Where are Nilo-Saharan languages spoken?

The Nilo-Saharan languages are a proposed family of African languages spoken by some 50–60 million people, mainly in the upper parts of the Chari and Nile rivers, including historic Nubia, north of where the two tributaries of the Nile meet.

Where did Nilo-Saharan originate?

The Nilo-Saharan languages are presumed to be descended from a common ancestral language and, therefore, to be genetically related. The family covers major areas east and north of Lake Victoria in East Africa and extends westward as far as the Niger valley in Mali, West Africa.

What country speaks Nilo-Saharan?

Nilo-Saharan languages are spoken in Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. By far the largest number of Nilo-Saharan languages is found in Sudan.

Where is Saharan spoken?

Saharan languages are spoken mainly around Lake Chad—which is located at the conjunction of Chad, Cameroon, Nigeria, and Niger—but also in Libya and Sudan. Subdivided into eastern and western divisions, the Saharan languages include Berti (now extinct), Bideyat, Kanembu, Kanuri, Teda, and Zaghawa.

How many dialects are there in Ethiopia?

Ethiopia has 86 different languages with up to 200 different dialects spoken. The largest ethnic and linguistic groups are the Oromos, Amharas and Tigrayans. Ge’ez is the ancient language, and was introduced as an official written language during the first Aksumite kingdom when the Sabeans sought refuge in Aksum.

What is the most widely known language in areas south of the Sahara Desert spoken by about 50 million people?

Zulu
11. Zulu (isiZulu) Among the variety of languages used in South Africa, Zulu (Niger–Congo language) is the most widely spoken language which is used by 24\% of the population, 28 million speakers, understood by over 50\% of South African people.

What language is spoken in the Sahara?

Arabic dialects are the most widely spoken languages in the Sahara. Arabic, Berber and its variants now regrouped under the term Amazigh (which includes the Guanche language spoken by the original Berber inhabitants of the Canary Islands) and Beja languages are part of the Afro-Asiatic or Hamito-Semitic family.

What language is mostly spoken around the Sahara?

Arabic is the official language of Algeria, Comoros, Chad, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Sudan, and Tunisia. It’s also spoken in Tanzania, Western Sahara and Somalia.

What are the official languages of Ethiopia?

Amharic
Ethiopia/Official languages

Under the constitution, all Ethiopian languages enjoy official state recognition. However, Amharic is the “working language” of the federal government; together with Oromo, it is one of the two most widely spoken languages in the country.

What are the two European languages that mostly spoken in Africa?

Since the colonial era, Indo-European languages such as Afrikaans, English, French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish have held official status in many countries, and are widely spoken, generally as lingua francas. (See African French and African Portuguese.)

What is the most spoken language in West Africa?

YORUBA. There are over 30 million Yoruba speakers in Nigeria, Benin and Togo combined, making it one of West Africa’s most spoken languages.

Where are the Nilo-Saharan languages found?

The Nilo-Saharan languages stretch across the eastern Sahara, the upper Nile valley, and the regions surrounding East Africa’s Lake Victoria. Members of the Nilo-Saharan family are also found in Northeastern Congo Kinshasa, west to the Chari River, and south to the Niger valley of South Africa (see Map 1). Map 1.

What are the Nilotic languages of Africa?

Other modern Nilo-Saharan languages with more than a million speakers are the Saharan language Kanuri (mainly in Nigeria), Nile Nubian, and the Nilotic languages Dinka (South Sudan), Kalenjin (Kenya), Luo (mainly in Kenya and Tanzania), and Teso (Uganda and Kenya).

What are the characteristics of Nilo-Saharan Africa?

The constituent families of Nilo-Saharan are quite diverse. One characteristic feature is a tripartite singulative – collective – plurative number system, which Blench (2010) believes is a result of a noun-classifier system in the protolanguage.

What is the origin of Nilo-Saharan genetic unity?

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.