common lingua franca.

Niger-Congo languages ​​appear to be related Kordofanian languages, which is a much smaller group, common in the mountains of Nubia (Kordofan province of the Republic of Sudan).

Nilo-Saharan (Sudanese) family.

The languages ​​of this family are generally tonal. There are no nominal classes, but some languages ​​have two grammatical genders. Sometimes the name has a case system. The verb in some languages ​​has a branched set of derived verb forms. Most of the languages ​​of the Negroid population of Africa that are not part of the Niger-Congo family belong to this family.

Shari-Nile subfamily.

Primary in a Sudanese family; formerly called macro-Sudanese. In turn, it is divided into two groups - eastern and central - and a number of separate languages. The eastern group includes the Nubian dialects of the Nile Valley, the Kordofan Plateau and Darfur, as well as the Nilotic languages: Western Nilotic (Shilluk, Dinka, Nuer, Lango), Eastern Nilotic (Masai, Bari, Turkana, Lotuho) and South Nilotic (Nandi -bitch). The last two subgroups in the classification are sometimes combined into the Nilo-Hamitic group. The central Shari-Nile group includes Mangbetu (Zaire) and Sara-Baghirmi languages ​​(Chad). In the Middle Ages, Christian literature existed in the Nubian language based on an alphabet derived from Coptic.

Sahara subfamily.

Another important subdivision of the Sudanese family, including Kanuri (the language of the native kingdom of Bornu near Lake Chad), Teda and Daza (eastern regions of the Sahara).

Other Sudanese languages.

The Maba (Wadai region) and Fur (the dominant language of Darfur) languages ​​spoken in Sudan form smaller subdivisions of the Sudanese family. It, in all likelihood, also includes Songhai (the language of the medieval Negroid empire with the capital Timbuktu, now a city in Mali) and a small group of Koman languages ​​(areas on the border between Sudan and Ethiopia). In general, the Sudanese languages ​​are spoken over a wide area north and east of the Niger-Congo languages.

Clicking tongues.

This family is divided into three subfamilies, the largest of which is the Khoisan family, which is distributed in South Africa and, in turn, breaks up into three groups: northern, central and southern. Khoisan languages ​​are spoken by the Bushmen and Hottentots; The Hottentot languages ​​belong to the central group of the Khoisan family. The remaining two subfamilies of clicking languages ​​are the Sandawe and Hatsa languages ​​spoken in Tanzania, i.e. far north of the Khoisan languages.

Clicking languages ​​got their name due to the presence of peculiar “clicking” sounds in them, used similarly to ordinary consonants and not found anywhere in the world except Africa. The articulatory interpretation of these consonants is debatable; they were often described as implosive, i.e. pronounced on inspiration; it is now believed that they are pronounced by sucking movements with little or no participation of the lungs, and therefore they are distinguished into a special group of "non-respiratory" consonants, opposed to all others, both ordinary explosive and rarer implosive. In addition to the languages ​​of this family, these sounds are found only in some Bantu languages, being a borrowing from the Khoisan languages. Sandawe and some Central Khoisan (including Hottentot) languages ​​have a category of grammatical gender.

Other African languages.

In addition to the four families described above, on the African continent there are also languages ​​​​of the island of Madagascar, belonging to the Austronesian family and very different from the mainland African languages, as well as the Meroitic language, which was once spoken at the confluence of the White and Blue Nile and which had a script based on ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs; in the current state of knowledge, Meroitic cannot be genetically related to any other language.

Plan:

Introduction

• 1 Composition
• 2 History of classification
• 3 Major languages
• 4 Bibliography

Introduction

Nilo-Saharan languages- a hypothetical macrofamily of African languages ​​distributed between the languages ​​of the Afroasian and Niger-Congo macrofamilies and not included in either of them. Distributed from Mali in the west to Ethiopia in the east and from southern Egypt in the north to Tanzania in the south.

