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69-832: The Savannah Region is one of the newest regions of Ghana and yet the largest region in the country. The creation of the Region follows presentation of a petition by the Gonja Traditional Council, led by the Yagbonwura Tumtumba Boresa Jakpa I. Upon receiving favourable responses from all stakeholders in the Northern Region (the region it was broken off from), the Brobbey Commission (the Commission tasked with

138-585: 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 Karl Richard Lepsius considered Bantu to be 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

207-494: A branch co-ordinate with Niger–Congo as a whole; consequently, he renamed the family Congo-Kordofanian , later Niger–Kordofanian . Greenberg's work on African languages, though initially greeted with scepticism, became the prevailing view among scholars. Bennet and Sterk (1977) presented an internal reclassification based on lexicostatistics that laid the foundation for the regrouping in Bendor-Samuel (1989). Kordofanian

276-439: A clear preference for open syllables of the type CV (Consonant Vowel). The typical word structure of Proto–Niger–Congo (though it has not been reconstructed) 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

345-461: A disproportionate influence on conceptions of what Proto–Niger–Congo may have been like. The only stage higher than Proto-Bantu that has been reconstructed is a pilot project by Stewart, who since the 1970s has reconstructed the common ancestor of the Potou-Tano and Bantu languages, without so far considering the hundreds of other languages which presumably descend from that same ancestor. Over

414-517: A form in Bantu and in Atlantic languages, or between Bantu and Mande, we have all grounds to trace this form back to Niger–Congo. If we establish such a relationship between Mel and Kru or between Mande and Dogon, we don't have enough reason to claim it Niger–Congo. In other words, all Niger–Congo languages are equal, but Bantu languages are "more equal" than the others." Glottolog (2013) accepts

483-654: A group of Niger–Congo language speakers who migrated to the area at some point in prehistory where they were an isolated linguistic community from the beginning. There is more agreement regarding the place of origin of Benue–Congo , the largest subfamily of the group. Within Benue–Congo, the place of origin of the Bantu languages as well as time at which it started to expand is known with great specificity. Blench (2004), relying particularly on prior work by Kay Williamson and P. De Wolf, argued that Benue–Congo probably originated at

552-603: A low population density, and along with the official language of English , most inhabitants speak a language of the Oti–Volta subfamily in the Niger–Congo language family , such as Gonja , Vagla , Dagbani , Mamprusi , Tampulma . A majority of residents in the Savanna Region identify as Muslim. The political administration of the region is through the local government system. Under this administration system,

621-552: 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 Southern African 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

690-462: A result of discovery of numerous related forms, for example, in Mande and Adamawa. It appeared as a result of comparison between the Bantu languages, for which the classical comparative method was possible to be applied and which were reliably reconstructed, with other African languages. Niger–Congo does not exist without Bantu. We need to say clearly that if we establish a genetic relationship between

759-407: A root originally preceded by a noun class prefix of (C)V- shape which is often eroded by phonological change. Several branches of Niger–Congo have 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. Many Niger–Congo languages' vowel harmony

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828-600: 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

897-433: A similar subfamily) has not been established. One of the most distinctive characteristics common to Atlantic–Congo languages is the use of a noun-class system, which is essentially a gender system with multiple genders. 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). Its expansion may have been associated with

966-599: A valid genealogical group. Likewise, Mande is often assumed to be the second-most distant branch based on its lack of the noun-class system prototypical of the Niger–Congo family. Other branches lacking any trace of the noun-class system are Dogon and Ijaw, whereas the Talodi branch of Kordofanian does have cognate noun classes, suggesting that Kordofanian is also not a unitary group. Pozdniakov (2012) stated: "The hypothesis of kinship between Niger–Congo languages didn't appear as

