The 'Niger-Congo languages' constitute one of the world's major
language families, and
Africa's largest in terms of geographical area, number of speakers, and number of distinct languages. They may constitute the world's largest language family in terms of distinct languages, although this question is complicated by ambiguity in what is a distinct language. Most of the most widely spoken indigenous languages of
Subsaharan Africa belong to this group. A common property of many Niger-Congo languages is the use of a
noun class system.
Classification history
Early classifications
Niger-Congo as it is known today was only gradually recognized as a unity. In early classifications of African languages, one of the principal criteria used to distinguish different groupings was the languages' use of prefixes to classifiy nouns, or the lack thereof. A major advance came with the work of
Koelle, who in his 1854 ''
Polyglotta Africana'' attempted a careful classification the groupings of which in quite a number of cases correspond to modern groupings. An early sketch of the extent of Niger-Congo as one language family can be found in Koelle's observation, echoed in
Bleek (1856), that the Atlantic languages used prefixes just like many Sub-Saharan languages. Subsequent work of Bleek, and some decades later the comparative work of
Meinhof, solidly established
Bantu as a linguistic unit.
In many cases, wider classifications employed a blend of typological and racial criteria. Thus,
Friedrich Müller, in his ambitious classification (1876-88), separated the 'Negro' and Bantu languages. Likewise, the Africanist
Lepsius considered Bantu of African origin, and many 'Mixed Negro languages' as products of an encounter between Bantu and intruding Asiatic languages.
In this period a relation between Bantu and languages with Bantu-like (but less complete) noun class systems began to emerge. Some authors saw the latter as languages which had not yet completely evolved to full Bantu status, whereas others regarded them as languages which had partly lost original features still found in Bantu. The bantuist Meinhof made a principal distinction between Bantu and a 'Semi-Bantu' group which according to him was originally of the unrelated Sudanic stock.
Westermann, Greenberg and beyond
Westermann's 1911 ''Die Sudansprachen. Eine sprachvergleichende Studie'' laid the basis for much of Niger-Congo.
, a pupil of Meinhof, set out to establish the internal classification of the then
Sudanic languages. In a 1911 work he established a basic division between 'East' and 'West'. A historical reconstruction of West Sudanic was published in 1927, and in his 1935 'Character und Einteilung der Sudansprachen' he conclusively established the relationship between Bantu and West Sudanic.
Joseph Greenberg took Westermann's work as a starting-point for his own classification. In a series of articles published between 1949 and 1954, he argued that Westermann's 'West Sudanic' and Bantu formed a single genetic family which he named Niger-Congo; that Bantu constituted a subgroup of the Benue-Congo branch; that Adamawa-Eastern, previously not considered to be related, was another member of this family; and that Fula belonged to the West Atlantic languages. Just before these articles were collected in final book form (''
The Languages of Africa'') in 1963, he amended his classification by adding Kordofanian as a branch co-ordinate with Niger-Congo as a whole; consequently, the family was renamed Niger-Kordofanian. Greenberg's work, though initially greeted with scepticism, became the prevailing view for most scholars.
Bennet and Sterk (1977) presented an internal reclassification based on lexicostatistics that laid the foundation for the regrouping in Bendor-Samuel 1989. Kordofanian was thought to be one of several primary branches rather than being co-ordinate to the phylum as a whole, prompting re-introduction of the term 'Niger-Congo', which is in current use among linguists. Many classifications continue to place Kordofanian as the most distant branch, but mainly due to negative evidence (fewer lexical correspondences), rather than positive evidence that the other languages form a valid genealogical group. Likewise, Mande is often assumed to be the second-most distant branch based on its loss of the Niger-Congo noun-class system, rather than any validity of the rest of the family as a group.
Niger-Congo and Nilo-Saharan
Over the years, several linguists have suggested a link between Niger-Congo and
Nilo-Saharan, probably starting with Westermann's comparative work on the 'Sudanic' family in which 'Eastern Sudanic' (now classified as Nilo-Saharan) and 'Western Sudanic (now classified as Niger-Congo) were united. Gregersen (1972) proposed that Niger-Congo and Nilo-Saharan be united into a larger phylum which he termed ''Kongo-Saharan''. His evidence was mainly based on the uncertainty in the classification of
Songhay, morphological resemblances, and lexical similarities. A more recent proponent is
Roger Blench (1995), who brings forth phonological, morphological and lexical evidence to conflate Niger-Congo and Nilo-Saharan in a ''Niger-Saharan'' phylum. Within Nilo-Saharan, Blench considers Niger-Congo to be closest related to
Central Sudanic. Most hypotheses uniting the two families have failed to generate much discussion.