If the relationship of these families is ever proved, it will be much more distant than can be assumed for the Niger-Congo languages. Thus, according to one hypothesis (Gregersen 1972), the Niger-Kordofanian languages ​​are included in the Nilo-Saharan hyperfamily (then called Niger-Saharan) along with other (macro)families. However, most linguists are wary of such assumptions, since the relationship of the Nilo-Saharan languages ​​themselves is very far from proven.

Speakers of Nilo-Saharan languages ​​are usually referred to as negroid race, and in some areas of Sudan and Chad - to a mixed Caucasian-Negroid race.

1. Composition

Distribution of macrofamilies and some of the largest languages ​​in Africa

The Nilo-Saharan Hypothesis brings together 11 families and 4 isolated languages, which are listed below roughly from west to east.

• The Songhai family (Songhai-Zarma; Niger and Mali) includes about 10 languages.
• The Saharan family (the southern edge of the Sahara near Lake Chad) includes about 10 languages, of which Kanuri is the most famous.
• The Maban family includes 5-9 languages ​​in southeastern Chad on the border with Sudan.
• The Fur family (For) includes only 2 languages ​​in eastern Chad and western Sudan.
• The Central Sudanese family consists of 8 branches, geographically divided into western (southern Chad and northern CAR) and eastern (south Sudan and northeastern DRC) parts, and includes more than 60 languages ​​(Sar languages, etc.).
• Eastern Sudanese (Eastern Sahelian) languages ​​- a conditional association (superfamily) of languages, includes about 80 languages, united in 3 families and 1 isolated language, the relationship between which has not been finally proven.
  • Tama-Nubian family (incl. Taman and Nubian branches);
  • Nyiman family;
  • Nara language;
  • the Kir-Abay family, which includes the Nilotic languages.
  • the Meroitic language (dead) is the hypothesis of K. Rigli, which received the support of a number of Western linguists.
• The Kadu family (Kadugli or Tumtum) was previously included in the Kordofan family. Consists of 7 languages ​​in the center of the Republic of Sudan.
• The Kulyak family (rub) includes only 3 small languages ​​in Uganda.
• Berta is an isolate in Ethiopia.
• The Comani family includes 5 languages ​​on the border of Ethiopia and Sudan.
• Gumuz is an isolate in Ethiopia.
• Kunama is an isolate in Eritrea.

The question of belonging to the Nilo-Saharan languages ​​​​of the extinct Meroitic language remains in doubt.

2. History of classification

For the first time the Nilo-Saharan hypothesis in close to modern form nominated by Joseph Greenberg. According to his classification, the Nilo-Saharan languages ​​included the following groups:

1. Komuz languages ​​(included the Koman languages ​​and the Gumuz language)
2. Saharan languages ​​(including Kanuri)
3. Songhai languages
4. fur languages
5. maban languages
6. Shari-Nile languages ​​\u200b\u200b- which included 4 groups:
   1. Central Sudanese languages
   2. kunama languages
   3. berta tongues
   4. Eastern Sudanese languages ​​(including Nubian and Nilotic languages)

Subsequently, the Komuz and Shari-Nil groups were completely rejected.

3. Largest languages

Within the Nilo-Saharan macrofamily, there are several languages ​​with at least half a million speakers (SIL Ethnologue, 2005):

• Luo or Doluo (3,465,000 speakers), distributed from Kenya and eastern Uganda to Tanzania. The speakers are the Luo people, the third largest ethnic group in Kenya after the Kikuyu and Luhya). On the given language said the father of B. Obama, 44th President of the United States.

• Kanuri (3,340,000, a group of dialects), speakers range from Niger to northeast Nigeria, where they represent the largest ethnic group.

• Songhai languages ​​(2.9 million, formerly considered one language), speakers live along the Niger River in Mali and Burkina Faso. The largest representative is the Zarma language, large tongue Niger. The Songhai languages ​​are spoken throughout the former Songhai Empire. However, the inclusion of these languages ​​in the Nilo-Saharan macrofamily is controversial.