1035-903: Is bordered on the north by the Upper West region , on the west by the Ghana-Côte d'Ivoire international border , on the south by the Bono and Bono East regions, and on the west by the North East and Northern regions. Savannah region is made up of 7 districts. [1] The Savannah Region is much drier than southern areas of Ghana, due to its proximity to the Sahel , and the Sahara . The vegetation consists predominantly of grassland, especially savanna with clusters of drought-resistant trees such as baobabs or acacias . Between December and April

1104-423: Is Bole; East Gonja municipal is Salaga; West Gonja district is Damango; Sawla Tuna Kalba district is Salwa; Central Gonja is Buipe; North Gonja is Daboya; and North East Gonja is Kpalbe A referendum on 27 December 2018 approved the creation of Savannah Region, with 206,350 (99.52%) votes in favour on a turnout of 81.77%. CI 115 establishing the Region signed and presented on 12 February 2019. The Savannah Region

1173-529: Is [+ATR], the vowels appear in their underlying form. This form of vowel harmony control is best exhibited in West African languages. For example, in Nawuri, the diminutive suffix /-bi/ will cause the underlying [−ATR] vowels in a word to become phonetically [+ATR]. There are two types of vowels which affect the harmony process. These are known as neutral or opaque vowels. Neutral vowels do not harmonize to

1242-457: Is a geographic grouping, not a genetic one, named for the Kordofan region. These are minor languages, spoken by a total of about 100,000 people according to 1980s estimates. Katla and Rashad languages show isoglosses with Benue–Congo that the other families lack. The endangered or extinct Laal , Mpre and Jalaa languages are often assigned to Niger–Congo. Niger–Congo as it is known today

1311-530: Is a ten-vowel language. This is a language in which all of the vowels of the language participate in the harmony system, producing five harmonic pairs. Vowel inventories of this type are still found in some branches of Niger–Congo, for example in the Ghana Togo Mountain languages . However, this is the rarer inventory as oftentimes there are one or more vowels that are not part of a harmonic pair. This has resulted in seven- and nine-vowel systems being

1380-407: Is based on the [ATR] ( advanced tongue root ) feature. In this type of vowel harmony, the position of the root of the tongue in regards to backness is the phonetic basis for the distinction between two harmonizing sets of vowels. In its fullest form, this type involves two classes, each of five vowels. The roots are then divided into [+ATR] and [−ATR] categories. This feature is lexically assigned to

1449-483: Is characterised by the noun class systems of its languages. Atlantic–Congo largely corresponds to Mukarovsky's "Western Nigritic" phylum. The polyphyletic Atlantic group accounts for about 35 million speakers as of 2016, mostly accounted for by Fula and Wolof speakers. Atlantic is not considered to constitute a valid group. The putative Niger–Congo languages outside of the Atlantic–Congo family are centred in

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1518-433: Is helping to identify clusters and units that allow for the application of the historical-comparative method. Only the reconstruction of lower-level units, instead of "big picture" contributions based on mass comparison, can help to verify (or disprove) our present concept of Niger–Congo as a genetic grouping consisting of Benue–Congo plus Volta–Niger, Kwa, Adamawa plus Gur, Kru, the so-called Kordofanian languages, and probably

1587-497: Is supported. The Automated Similarity Judgment Program (ASJP) also groups many Niger–Congo branches together. Dimmendaal , Crevels, and Muysken (2020) stated: "Greenberg's hypothesis of Niger–Congo phylum has sometimes been taken as an established fact rather than a hypothesis awaiting further proof, but there have also been attempts to look at his argumentation in more detail. Much of the discussion concerning Niger–Congo after Greenberg's seminal contribution in fact centered around

1656-445: Is that Kordofanian languages are part of the Niger–Congo language family and that these may be the first of the many languages still spoken in that region to have been spoken in the region. The evidence is insufficient to determine if this outlier group of Niger–Congo language speakers represents a prehistoric range of a Niger–Congo linguistic region that has since contracted as other languages have intruded, or if instead, this represents

