Languages

Out of two thousand African languages, almost a thousand and a half (i.e. almost one quarter of all languages of the world) refer to the Niger-Congo macrofamily, but the distance between these languages is comparable to the differences between the Russian, the Japanese and the Georgian languages. The Niger-Congo macrofamily consists of several “mid-size” language families (Atlantic, Gur, Mande Adamawa families, etc.), their languages are as distant as languages within the Indo-European family . To this macrofamily belong most of the largest languages of the continent spoken by dozens of millions people: Swahili, Lingala, Fula, Manding, Yoruba. Most languages of this macrofamily are tonal: musical tone is used to distinguish between words and to express grammatical meanings. Many of them have rich systems of noun classes.

There are three other macrofamilies in Africa: Nilo-Saharan, Khoisan and Afro-Asiatic. The Afro-Asiatic macrofamily is also referred to as Hamito-Semitic; it includes such well-known languages as Arabic, Hebrew, and Amharic. To the same group belong the languages of the Berbers inhabiting the Sahara desert and North Africa; the Cushitic languages (Somali, Oromo, Beja), and Chadic languages, including Hausa, the second most spoken language in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The Khoisan languages are spoken by San (Bushmen) and Khoikhoi (Hottentots) in Southern Africa. There are several dozens Khoisan languages, their characteristic feature is clicking sounds.

Practically all other African languages belong to the Nilo-Saharan macrofamily. However, the differences between them are so great that many researchers question the very existence of this macrofamily.

Also, there are languages in Africa that stem from the English, French or Portuguese languages, but they are not mutually intelligible with their mother languages. These are pidgins and creole languages. They are often scorned and are regarded as distorted variants of the European languages. But in some countries, such as Sierra Leone. they are treated with respect, studied in universities and taught in schools.

Stand against Pigin in the University of Buea. West Cameroon. V. F. Vydrin. 2005