• Dinka (2,000,000+), speakers reside in southern Sudan. The language of one of the most influential ethnic groups South Sudan, to which belongs, in particular, John Garang, the late commander of the Sudan Liberation Army.

• Lango (977 680), distributed among one of the largest peoples of Uganda. Along with Acholi, Lango speakers were subjected to ethnic cleansing during the years of the dictatorship of Idi Amin, who belonged to another Nilo-Saharan people, the Kakwa.

• Masai (883,000), distributed among the pastoral Masai people in Kenya and Tanzania.

• Nuer (804 907), the language of the Nuer tribe in South Sudan.

• Acholi (791 796), distributed in Uganda and Sudan, the closest relative of the Lango language.

• Fur (501,800), one of the largest languages ​​in the Darfur region (lit. “house of fur” in Arabic), a Sudanese province where civil war has been going on for a long time.

• Nubian languages ​​(495,000 - various dialects), descendants of the language of ancient Nubia - the traditional enemy of Ancient Egypt, are distributed from southern Egypt to northern Sudan.

4. Bibliography

• Lionel Bender, 1997. The Nilo-Saharan Languages: A Comparative Essay. Munich.
• Christopher Ehret, 2001. A Historical-Comparative Reconstruction of Nilo-Saharan. Koln.
• Joseph Greenberg, 1963. The Languages ​​of Africa(International Journal of American Linguistics 29.1). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
• Languages ​​of Asia and Africa (a series of publications, published in 1980-1990)
• Roger Blend. "Is Niger-Congo simply a branch of Nilo-Saharan?", in ed. Nicolai & Rottland, Fifth Nilo-Saharan Linguistics Colloquium. Nice, 24-29 August 1992. Proceedings.(Nilo-Saharan 10). Koeln: Koeppe Verlag. 1995.pp.36-49.
• Edgar Gregersen. Kongo-Saharan. Journal of African Languages, 11, 1:69-89. 1972.

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macrofamily of African languages. The hypothesis of the genetic unity of N.‑s. I. was put forward by J. H. Greenberg in 1963. Previously, the individual languages ​​and linguistic communities that made up the Nilo-Saharan macrofamily were considered in African studies as independent or included in other groups and families. N.‑s. I. distributed mainly in Central and East Africa. The westernmost region of this linguistic area covers the middle reaches of the Niger River, where the Songhai language is spoken.

The postulate of the genetic unity of N.‑s. I. is the most hypothetical part of the Greenberg classification and requires additional justification. Arguments in favor of the Nilo-Saharan affiliation of some individual languages ​​and linguistic communities are still insufficient, for a number of them there are assumptions about other genetic relationships. Further development is also required by the problem of internal classification of N.‑s. I., especially the question of the presence of a separate Shari-Nil genetic community within the framework of the Nilo-Saharan macrofamily (see Shari-Nil languages).

According to Greenberg, N.‑s. I. are divided into 6 families: 1) songhai-zarma, 2) Saharan, 3) maba, 4) fur, 5) Shari-Nile, 6) koma (numbering in the direction from west to east; names of languages ​​and composition of families are given taking into account work M. L. Bender).

The first family is represented by one language, Songhai, the main dialects of which are Songhai proper (Songhai Kene), Gyorma (Zarma), Dendi. The Saharan family, common in Central Sudan, includes the languages: a) Kanuri, Kanembu, b) Teda, Daza (Tubu), c) Zagawa, Berti. The Maba languages ​​spoken in Vadai (Republic of Chad) include the Maba language itself, as well as the languages ​​of Mimi, Karanga, Masalit, and others. The Fur family is represented by one Fur language, common in the Darfur region (Sudan).