1725-461: Is that there is articulatory difficulty in advancing the tongue root when the tongue body is low in order to produce a low [+ATR] vowel. Therefore, the vowel inventory for nine-vowel languages is generally: And seven-vowel languages have one of two inventories: Note that in the nine-vowel language, the missing vowel is, in fact, [ə], [a]'s counterpart, as would be expected. The fact that ten vowels have been reconstructed for proto-Ijoid has led to

1794-581: Is the dry season . The wet season is between about July and November with an average annual rainfall of 750 to 1050 mm (30 to 40 inches). The highest temperatures are reached at the end of the dry season, the lowest in December and January. However, the hot Harmattan wind from the Sahara blows frequently between December and the beginning of February. The temperatures can vary between 14 °C (59 °F) at night and 40 °C (104 °F) during

1863-479: The Kordofanian branches ( Lafofa , Talodi and Heiban ) or the difficult-to-classify Laal language have been demonstrated to be Atlantic–Congo languages. It otherwise accepts the family but not its inclusion within a broader Niger–Congo. Glottolog also considers Ijoid , Mande , and Dogon to be independent language phyla that have not been demonstrated to be related to each other. The Atlantic–Congo group

1932-519: The noun-classifier system of Central Sudanic, commonly reflected in a tripartite general - singulative - plurative number system, triggered the development or elaboration of the noun-class system of the Atlantic–Congo languages , with tripartite number marking surviving in the Plateau and Gur languages of Niger–Congo, and the lexical similarities being due to loans. Niger–Congo languages have

2001-400: The 1960s. However, there has been active debate for many decades over the appropriate subclassifications of the languages in this language family, which is a key tool used in localising a language's place of origin. No definitive " Proto-Niger–Congo " lexicon or grammar has been developed for the language family as a whole. An important unresolved issue in determining the time and place where

2070-794: The Ashantis with their own region. On the day Ghana became a republic, 1 July 1960, the Northern Region got split into the Northern and Upper regions raising the number of regions to seven. During the Second Republic, the Western Region was split into the Western and Central regions, making eight regions in total. This was done ahead of the 1970 census. In 1971, Sekondi and Takoradi were merged to form Sekondi-Takoradi ,

2139-528: The Atlantic–Congo languages. The non-Atlantic–Congo languages within Niger–Congo are grouped as Dogon , Mande , Ijo (sometimes with Defaka as Ijoid ), Katla , and Rashad . Atlantic–Congo combines the Atlantic languages , which do not form one branch, and Volta–Congo . It comprises more than 80% of the Niger–Congo speaking population, or close to 600 million people (2015). The proposed Savannas group combines Adamawa , Ubangian and Gur . Outside of

Savannah Region - Misplaced Pages Continue

2208-541: The Niger–Congo languages originated and their range prior to recorded history is this language family's relationship to the Kordofanian languages , now spoken in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan , which is not contiguous with the remainder of the Niger–Congo-language-speaking region and is at the northeasternmost extent of the current Niger–Congo linguistic region. The current prevailing linguistic view

2277-523: The Savannas group, Volta–Congo comprises Kru , Kwa (or "West Kwa"), Volta–Niger (also "East Kwa" or "West Benue–Congo"), and Benue–Congo (or "East Benue–Congo"). Volta–Niger includes the two largest languages of Nigeria , Yoruba , and Igbo . Benue–Congo includes the Southern Bantoid group, which is dominated by the Bantu languages , which account for 350 million people (2015), or half

2346-570: The Upper Region was divided into the Upper East Region and Upper West Region , bringing the total number of regions to ten. General: 8. Official Ghana Regions Niger%E2%80%93Congo languages The proposed family would be the third-largest in the world by number of native speakers, with around 700 million people as of 2015. Within Niger–Congo, the Bantu languages alone account for 350 million people (2015), or half

