Episode 10 Nilo-Sarahan Africa’s Hardest Languages

Language Families of the World

Dr John McWhorter

Film Review

While Afro-Asiatic languages are spoken mainly in northern and Niger-Congo languages in southern Africa, the Nilo-Saharan languages are spoken in central Africa. This family consists of roughly 100 languages that arose when the Sahara Desert was still grassy savanna.

The two best known Nilo-Saharan languages are Fur (spoken in Darfur) and Masai, spoken by Masai tribesmen (found in Kenya and northern Tanzania).

The four written Nilo-Saharan languages are Luo, Kalenjn, Dinka and Nuer.

With so few common words in different Nilo-Saharan languages, it’s extremely difficult to construct a proto-Nilo-Saharan language. However all but two languages in this family use similar words for “will” and “cow.”

In general, African languages are most likely to have similar words for cattle, given that pastoralism arose in Africa around 9,000 before most languages split off from their proto language root. There are somewhat fewer similar words for concepts developing more recently, eg agriculture and cultivated foods, which emerged around 7,000 BC. Most words for domesticated sheep and goats, which appeared around 6,000 BC, are borrowed from Afro-Asiatic languages.

One similarity found among most Nilo-Sahaan languages is that the pronoun “I” nearly always contains an “a” sound, the pronoun you an “i” sound and the pronouns he/she/it an “e” sound. Also most Nilo-Saharan languages lack a “d” sound, which may relate to the common practice of mutilating the lips with jewelry.

The Dinka language uses tones (like Chinese) to convey specific meanings. Fur has lots of of irregular plurals.

It’s believed the three click language families (see The History of African Click Languages ) were the first to emerge in Africa.

The five major African families are Osmotic, Khoison, Niger-Congo, Afro-Asiatic, Nilo-Sarahan. The two minor African families are Mande and Ijoid (spoken in Congo).

Malagasy, the language spoken on the island of Madagascar is an Austronesian language.

Film can be viewed free with a library card on Kanopy.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/6120000/6120020