The Shari-Nil, or Macro-Sudanese, family has the most complex structure, including 4 branches: Eastern Sudanese, Central Sudanese, Kunama, Berta. The Eastern Sudanese languages, in turn, are divided, according to Greenberg, into 10 groups: 1) Nubian, including a) the Nile subgroup: Kenusi-Dongola, Mahas-Fadija, Old Nubian also belongs here; b) mountain subgroup: dair, garko, etc.; c) meidob; d) birgid; 2) mursi, murle, muguja, didinga, longarim, etc.; 3) nera (leopard); 4) ingassana (tabi); 5) nyimant; 6) temein, jirra; 7) tama, sungor, merarit, kibet; 8) dagu (daju), etc.; 9) Nilotic, including Western languages: Burun, Shilluk, Acholi, Alur, Luo, Dinka, Nuer, etc.; Oriental languages: Bari, Turkana, Masai, Lotuko, Karamojong (Karimojong), etc.; southern languages: Nandi, souk (Pakot), Tatoga (see Nilotic languages); 10) ngangea (nyangiya), ik, so.

The Central Sudanese languages ​​are divided into 6 groups: 1) Bongo, Sarah, Bagirmi, Yulu, etc.; 2) kreysh; 3) moru, madi, lugbara, etc.; 4) mangbetu, asua (aka), etc.; 5) mangbutu, efe, etc.; 6) land.

The remaining 2 branches of the Shari-Nil languages ​​are represented by groups of related dialects, respectively, Kunama (and Ilit) and Berta.

N.‑s. I. in my own way grammatical structure and lexical composition are very different from each other. Separate N.‑with. I. and the groups have experienced strong contact pressure from other languages, especially those of the Afroasian macrofamily. This circumstance, as well as the poor knowledge of many N.‑s. I. significantly complicates Nilo-Saharan comparative historical research. In substantiation of the hypothesis of the Nilo-Saharan genetic unity, Greenberg makes about 160 lexical matches, as well as about 30 matches in morphological indicators, many of which apply only to individual languages ​​and subgroups, not covering most N.‑s. I. Among these correspondences, one should single out a (/ai) as an indicator of the personal pronoun of the 1st person singular in all 6 families of the Nilo-Saharan family, usually opposed to i as an indicator of the 2nd l. units h. (the 2nd person often has a nasal prefix, for example, kanuri nyi, songhai ni, maba mi, etc.); the relative and adjectival formant ma in Songhay, Saharan, Shari-Nile and Koma, the causative indicator t- in Saharan and Eastern Sudanese; n as an indicator of the 3rd l. units hours in personal, possessive and demonstrative pronouns; w in personal pronouns of the 2nd l. pl. hours in the Saharan and Eastern Sudanese languages; relative and adjective indicator ko- in songhai and maba, genitive indicators n (maba and fur), accusative k (kanuri and maba), locative l. Further k, t, n, i as indicators of plural. hours and opposition of the singular and plural using the oppositions n/k, t/k; verbal dative k meaning "to do for someone" in Kanuri and Eastern Sudanese.

• Greenberg J., The languages ​​of Africa, The Hague-Bloomington, 1966;
• his own, Nilo-Saharan and Meroitic, Current Trends in Linguistics, 1971, v. 7;
• Bender M. L., Nilo-Saharan overview, in book: The Non-Semitic languages ​​of Ethiopia, East Lancing (Mich.), 1976.

V. Ya. Porhomovsky.

There are a large number of language families and a wide variety of languages ​​in the world. There are more than 6,000 of the latter on the planet. Most of them belong to the largest language families in the world, which are distinguished by lexical and grammatical composition, kinship of origin and commonality. geographical location their carriers. However, it should be noted that community of residence is not always an integral factor.

In turn, the language families of the world are divided into groups. They are distinguished in a similar way. There are also languages ​​that do not belong to any of the selected families, as well as the so-called isolated languages. It is also customary for scientists to single out macrofamilies, i.e. groups of language families.

Indo-European family

The most fully studied is the Indo-European language family. It has been isolated since ancient times. However, relatively recently, work began on the study of the Proto-Indo-European language.

The Indo-European language family consists of groups of languages ​​whose speakers live in vast areas of Europe and Asia. So, the German group belongs to them. Its main languages ​​are English and German. Also a large group is Romance, which includes French, Spanish, Italian and other languages. In addition, to Indo-European family include Eastern European peoples who speak the languages ​​of the Slavic group. This is Belarusian, Ukrainian, Russian, etc.