Common features
Phonology
Niger-Congo languages have a clear preference for
open syllables of the type CV (Consonant Vowel). The typical word structure of
Proto-Niger-Congo is thought to have been CVCV, a structure still attested in, for example, Bantu, Mande and Ijoid — in many other branches this structure has been reduced through
phonological change. Verbs are composed of a root followed by one or more extensional suffixes. Nouns consist of a root originally preceded by a noun class prefix of (C)V- shape which is often eroded by phonological change.
Consonant and vowel systems
Reconstructions of the consonant system of several branches of Niger-Congo (Stewart for proto-
Volta-Congo, Mukarovsky for his proto-West-Nigritic, roughly corresponding to
Atlantic-Congo) have posited independently a regular phonological contrast between two classes of consonants. Pending more clarity as to the precise nature of this contrast it is commonly characterized as a contrast between 'fortis' and 'lenis' consonants. Five places of articulation are postulated for the consonant inventory of proto-Niger-Congo:
labial,
alveolar,
palatal,
velar, and
labial-velar.
Many Niger-Congo languages show
vowel harmony based on the feature [ATR] (
advanced tongue root). In this type of vowel harmony, the position of the root of the tongue is the phonetic basis for the distinction between two harmonizing sets of vowels. In its fullest form, this type involves to classes of both five vowels: [+ATR] /i, e, ə, o, u/ and [-ATR] /ɪ, ɛ, a, ɔ, ʊ/. Vowel inventories of this type are still found in some branches of Niger-Congo, for example in the
Ghana Togo Mountain languages.
[1] To date, many languages show reductions from this fuller system. The fact that ten vowels have been reconstructed for proto-Atlantic, proto-Ijoid and possibly proto-Volta-Congo leads Williamson (1989:23) to the hypothesis that the original vowel inventory of Niger-Congo was a full ten-vowel system. On the other hand, Stewart in recent comparative work reconstructs a seven vowel system for his proto-Potou-Akanic-Bantu.
[2]
Nasality
Several scholars have documented a contrast between oral and
nasal vowels in Niger-Congo.
[3] In his reconstruction of proto-Volta-Congo, Steward (1976) postulates that
nasal consonants have originated under the influence of nasal vowels; this hypothesis is supported by the fact that there are several Niger-Congo languages that have been analysed as lacking nasal consonants altogether. Languages like this have nasal vowels accompanied with
complementary distribution between oral and nasal consonants before oral and nasal vowels. Subsequent loss of the nasal/oral contrast in vowels may result in nasal consonants becoming part of the phoneme inventory. In all cases reported to date, the bilabial /m/ is the first nasal consonant to be phonologized. Niger-Congo thus invalidates two common assumptions about nasals
[4]: that all languages have at least one primary nasal consonant, and that if a language has only one primary nasal consonant it is /n/.
Niger-Congo languages commonly show fewer nasalized than oral vowels.
Kasem, a language with a ten-vowel system employing ATR vowel harmony, has seven nasalized vowels. Similarly,
Yoruba has seven oral vowels and only five nasal ones.
Tone
The large majority of present-day Niger-Congo languages are
tonal. A typical Niger-Congo tone system involves two or three contrastive level tones. Four level systems are less widespread, and five level systems are rare. Only few Niger-Congo languages are non-tonal; Swahili is perhaps the best known, but within the
Atlantic branch some others are found. Proto-Niger-Congo is thought to have been a tone language with two contrastive levels. Synchronic and comparative-historical studies of tone systems show that such a basic system can easily develop more tonal contrasts under the influence of
depressor consonants or through the introduction of a
downstep. Languages which have more tonal levels tend to use tone more for lexical and less for grammatical contrasts.
Contrastive levels of tone in some Niger-Congo languages| H,L | Dyula/Bambara, Temne, Dogon, Dagbani, Gbaya, Akan, Anyi, Efik, Igbo, Ewe, Lingala |
| H, M, L | Yakuba, Nafaanra, Kasem, Banda, Yoruba, Jukun, Dangme, Yukuben |
| T, H, M, L | Gban, Wobe, Munzombo, Igede, Mambila |
| T, H, M, L, VL | Ashuku (Benue-Congo), Dan-Santa (Mande) |
| PA/S | Maninka, Fula, Wolof, Swahili |
Abbreviations used: T top, H high, M mid, L low, VL very low, PA/S pitch-accent or stress
Adapted from Williamson 1989:27 |
Morphosyntax
Noun classification
Niger-Congo languages are known for their system of
noun classification, traces of which can be found in every branch of the family. These noun-classification systems are somewhat anologous to
grammatical gender in other languages, but there are often a fairly large number of classes (often 10 or more), and the classes may be male human/female human/animate/inanimate, or even completely gender-unrelated categories such as places, plants, abstracts, and groups of objects. In the Bantu languages, where noun classification is particularly common and elaborate, it typically appears as prefixes, with verbs and adjectives marked according to the class of the noun they refer to.
