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Maban Languages
The Maban languages are a small family of languages which have been included in the hypothetical Nilo-Saharan languages, Nilo-Saharan language family. Maban languages are spoken in eastern Chad, the Central African Republic and western Sudan (Darfur). Languages The Maban branch includes the following languages: *Mimi of Nachtigal * Kenjeje language, Kenjeje (Yaali, Faranga) * Masalit: Surbakhal language, Surbakhal, Masalit language, Masalit * Aiki language, Aiki (Runga and Kibet, sometimes considered separate languages) * Mabang: Karanga language, Karanga, Marfa language, Marfa, Maba language, Maba The languages attested in two word lists labelled "Mimi language, Mimi", collected by Decorse (Mimi of Decorse, Mimi-D) and Nachtigal (Mimi of Nachtigal, Mimi-N), have also been classified as Maban, though this has been contested. Mimi-N appears to have been remotely related to Maban proper, while Mimi-D appears to have not been Maban at all, with the similarities due to language con ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nilo-Saharan Languages
The Nilo-Saharan languages are a proposed family of around 210 African languages spoken by somewhere around 70 million speakers, mainly in the upper parts of the Chari River, Chari and Nile rivers, including historic Nubia, north of where the two tributaries of the Nile meet. The languages extend through 17 nations in the northern half of Africa: from Algeria to Benin in the west; from Libya to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the centre; and from Egypt to Tanzania in the east. As indicated by its hyphenated name, Nilo-Saharan is a family of the African interior, including the greater Nile Basin and the Central Sahara Desert. Eight of its proposed constituent divisions (excluding Kunama languages, Kunama, Kuliak, and Songhai languages, Songhay) are found in the modern countries of Sudan and South Sudan, through which the Nile River flows. In his book ''The Languages of Africa'' (1963), Joseph Greenberg named the group and argued it was a genetic (linguistics), genetic fam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maban Languages
The Maban languages are a small family of languages which have been included in the hypothetical Nilo-Saharan languages, Nilo-Saharan language family. Maban languages are spoken in eastern Chad, the Central African Republic and western Sudan (Darfur). Languages The Maban branch includes the following languages: *Mimi of Nachtigal * Kenjeje language, Kenjeje (Yaali, Faranga) * Masalit: Surbakhal language, Surbakhal, Masalit language, Masalit * Aiki language, Aiki (Runga and Kibet, sometimes considered separate languages) * Mabang: Karanga language, Karanga, Marfa language, Marfa, Maba language, Maba The languages attested in two word lists labelled "Mimi language, Mimi", collected by Decorse (Mimi of Decorse, Mimi-D) and Nachtigal (Mimi of Nachtigal, Mimi-N), have also been classified as Maban, though this has been contested. Mimi-N appears to have been remotely related to Maban proper, while Mimi-D appears to have not been Maban at all, with the similarities due to language con ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Northern Eastern Sudanic Languages
The Northern Eastern Sudanic, Eastern ''k'' Sudanic, ''Ek'' Sudanic, NNT or Astaboran languages may form a primary division of the proposed Eastern Sudanic family. They are characterised by having a / k/ in the first person singular pronoun "I/me", as opposed to the Southern Eastern Sudanic languages, which have an / n/. Nyima has yet to be conclusively linked to the other languages, and would appear to be the closest relative of ''Ek'' Sudanic rather than ''Ek'' Sudanic proper. The most well-known language of this group is Nubian. According to Claude Rilly, the ancient Meroitic language appears on limited evidence to be closely related to the languages of this group. A reconstruction of Proto-Northern Eastern Sudanic has also been proposed by Rilly (2010). Internal classification Rilly (2009:2) provides the following internal structure for the Northern Eastern Sudanic languages. *Northern East Sudanic ** Nyima: Nyimang, Afitti ** Taman: Tama, Mararit **Nara-Nubian ***Nar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roger Blench
Roger Marsh Blench (born August 1, 1953) is a British linguist, ethnomusicologist and development anthropologist. He has an M.A. and a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and is based in Cambridge, England. He researches, publishes, and works as a consultant. Career Blench is known for his wide-ranging interests and has made important contributions to African linguistics, Southeast Asian linguistics, anthropology, ethnomusicology, ethnobotany, and various other related fields. He has done significant research on the Niger–Congo, Nilo-Saharan, and Afroasiatic families, as well as the Arunachal languages. Additionally, Blench has published extensively on the relationship between linguistics and archaeology. Blench is currently engaged in a long-term project to document the languages of central Nigeria. He has also expressed concern about ranching in Nigeria. Blench collaborated with the late Professor Kay Williamson, who died in January 2005, and is now a trustee of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fur Language
The Fur language or For; (Fur: poor’ÃÅ‹ belé’ŋ) is a Nilo-Saharan language spoken by the Fur of Darfur in Western Sudan and Chad. It is part of a broader family of languages known as the Fur languages. Phonology The consonantal phonemes are: The vowels are: ''a e i o u''. There is dispute whether the –ATR vowels are phonetic variants or separate phonemes. There are two underlying tonemes, ''L'' (low) and ''H'' (high); phonetically, ''L'', ''H'', ''mid'', ''HL'', and ''LH'' are all found. Metathesis is an extremely common and regular grammatical phenomenon in Fur: when a consonant pronoun prefix is prefixed to a verb that begins with a consonant, either the verb's first consonant is deleted or it changes places with the following vowel; e.g.: There are also various assimilation rules. Writing Fur is written in the Latin alphabet with the addition of the letters a̱ (a with macron below), ɨ, Å‹, and ʉ, and the digraph ny. High tone is marked by t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kibet Language
