Is Nilo Saharan valid?
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Is Nilo Saharan valid?
Nilo-Saharan genetic unity would necessarily be much older still and date to the late Upper Paleolithic. This larger classification system is not accepted by all linguists, however….Nilo-Saharan languages.
| Nilo-Saharan | |
|---|---|
| Linguistic classification | If valid, one of the world’s primary language families |
What percent of the world speaks Nilo Saharan?
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The Nilo-Saharan language family includes 204 extremely diverse languages spoken by roughly 35 million people in the interior of northern Africa, including the greater Nile basin and its tributaries, as well as the central region of the Sahara desert….Nilo-Saharan Language Family.
| Branch | Number of languages |
|---|---|
| Songhai | 8 |
| Fur | 3 |
What percentage of the world speaks Niger-Congo?
There are over 6900 languages currently spoken in the world….Language families by speakers.
| Language family | Approx. # of speakers | \% of world population |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Indo-European | 2.562 billion | 44.78\% |
| 2. Sino-Tibetan | 1.276 billion | 22.28\% |
| 3. Niger-Congo | 358 million | 6.26\% |
| 4. Afro-Asiatic | 340 million | 5.93\% |
How did the Niger-Congo language spread?
Origin. The language family most likely originated in or near the area where these languages were spoken prior to Bantu expansion (i.e. West Africa or Central Africa). No definitive “Proto-Niger-Congo” lexicon or grammar has been developed for the language family as a whole.
How many Niger-Congo languages are there?
The latest estimation of the number of Niger-Congo languages is about 1,400. All of these are considered to be distinct languages and not simply dialects. The named dialects of these languages number many thousands more, not to mention the variant names for those languages and dialects.
What was the major language for communication during Saharan trade?
One of the impacts of the growing trans-Saharan trade was the spread of Arabic as a written language in West Africa.
Which language family has the most native speakers in modern Europe?
When the figures for all the languages of Indo-European family are combined, it shows that it has the highest number of native speakers. Romance languages alone have more than 600 million speakers.
What are the top 5 language families in order?
Largest Language Families By Number of Speakers
- Indo-European – 2.910 Billion. The Indo-European language family is the largest in the world.
- Sino-Tibetan Languages – 1.268 Billion. The Sino-Tibetan language family is the second largest in the world.
- Niger-Congo Languages – 437 Million.
- Austronesian Languages – 386 Million.
When did Niger-Congo language start?
The earliest evidence of a Niger-Congo language dates back to Portuguese records of the 16th century. However, few grammars were published prior to the 19th century although the first known grammar of an African language (Kongo) was written by an Italian missionary in 1659.
What languages make up Nilo Saharan language family?
In addition to Kunama, Berta, and the Eastern Sudanic and Central Sudanic languages (once in the Chari-Nile group), most scholars now consider Nilo-Saharan to include Songhai, Saharan, Maban, Komuz, and Fur.
What is the largest language family in Africa?
Niger-Congo languages
Niger-Congo languages, a family of languages of Africa, which in terms of the number of languages spoken, their geographic extent, and the number of speakers is by far the largest language family in Africa.