Word order
A
Subject Verb Object word order is quite widespread among today's Niger-Congo languages, but
SOV is found in branches as divergent as
Mande,
Ijoid and
Dogon. As a result, there has been quite some debate as to the
basic word order of Niger-Congo.
Whereas Claudi (1993) argues for SVO on the basis of existing SVO>SOV grammaticalization paths (SOV>SVO is never found), Gensler (1997) points out that the notion of 'basic word order' is problematic as it excludes structures with, for example,
auxiliaries.
Noun phrases in most Niger-Congo languages are characteristically ''noun-initial'', with
adjectives,
numerals,
demonstratives and
genitives all coming after the noun. The major exceptions are found in the western
[5] areas where verb-final word order predominates and genitives precede nouns, though other modifiers still come afterwards. Degree words almost always follow adjectives, and except in verb-final lnguages
adpositions are prepositional.
The verb-final languages of the Mende region have two quite unusual word order characteristics. Although verbs follow their direct objects, oblique adpositional phrases (like "in the house", "with timber") typically come after the verb
[6], creating a 'SOVX' word order. Also noteworthy in these languages is the prevalence of internally-headed and correlative
relative clauses, in both of which the head occurs ''inside'' the relative clause rather than the main clause.
Major subgroups
The major languages or subgroups belonging to Niger-Congo are,
★
Kordofanian languages: spoken in southern Sudan, around the Nuba Hills.
★
Mande: spoken in West Africa; includes
Bambara, the main language spoken in
Mali, as well as
Soninke, a language spoken mainly in
Mali but also in
Senegal and
Mauritania.
★
Atlantic-Congo
★
★
Atlantic: includes
Wolof, spoken in
Senegal, and
Fula, a language spoken across the
Sahel. The validity of Atlantic as a genetic grouping is controversial.
★
★
Ijoid in
Nigeria, including
Ijo and
Defaka.
★
★
Dogon, spoken in
Mali
★
★
Volta-Congo
★
★
★
Senufo: spoken mainly in Côte d'Ivoire and Mali and including
Senari and
Supyire.
★
★
★
Gur: Including
Dagbani in Northern Ghana, they are spoken among others in
Côte d'Ivoire,
Togo,
Burkina Faso and
Mali.
★
★
★
Adamawa-Ubangi: includes
Sango, spoken in the
Central African Republic.
★
★
★
Kru: spoken in
West Africa, include
Bété,
Nyabwa, and
Dida.
★
★
★
Kwa: includes
Akan, spoken in
Ghana and the
Gbe languages, spoken in
Ghana,
Togo,
Benin, and
Nigeria, of which
Ewe is best known.
★
★
★
Benue-Congo, including among others:
★
★
★
★
Bantu: a very large group, includes
Swahili (
Kiswahili),
Zulu (
isiZulu), and many other languages of central, and southern Africa.
★
★
★
★ The
Yoruba and
Igbo languages, spoken in
Nigeria.
Some linguists consider the twenty or so
Kordofanian languages to form part of the Niger-Congo family, while others consider them and Niger-Congo to form two separate branches of a
Niger-Kordofanian language family. Senufo has been placed traditionally within Gur, but is now usually considered an early off-shoot from Volta-Congo. There is also an on-going debate as to whether the Mande languages should be included in the Niger-Congo language family or the
Nilo-Saharan language family. Others are sceptical about both Niger-Kordofanian and Niger-Congo itself.
The
Laal,
Mpre, and
Jalaa languages are often linked with Niger-Congo, but have yet to be conclusively classified.
Sub-classification
An alternate classification, based on Blench, follows. (Families are in bold; single languages in italics.)