This language family is not the largest in terms of the number of languages ​​included in it. However, these languages ​​are spoken by almost half of the world's population.

Afro-Asian family

Languages ​​representing Afro-Asiatic language family are used by more than a quarter of a million people. It includes Arabic, Egyptian, Hebrew, and many others, including extinct languages.

This family is usually divided into five (six) branches. This includes the Semitic branch, Egyptian, Chadian, Cushite, Berber-Libyan and Omot. In general, the Afro-Asiatic family includes more than 300 languages ​​of the African continent and parts of Asia.

However, this family is not the only one on the continent. AT in large numbers, especially to the south, there are other languages ​​in Africa that are not related to it. There are at least 500 of them. Almost all of them were not presented in writing until the 20th century. and used only orally. Some of them are still exclusively oral.

Nilo-Saharan family

The language families of Africa also include the Nilo-Saharan family. The Nilo-Saharan languages ​​are represented by six language families. One of them is songhai-zarma. The languages ​​and dialects of another - the Saharan family - are common in Central Sudan. There is also a family of mamba, whose carriers inhabit Chad. Another family, Fur, is also common in Sudan.

The most complex is the Shari-Nile language family. It, in turn, is divided into four branches, which consist of language groups. last family- coma - common in Ethiopia and Sudan.

The language families represented by the Nilo-Saharan macrofamily have significant differences among themselves. Accordingly, they present a great challenge for linguistic researchers. Into the languages ​​of this macrofamily big influence rendered by the Afro-Asian macrofamily.

Sino-Tibetan family

The Sino-Tibetan language family has over a million native speakers of its languages. First of all, this became possible due to the large size of the Chinese population, who speaks one of the branches of this language. language family Chinese. In addition to it, this branch includes the Dungan language. It is they who form a separate branch (Chinese) in the Sino-Tibetan family.

Another branch includes more than three hundred languages, which are distinguished as the Tibeto-Burmese branch. There are approximately 60 million native speakers of its languages.

Unlike Chinese, Burmese and Tibetan, most of the languages ​​of the Sino-Tibetan family do not have a written tradition and are passed down from generation to generation exclusively orally. Despite the fact that this family has been studied deeply and for a long time, it still remains insufficiently studied and hides many secrets that have not yet been revealed.

North and South American languages

At present, as is known, the vast majority of North and South American languages ​​belong to the Indo-European or Romance families. Settling the New World, European colonists brought with them their own languages. However, the dialects of the indigenous population of the American continent did not disappear altogether. Many monks and missionaries who came from Europe to America recorded and systematized the languages ​​and dialects of the local population.

Thus, the languages ​​of the North American continent north of present-day Mexico were represented in the form of 25 language families. In the future, some experts have revised this division. Unfortunately, South America has not been studied as well in terms of language.

Language families of Russia

All the peoples of Russia speak languages ​​belonging to 14 language families. In total, there are 150 different languages ​​and dialects in Russia. The basis of the country's linguistic wealth is made up of four main language families: Indo-European, North Caucasian, Altai, Ural. At the same time, most of the country's population speaks languages ​​\u200b\u200bthat belong to the Indo-European family. This part makes up 87 percent of the total population of Russia. And Slavic group occupies 85 percent. It includes Belarusian, Ukrainian and Russian, which make up the East Slavic group. These languages ​​are very close to each other. Their carriers can almost easily understand each other. This is especially true for the Belarusian and Russian languages.

Altaic language family

The Altaic language family consists of the Turkic, Tungus-Manchurian and Mongolian language groups. The difference in the number of representatives of their carriers in the country is great. For example, Mongolian is represented in Russia exclusively by Buryats and Kalmyks. But to Turkic group dozens of languages ​​are listed. Among them are Khakass, Chuvash, Nogai, Bashkir, Azerbaijani, Yakut and many others.