Aiki is a Maban language of Chad. It consists of two dialects, Runga and Kibet, which are divergent enough to be considered separate languages. Kibet (Kibeit, Kibeet, Kabentang) is spoken in Chad, while Runga (Roungo) is split between Chad and the CAR. Ayki (Aykindang) is a name used in CAR. Possible dialects of Kibet are Dagal (Dagel, Daggal) and Muru (Murru, Muro, Mourro); however, they are poorly known, and Blench (2012) lists them separately. The Aiki area is flooded half the year. Phonology * /p/ can be realized as * /ʃ/ is only found in Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ... loanwords. * ™only exists as an epenthetic vowel. Additionally, the following diphthongs can be found: /ei/, /É›i/, /ai/, /eu/, /É™u/, /au/, /ou/. There are two tones: high an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Advanced Tongue Root
In phonetics, advanced tongue root (ATR or +ATR), or expanded pharynx, and retracted tongue root (RTR or −ATR) are contrasting states of the pharynx during the pronunciation of vowels in some languages, especially in Western and Eastern Africa, but also in Kazakh and Mongolian. ATR vs RTR was once suggested to be the basis for the distinction between tense and lax vowels in European languages such as German, but Ladefoged and Maddieson have found that the tongue root position in Germanic languages is not an independent gesture. Advanced tongue root Advanced tongue root, abbreviated ATR or +ATR, also called expanded, involves the expansion of the pharyngeal cavity by moving the base of the tongue forward, lowering the larynx, and otherwise expanding the walls of the pharynx during the pronunciation of a vowel. This may result in +ATR vowels being longer than −ATR vowels. The lowering of the larynx sometimes adds a breathy quality to the vowel. Voiced stops such as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Glottolog
''Glottolog'' is an open-access online bibliographic database of the world's languages. In addition to listing linguistic materials ( grammars, articles, dictionaries) describing individual languages, the database also contains the most up-to-date language affiliations based on the work of expert linguists. Glottolog was first developed and maintained at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and between 2015 and 2020 at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology in Jena, Germany. Its main curators include Harald Hammarström and Martin Haspelmath. Overview Sebastian Nordhoff and Harald Hammarström established the Glottolog/Langdoc project in 2011. The creation of ''Glottolog'' was partly motivated by the lack of a comprehensive language bibliography, especially in ''Ethnologue''. Glottolog provides a catalogue of the world's languages and language families and a bibliography on individual languages. It differs from ''Ethnologue ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Morphology (linguistics)
In linguistics, morphology is the study of words, including the principles by which they are formed, and how they relate to one another within a language. Most approaches to morphology investigate the structure of words in terms of morphemes, which are the smallest units in a language with some independent meaning. Morphemes include roots that can exist as words by themselves, but also categories such as affixes that can only appear as part of a larger word. For example, in English the root ''catch'' and the suffix ''-ing'' are both morphemes; ''catch'' may appear as its own word, or it may be combined with ''-ing'' to form the new word ''catching''. Morphology also analyzes how words behave as parts of speech, and how they may be inflected to express grammatical categories including number, tense, and aspect. Concepts such as productivity are concerned with how speakers create words in specific contexts, which evolves over the history of a language. The basic fields of ling ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Comparative Method
In linguistics, the comparative method is a technique for studying the development of languages by performing a feature-by-feature comparison of two or more languages with common descent from a shared ancestor and then extrapolating backwards to infer the properties of that ancestor. The comparative method may be contrasted with the method of internal reconstruction in which the internal development of a single language is inferred by the analysis of features within that language. Ordinarily, both methods are used together to reconstruct prehistoric phases of languages; to fill in gaps in the historical record of a language; to discover the development of phonological, morphological and other linguistic systems and to confirm or to refute hypothesised relationships between languages. The comparative method emerged in the early 19th century with the birth of Indo-European studies, then took a definite scientific approach with the works of the Neogrammarians in the late 19th†... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Language Contact
Language contact occurs when speakers of two or more languages or varieties interact with and influence each other. The study of language contact is called contact linguistics. Language contact can occur at language borders, between adstratum languages, or as the result of migration, with an intrusive language acting as either a superstratum or a substratum. When speakers of different languages interact closely, it is typical for their languages to influence each other. Intensive language contact may result in language convergence or relexification. In some cases a new contact language may be created as a result of the influence, such as a pidgin, creole, or mixed language. In many other cases, contact between speakers occurs with smaller-scale lasting effects on the language; these may include the borrowing of loanwords, calques, or other types of linguistic material. Multilingualism has been common throughout much of human history, and today most people in the world ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Songhay Languages
The Songhay, Songhai or Ayneha languages (, or ) are a group of closely related languages/dialects centred on the middle stretches of the Niger River in the West African countries of Mali, Niger, Benin, Burkina Faso and Nigeria. In particular, they are spoken in the cities of Timbuktu, Djenné, Niamey, Gao, Tillaberi, Dosso, Parakou, Kandi, Natitingou, Djougou, Malanville, Gorom-Gorom, In-Gall and Tabelbala. They have been widely used as a ''lingua franca'' in that region ever since the era of the Songhai Empire. In Mali, the government has officially adopted the dialect of Gao (east of Timbuktu) as the dialect to be used as a medium of primary education. Some Songhay languages have little to no mutual intelligibility between each other. For example, Koyraboro Senni, spoken in Gao, is unintelligible to speakers of Zarma in Niger, according to ''Ethnologue''. However, Songhoyboro Ciine, Zarma, and Dendi have high mutual intelligibility within Niger. For linguists, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