2415-431: The [ATR] value of the word, and instead maintain their own [ATR] value. The vowels that follow them, however, will receive the [ATR] value of the root. Opaque vowels maintain their own [ATR] value as well, but they affect the harmony process behind them. All of the vowels following an opaque vowel will harmonize with the [ATR] value of the opaque vowel instead of the [ATR] vowel of the root. The vowel inventory listed above

2484-408: The assimilation and extinction of many of the indigenous Pygmy and Bushmen ( Khoisan ) populations there. The following is an overview of the language groups usually included in Niger–Congo. The genetic relationship of some branches is not universally accepted, and the cladistic connection between those who are accepted as related may also be unclear. The core phylum of the Niger–Congo group are

2553-584: The break-up of the Upper Region in December 1982, prior to the 1984 national census. A referendum on the creation of six new regions was held on 27 December 2018, where all proposed new regions were approved. At independence in March 1957, the Northern Territories, Trans-Volta Togoland and the Gold Coast came together to form Ghana. There were initially five regions. The Trans-Volta Togoland

2622-453: The confluence of the Benue and Niger Rivers in central Nigeria . These estimates of the place of origin of the Benue–Congo language family do not fix a date for the start of that expansion, other than that it must have been sufficiently prior to the Bantu expansion to allow for the diversification of the languages within this language family that includes Bantu. The classification of

2691-472: The continuing reassessment of Niger–Congo's "internal structure is due largely to the preliminary nature of Greenberg's classification, explicitly based as it was on a methodology that doesn't produce proofs for genetic affiliations between languages but rather aims at identifying "likely candidates."...The ongoing descriptive and documentary work on individual languages and their varieties, greatly expanding our knowledge on formerly little-known linguistic regions,

2760-519: The core with noun-class systems, the Atlantic–Congo languages , apart from the recent inclusion of some of the Kordofanian groups, but not Niger–Congo as a whole. They list the following as separate families: Atlantic–Congo, Mande, Dogon, Ijoid, Lafofa, Katla-Tima, Heiban, Talodi, and Rashad. Babaev (2013) stated: "The truth here is that almost no attempts in fact have been made to verify Greenberg's Niger–Congo hypothesis. This might seem strange but

2829-718: The creation of the new regions), a referendum was conducted on the 27th December 2018 . The result was a resounding yes of 99.7%. The President of the Republic of Ghana signed and presented the Constitutional Instrument (CI) 115 to the Yagbonwura in the Jubilee House, Accra on 12 February 2019. The launch was well attended by sons and daughters of Gonjaland including all current and past Mps, MDCEs and all appointees with Gonjaland descent. Damongo

Savannah Region - Misplaced Pages Continue

2898-604: The day. It is one of the main grain and tuber producing areas in Ghana. Harnessing these particularly will help to create employment and reduce poverty. The Region has about 2.69 million hectares of land under cropping and livestock rearing. It has unique climatic and soil characteristic making the area ideal for growing of pineapples (number one non- traditional export crop in Ghana), yams ( second most important non-traditional export crop) cassava and maize. [2] The Savannah Region has

2967-528: The expansion of Sahel agriculture in the African Neolithic period, following the desiccation of the Sahara in c. 3500 BCE . Similar classifications to Niger–Congo have been made ever since Diedrich Westermann in 1922. Joseph Greenberg continued that tradition, making it the starting point for modern linguistic classification in Africa, with some of his publications going to press starting in

3036-596: The first level of subnational government administration within the Republic of Ghana . As of 2020, there are 16 regions, which are further divided for administrative purposes into 260 local metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (or MMDA's) . The ten former regions were officially established in 1987, when the Upper West Region was inaugurated as the state's newest administrative region, although it had already functioned as an administrative unit since

3105-431: 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. Several scholars have documented a contrast between oral and nasal vowels in Niger–Congo. In his reconstruction of proto-Volta–Congo, Steward (1976) postulates that nasal consonants have originated under