The group of Tungus-Manchurian languages ​​includes Nanai, Udege, Even and others. This group is under the threat of extinction due to the preference of their native peoples to use Russian on the one hand, and Chinese on the other. Despite the extensive and long-term study of the Altaic language family, it is extremely difficult for specialists to decide on the reproduction of the Altaic parent language. This is explained large quantity borrowings of its speakers from other languages ​​due to close contact with their representatives.

Ural family

The Uralic languages ​​are represented by two large families - Finno-Ugric and Samoyedic. The first of them includes Karelians, Mari, Komi, Udmurts, Mordovians and others. The languages ​​of the second family are spoken by Enets, Nenets, Selkups, Nganasans. The carriers of the Ural macrofamily are to a large extent Hungarians (more than 50 percent) and Finns (20 percent).

The name of this family comes from the name of the Ural Range, where it is believed that the formation of the Ural proto-language took place. The languages ​​of the Uralic family had some influence on their neighboring Slavic and Baltic languages. In total, there are more than twenty languages ​​of the Uralic family both in Russia and abroad.

North Caucasian family

Languages ​​of peoples North Caucasus represent a huge difficulty for linguists in terms of their structuring and study. In itself, the concept of a North Caucasian family is rather arbitrary. The fact is that the languages ​​of the local population are too little studied. However, thanks to the painstaking and deep work of many linguists studying this issue, it became clear how fragmented and complex many of the North Caucasian dialects are.

Difficulties relate not only to the actual grammar, structure and rules of the language, for example, as in the Tabasaran language - one of the most complex languages on the planet, but also pronunciation, which is sometimes simply inaccessible to people who do not speak these languages.

A significant obstacle for specialists studying them is the inaccessibility of many mountainous regions of the Caucasus. However, this language family, despite all the contradictions, is usually divided into two groups - Nakh-Dagestan and Abkhaz-Adyghe.

Representatives of the first group inhabit mainly the regions of Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia. These include Avars, Lezgins, Laks, Dargins, Chechens, Ingush, etc. The second group consists of representatives of kindred peoples - Kabardians, Circassians, Adyghes, Abkhazians, etc.

Other language families

The language families of the peoples of Russia are by no means always extensive, uniting many languages ​​into one family. Many of them are very small and some are even isolated. Such peoples primarily live on the territory of Siberia and Far East. So, the Chukchi-Kamchatka family unites the Chukchi, Itelmens, and Koryaks. The Aleuts and Eskimos speak Aleut-Eskimo.

A large number of nationalities scattered over the vast territory of Russia, being extremely few in number (several thousand people or even less), have their own languages, which are not included in any known language family. As, for example, the Nivkhs inhabiting the banks of the Amur and Sakhalin, and the Kets, located near the Yenisei.

However, the problem of linguistic extinction in the country continues to threaten the cultural and linguistic diversity of Russia. Not only individual languages, but also entire language families are under the threat of extinction.

West to Ethiopia in the east and from southern Egypt in the north to Tanzania in the south.

Nilo-Saharan languages
Taxon	macrofamily
Status	hypothesis
area	Africa
Number of media	50 million
Classification
Category	African languages
Nilo-Saharan languages
Compound
11 families, 4 isolates
Language group codes
GOST 7.75–97	them 497
ISO 639-2	ssa
ISO 639-5	ssa
See also: Project:Linguistics

The total number of Nilo-Saharan speakers (according to Ethnologue-16) is approximately 39 million. However, the data covers a range from 1980 to 2005 (including 1990s averages).

If the relationship of these families is ever proved, it will be much more distant than can be assumed for the Niger-Congo languages. Thus, according to one of the hypotheses (Gregersen, 1972), the Niger-Kordofanian languages ​​are included in the Nilo-Saharan hyperfamily (then called Niger-Saharan) along with other (macro)families. However, most linguists are wary of such assumptions, since the relationship of the Nilo-Saharan languages ​​themselves is very far from proven.