'Niger-Congo'
★ 'Kordofanian'
★ 'Mande'
★ 'West Atlantic'
★ 'Volta-Congo'
★
★ ? 'Ijaw'
★
★ ''Dogon''
★
★ 'North Volta-Congo' (= Volta-Kru)
★
★
★ 'Kru'
★
★
★ 'Savannas' (= Greenberg's Voltaic and Adamawa-Ubanguian)
★
★
★
★ 'Ubangian' (''e.g.'' Gbaya, Sango, Banda, Zande)
★
★
★
★ ? 'Senufo'
★
★
★
★ '
Gur I' (''e.g.'' Mossi, Dagbani, Ditamari)
★
★
★
★ 'Gur II' (''e.g.'' Kabre, Dan, Doghose)
★
★
★
★ 'Kulango'
★
★
★
★ ''Bariba''
★
★
★
★ ''Vyemo''
★
★
★
★ ''Tyefo''
★
★
★
★ 'Natyoro'
★
★
★
★ ''Tusya'' (= Win)
★
★
★
★ 'Chamba-Mumuye'
★
★
★
★ 'Mbum'
★
★
★
★ 'Wadja-Bambuka'
★
★
★
★ ''Ba''
★
★
★
★ ''Kam''
★
★ 'South Volta-Congo' (= Benue-Kwa)
★
★
★ 'Kwa'
★
★
★
★ 'Nyo' (''e.g.'' Akan)
★
★
★
★ 'Ka' (''e.g.'' Gbe)
★
★
★ 'West Benue-Congo' (= Ogun)
★
★
★
★ 'Nupe'
★
★
★
★ '"DEAI"'
★
★
★
★
★ 'Defoid' (''e.g.'' Yoruba)
★
★
★
★
★ 'Edoid' (''e.g.'' Benin)
★
★
★
★
★ ''Akoko''
★
★
★
★
★ 'Igboid'
★
★
★
★ ''Ayere''
★
★
★
★ ''Akpes''
★
★
★ '(East) Benue-Congo'
★
★
★
★ ? ''Ukaan''
★
★
★
★ 'Platoid' (''e.g.'' Bauchi, Jukun, Birom)
★
★
★
★ 'Bantoid-Cross'
★
★
★
★
★ ? 'Bendi'
★
★
★
★
★ 'Cross River' (''e.g.'' Calabar, Ogoni, Abua, Efik)
★
★
★
★
★ 'Bantoid' (''e.g.'' Jarawa, Tiv, Bantu)
Notes and references
Notes
1. See for example Logba: linguistic features for a Ghana Togo Mountain language with a nine vowel system employing ATR vowel harmony.
2. Cf. Stewart (1976) for proto-Volta-Congo (see also Casali 1995), Doneux (1975) for proto-Atlantic, Williamson (n.d.) for proto-Ijoid, and Stewart (2002:208) for Proto-Potou-Akanic-Bantu.
3. Cf. le Saout (1973) for an early overview, Stewart (1976) for a diachronic, Volta-Congo wide analysis, Capo (1981) for a synchronic analysis of nasality in Gbe (see Gbe languages: nasality), and Bole-Richard (1984, 1985) as cited in Williamson (1989) for similar reports on several Mande, Gur, Kru, Kwa, and Ubangi languages.)
4. As noted by Williamson (1989:24). The assumptions are from Ferguson's (1963) 'Assumptions about nasals' in Greenberg (ed.) ''Universals of Language'', pp 50-60 as cited in Williamson art.cit.
5. Haspelmath, Martin; Dryer, Matthew S.; Gil, David and Comrie, Bernard (eds.) ''The World Atlas of Language Structures''; pp 346-385. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-19-925591-1
6. Ibid.
References
★ Bendor-Samuel, John & Rhonda L. Hartell (eds.) (1989) ''The Niger-Congo Languages — A classification and description of Africa's largest language family''. Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America.
★ Bennett, Patrick R. & Sterk, Jan P. (1977) 'South Central Niger-Congo: A reclassification'. ''Studies in African Linguistics'', 8, 241–273.
★ Blench, Roger (1995) 'Is Niger-Congo simply a branch of Nilo-Saharan?' In ''Proceedings: Fifth Nilo-Saharan Linguistics Colloquium, Nice, 1992'', ed. R. Nicolai and F. Rottland, 83-130. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe.
★ Capo, Hounkpati B.C. (1981) 'Nasality in Gbe: A Synchronic Interpretation' ''Studies in African Linguistics'', 12, 1, 1-43.
★ Casali, Roderic F. (1995) 'On the Reduction of Vowel Systems in Volta-Congo', ''African Languages and Cultures'', 8, 2, Dec, 109–121.
★ Greenberg, Joseph H. (1963) ''The Languages of Africa''. Indiana Univ. Press.
★ Gregersen, Edgar A. (1972) 'Kongo-Saharan'. ''Journal of African Linguistics'', 4, 46-56.
★ Saout, J. le (1973) 'Languages sans consonnes nasales', ''Annales de l Université d'Abidjan'', H, 6, 1, 179-205.
★ Stewart, John M. (1976) ''Towards Volta-Congo reconstruction: a comparative study of some languages of Black-Africa''. (Inaugural speech, Leiden University) Leiden: Universitaire Pers Leiden.
★ Stewart, John M. (2002) 'The potential of Proto-Potou-Akanic-Bantu as a pilot Proto-Niger-Congo, and the reconstructions updated', in ''Journal of African Languages and Linguistics'', 23, 197-224.
★ Williamson, Kay (1989) 'Niger-Congo overview', in Bendor-Samuel & Hartell (eds.) ''The Niger-Congo Languages'', 3-45.
★ Williamson, Kay & Blench, Roger (2000) 'Niger-Congo', in Heine, Bernd and Nurse, Derek (eds) ''African Languages - An Introduction.'' Cambridge: Cambridge University press, pp. 11—42.
External links
★
An Evaluation of Niger-Congo Classification, Kenneth Olson
★
Ethnologue: Niger-Congo Family Tree
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