3174-410: The inclusion or exclusion of specific languages or language groups." Good (2020) stated: "First proposed by Greenberg (1949), Niger–Congo (NC) has for decades been treated as one of the four major phyla of African languages . The term, as presently used, however, is not without its difficulties. On the one hand, it is employed as a referential label for a group of over 1,500 languages, putting it among

3243-429: 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

3312-455: The language groups traditionally classified as Atlantic." The coherence of Niger–Congo as a language phylum is supported by Grollemund, et al. (2016), using computational phylogenetic methods. The East/West Volta–Congo division, West/East Benue–Congo division, and North/South Bantoid division are not supported, whereas a Bantoid group consisting of Ekoid, Bendi, Dakoid, Jukunoid, Tivoid, Mambiloid, Beboid, Mamfe, Tikar, Grassfields, and Bantu

3381-633: The largest commonly cited language groups in the world. On the other hand, the term is also intended to embody a hypothesis of genealogical relationship between the referential NC languages that has not been proven." The lexicon of Proto–Niger–Congo (or Proto-Atlantic–Congo) has not been comprehensively reconstructed, although Konstantin Pozdniakov reconstructed the numeral system of Proto–Niger–Congo in 2018. The most extensive reconstructions of lower-order Niger–Congo branches include several reconstructions of Proto-Bantu , which has consequently had

3450-429: 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 major distinction between Bantu and a 'Semi-Bantu' group which according to him was originally of the unrelated Sudanic stock. Westermann , a pupil of Meinhof, set out to establish the internal classification of

3519-416: The more popular systems. The majority of languages with [ATR] controlled vowel harmony have either seven or nine vowel phonemes, with the most common non-participatory vowel being /a/. It has been asserted that this is because vowel quality differences in the mid-central region where /ə/, the counterpart of /a/, is found, are difficult to perceive. Another possible reason for the non-participatory status of /a/

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3588-757: The new capital of the Western Region. The Provisional National Defence Council , which was the military government in power between 1981 and 1993, promulgated the Greater Accra Law (PNDCL 26) of 23 July 1982 which created the Greater Accra Region . The new region consisted of the Accra Capital District and the Ada Local Council, which were split off from the Eastern Region. In the following year 1983,

3657-448: The path laid by Joseph Greenberg to Proto–Niger–Congo was not followed by much research. Most scholars have focused on individual families or groups, and classifications as well as reconstructions were made on lower levels. Compared with the volume of literature on Atlantic or Mande languages, the list of papers considering the aspects of Niger–Congo reconstruction per se is quite scarce." Oxford Handbooks Online (2016) has indicated that

3726-526: The region is divided into seven MMDA's (made up of 0 Metropolitan, 2 Municipal and 5 Ordinary Assemblies). Each District, Municipal or Metropolitan Assembly, is administered by a Chief Executive, representing the central government but deriving authority from an Assembly headed by a presiding member elected from among the members themselves. The current list is as follows: 9°05′N 1°49′W  /  9.083°N 1.817°W  / 9.083; -1.817 Regions of Ghana The regions of Ghana are

3795-542: The relatively divergent family of the Ubangian languages , centred in the Central African Republic , as part of the Niger–Congo language family is disputed. Ubangian was grouped with Niger–Congo by Greenberg (1963), and later authorities concurred, but it was questioned by Dimmendaal (2008). The Bantu expansion , beginning around 1000 BC, swept across much of Central and Southern Africa , leading to

3864-407: The root to which they attach. The following examples of these suffixes alternate depending on the root. Furthermore, the directionality of assimilation in [ATR] root-controlled vowel harmony need not be specified. The root features [+ATR] and [−ATR] spread left and/or right as needed, so that no vowel would lack a specification and be ill-formed. Unlike in the root-controlled harmony system, where

3933-460: The roots because there is no determiner within a normal root that causes the [ATR] value. There are two types of [ATR] vowel harmony controllers in Niger–Congo. The first controller is the root. When a root contains a [+ATR] or [−ATR] vowel, then that value is applied to the rest of the word, which involves crossing morpheme boundaries. For example, suffixes in Wolof assimilate to the [ATR] value of

