À partir de XXᵉ siècle
Western and eastern Sudan, and other parts of Africa south of the Sahara
Traduction non disponible · Original (anglais) · français indisponible
Nilo-Saharan is a major language grouping proposed for African languages not included in Afro-Asiatic, Niger-Congo, or Khoisan classifications. The excerpt presents it as the destination for languages previously grouped under the broad and problematic label “Negro languages.” Its definition emerged from a genetic classification that emphasized lexical and grammatical correspondences rather than racial or purely typological criteria.
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Nilo-Saharan emerged from the effort to classify a large number of African languages that earlier scholars could not place within Semitic, Hamitic, San, or Bantu groupings. These languages were widely distributed across the western and eastern Sudan and had often been assembled under the general designation “Negro languages.” The excerpt stresses that this earlier category reflected physiological rather than philological reasoning.
Westermann’s work on Sudanic languages provided an important stage in the development of the later classification. His 1911 study used “Sudanic” for languages outside the main categories then accepted, while his 1927 work restricted the term to western Africa and distinguished subgroups such as West Atlantic, Kwa, and Gur. He also identified lexical and grammatical similarities between western Sudanic languages and Bantu.
The mid-twentieth-century classification described in the passage separated languages not included in Niger-Congo and placed them in a major grouping called Nilo-Saharan. The proposal was explicitly genetic: relationships were to be demonstrated through systematic similarities in sound and meaning, including vocabulary and grammatical markers. The excerpt does not provide a complete list of Nilo-Saharan languages or a precise boundary for the family.
À partir de XXᵉ siècle
Western and eastern Sudan, and other parts of Africa south of the Sahara
Traduction non disponible · Original (anglais) · français indisponible
Nilo-Saharan is a major language grouping proposed for African languages not included in Afro-Asiatic, Niger-Congo, or Khoisan classifications. The excerpt presents it as the destination for languages previously grouped under the broad and problematic label “Negro languages.” Its definition emerged from a genetic classification that emphasized lexical and grammatical correspondences rather than racial or purely typological criteria.
Poursuivre l’exploration
Le récit
Nilo-Saharan emerged from the effort to classify a large number of African languages that earlier scholars could not place within Semitic, Hamitic, San, or Bantu groupings. These languages were widely distributed across the western and eastern Sudan and had often been assembled under the general designation “Negro languages.” The excerpt stresses that this earlier category reflected physiological rather than philological reasoning.
Westermann’s work on Sudanic languages provided an important stage in the development of the later classification. His 1911 study used “Sudanic” for languages outside the main categories then accepted, while his 1927 work restricted the term to western Africa and distinguished subgroups such as West Atlantic, Kwa, and Gur. He also identified lexical and grammatical similarities between western Sudanic languages and Bantu.
The mid-twentieth-century classification described in the passage separated languages not included in Niger-Congo and placed them in a major grouping called Nilo-Saharan. The proposal was explicitly genetic: relationships were to be demonstrated through systematic similarities in sound and meaning, including vocabulary and grammatical markers. The excerpt does not provide a complete list of Nilo-Saharan languages or a precise boundary for the family.
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