Some language groups the Nilo-Saharan macrofamily is estimated to predate the Neolithic period. So, for example, the unity of the Eastern Sudanese languages ​​was founded, approximately, in the 5th millennium BC. The Nilo-Saharan genetic (and linguistic) unity will necessarily be much older than the Eastern Sudanese languages, and will date back to the Upper Paleolithic period.

The distribution of Nilo-Saharan language families may reflect the location water resources in the Green Sahara, when the desert was more habitable than it is today - that is, during the Neolithic subpluvial period, when the Sahara in last time was a savannah.

The speakers of the Nilo-Saharan languages ​​are, as a rule, of the Negroid race, and in some areas of Sudan and Chad - of the transitional and mixed types of the Caucasian-Negroid race.

Compound

The Nilo-Saharan Hypothesis brings together 11 families and 4 isolated languages, which are listed below roughly from west to east.

• The Songhai family (Songhai-Zarma; Niger and Mali) includes about 10 languages.
• The Saharan family (the southern edge of the Sahara near Lake Chad) includes about 10 languages, of which Kanuri is the best known.
• The Maban family includes 5-9 languages ​​in southeastern Chad on the border with Sudan.
• The Fur family (For) includes only 2 languages ​​in eastern Chad and western Sudan.
• The Central Sudanese family consists of 8 branches, geographically divided into western (southern Chad and northern CAR) and eastern (south Sudan and northeastern DRC) parts, and includes more than 60 languages ​​(Sar languages, etc.).
• Eastern Sudanese (Eastern Sahelian) languages ​​- a conditional association (superfamily) of languages, includes about 80 languages, united in 3 families and 1 isolated language, the relationship between which has not been finally proven.
  • Tama-Nubian family (incl. Taman and Nubian branches);
  • Nyiman family;
  • the Kir-Abay family, which includes the Nilotic languages.
  • Meroitic language (dead) - the hypothesis of K. Rili, which received the support of a number of Western linguists.
• The Kadu family (Kadugli or Tumtum) was previously included in the Kordofan family. Consists of 7 languages ​​in the center of the Republic of Sudan.
• The Kulyak family (rub) includes only 3 small languages ​​in Uganda: ik, nyangiya, soo (tepes).
• Berta is an isolate in Ethiopia.
• The Comani family includes 5 languages ​​on the Ethiopia-Sudan border.
• Gumuz is an isolate in Ethiopia.
• Kunama is an isolate in Eritrea.

The question of belonging to the Nilo-Saharan languages ​​​​of the extinct Meroitic language remains in doubt.

History of classification

For the first time, the Nilo-Saharan hypothesis in a close to modern form was put forward by Joseph Greenberg. According to his classification, the Nilo-Saharan languages ​​included the following groups:

1. Komuz languages ​​(included the Koman languages ​​and the Gumuz language)
2. Saharan languages ​​(including Kanuri)
3. Songhai languages
4. fur languages
5. maban languages
6. Shari-Nile languages ​​\u200b\u200b- which included 4 groups:
   1. Central Sudanese languages
   2. kunama languages
   3. berta tongues
   4. Eastern Sudanese languages ​​(including Nubian and Nilotic languages)

Subsequently, the Komuz and Shari-Nil groups were completely rejected.

Major languages

Within the Nilo-Saharan macrofamily, there are several languages ​​with at least half a million speakers:

• Luo or Doluo (3,465,000 speakers), common in Kenya, eastern Uganda and Tanzania. The speakers are the Luo people, the third largest ethnic group in Kenya after the Kikuyu and Luhya). This language was spoken by the father of B. Obama, the 44th President of the United States.
• Kanuri (3,340,000, group of dialects), speakers range from Niger to northeast Nigeria, where they represent the largest ethnic group.
• Songhai languages ​​(2.9 million, formerly considered one language), speakers live along the Niger River in Mali and Burkina Faso. The largest representative is the Zarma language, a major language of Niger. The Songhai languages ​​are spoken throughout the former Songhai Empire. However, the inclusion of these languages ​​in the Nilo-Saharan macrofamily is controversial.
• Dinka (2,000,000+), speakers live in the southern