4002-403: 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 'Charakter 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

4071-437: The total Niger–Congo speaking population. The strict genetic unity of any of these subgroups may themselves be under dispute. For example, Roger Blench (2012) argued that Adamawa , Ubangian , Kwa , Bantoid , and Bantu are not coherent groups. Although the Kordofanian branch is generally included in the Niger–Congo languages, some researchers do not agree with its inclusion. Glottolog 3.4 (2019) does not accept that

4140-400: The total Niger–Congo speaking population. The most widely spoken Niger–Congo languages by number of native speakers are Yoruba , Igbo , Fula , Lingala , Ewe , Fon , Ga-Dangme , Shona , Sesotho , Xhosa , Zulu , Akan , and Mooré . The most widely spoken by the total number of speakers is Swahili , which is used as a lingua franca in parts of eastern and southeastern Africa . While

4209-403: The two [ATR] values behave symmetrically, a large number of Niger–Congo languages exhibit a pattern where the [+ATR] value is more active or dominant than the [−ATR] value. This results in the second vowel harmony controller being the [+ATR] value. If there is even one vowel that is [+ATR] in the whole word, then the rest of the vowels harmonize with that feature. However, if there is no vowel that

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4278-417: The ultimate genetic unity of the core of Niger–Congo (called Atlantic–Congo ) is widely accepted, the internal cladistic structure is not well established. Other primary branches may include Mande , Dogon , Ijaw , Katla and Rashad . The connection of the Mande languages especially has never been demonstrated, and without them, the validity of Niger–Congo family as a whole (as opposed to Atlantic–Congo or

4347-492: The upper Senegal and Niger river basins, south and west of Timbuktu ( Mande , Dogon ), the Niger Delta ( Ijoid ), and far to the east in south-central Sudan, around the Nuba Mountains (the Kordofanian families). They account for a total population of about 100 million (2015), mostly Mandé and Ijaw . The various Kordofanian languages are spoken in south-central Sudan, around the Nuba Mountains . "Kordofanian"

4416-438: 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

4485-729: Was combined with part of the Eastern Region and Northern Territories to form the Volta Region. On 4 April 1959, the Ashanti Region was split into the Ashanti and Brong-Ahafo regions as a result of the Brong Ahafo Region Act No. 18 of 1959. This was in line with what the Brong Kyempem movement had been campaigning for, which was the recognition of the Bono people as a separate ethnic group from

4554-407: Was declared the capital of the new Savannah Region. It is located in the north of the country. The Savannah Region is divided into 7 districts; Bole , Central Gonja, North Gonja , East Gonja , Sawla/Tuna/Kalba , West Gonja , North East Gonja and 7 Constituencies; Bole/Bamboi, Damongo , Daboya/Mankarigu, Salaga North, Salaga South, Sawla/Tuna/Kalba and Yapei/Kusawgu. The capital of Bole district

4623-471: Was mainly based on the uncertainty in the classification of Songhay , morphological resemblances, and lexical similarities. A more recent proponent was Roger Blench (1995), who puts forward phonological, morphological and lexical evidence for uniting Niger–Congo and Nilo-Saharan in a Niger–Saharan phylum, with special affinity between Niger–Congo and Central Sudanic . However, fifteen years later his views had changed, with Blench (2011) proposing instead that

4692-425: Was only gradually recognized as a linguistic unit. In early classifications of the languages of Africa , one of the principal criteria used to distinguish different groupings was the languages' use of prefixes to classify nouns, or the lack thereof. A major advance came with the work of Sigismund Wilhelm Koelle , who in his 1854 Polyglotta Africana attempted a careful classification, the groupings of which in quite

4761-405: Was presented as one of several primary branches rather than being coordinate to the family 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

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