1. The Niger-Congo Languages

2. General Information According to Ethnoloque 1,532 languages
→ largest phylum in the world
Occupies larger area than any other African phylum
subclassifications has been continuously modified
large number of languages
inaccessibility of much of the data
lack of able researchers

3. Classification 1 Kordofanian Kordofanian as fist branch
→lexical evidence for uniting with Niger-Congo languages is poor
Kordofanian are most poorly documented languages within Niger-Congo
Small languages
Spoken in Nuba mountains (Rep. of Sudan)
Many have been replace by political insecurity

4. Greenberg: 5 groups of languages, grouped together as Kordofanian assigned them to Niger-Congo
Schadeberg (1981c) removed Kadugli-Krongo/Kadu from Kordofanian, added it to Nilo-Saharian
→ 4 remaining groups classified by Schadeberg (1989)

5. Schadeberg showed that the noun class affixed correspond in a regular way to those of the rest of Niger-Congo
Schadeberg (1989)

6. 2 Mande
Extend over greater part of the western half of West Africa (Mali, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, also in Burkina Faso, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Mauretania, Benin, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria)
10 to 12 million speakers
Over 50% speak Manding
Most classifications based on lexicostatistics
→ problems pointed out by Kastenholz (1991/2)
→ studied lexical innovations to gain improved classification

7. Mande as part of Niger-Congo
Dwyer(1998): Excamination of 603 comparative lexical entries
→leads to table of cognates
From: Dwyer.(1998) The place of Mande in Niger-Congo. In: Language History and Linguistic Description in Africa. Maddison, Hinnebush (Editors.).

8. Niger-Congo Cognate Types:
Total Set examined: 603
Probable cognates: 187
Likely cognates: 124
Possible cognates: 128
Conclusion:
Western Nigrit, Benue-Congo and Mande are lexically related
→lexical coherence

9. (West-Atlantic in Westermann’s classification)
Spoken along Atlantic coastline of West Africa
Largest languages:
Fulfulde (several million speakers)
Wolof (2 million speakers)
Diola (400,000 speakers)
Serer (600,000 speakers)
Temne (600,000 speakers)
Classification by Sapir (1971) based on lexicostatistics
Three-way division: Northern, Southern, Bijago

10. Small family, only spoken in Niger Delta Languages:
4 Ijoid
Small family, only spoken in Niger Delta
Languages:
Defaka (endangered),
Ijo - language cluster with over one million speakers
Closely related internally, very distinct from other Niger-Congo languages
5 Dogon
About half a million speakers in Mali & Burkina Faso
Often referred as single language
Bertho (1953) proposed at least 4 languages Calame-Griaule (1978) list 5 groups of dialects
Ethnologue: 14 Dialects

11. 6 Volta-Congo
6.1 West Volta-Congo
Contains three families: Kru, Gur, Adamawa-Ubangi
6.1.1 Kru
Spoken in the south-west quadrant of Côte d'Ivoire, greater part of Liberia
Between 1 and 2 million speakers
Main division: East and West-Kru
First classified within Kwa (Westermann (1927) and Greenberg (1963))
Bennett and Sterk (1977) suggested is as part of North/West Volta-Congo
Body of Kru languages are closely related
Additionally three Kru isolates: Kuwaa (north-west) Tiegba & Abrako (from Aizi group) (east), Sεmε (north)

12. 6.1.2 Gur
Very large family
Spoken in south of Mali, northern parts of Côte d'Ivoure, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Burkina Faso, Nigeria
About 5,5 million speakers at least 1,7mio speak Mõõre
Relationship of the body is quiet clear
Membership of others is more doubtful

13. 6.1.3 Adamawa-Ubangi 
Extend from north-west Nigeria through northern Cameroon, southern Chad, Central African Republic northern Gabon, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, south-west Sudan
about 1,5 million speakers of Adamawa
2,3 million speakers of Ubangi
Greenberg (1963a) divided Adamawa into 14 groups, "Eastern" into 8 groups
Bennett added group 3 (containing Daka) to Benue-Congo

14. 6.2 East Volta-Congo
Greenberg (1963a:39) doubted the division between Kwa & Benue-Congo
6.2.1 Kwa
Spoken along Atlantic coast of West Africa, south western corner of Nigeria, south-eastern quadrant of Côte d'Ivoire
About 20 million speakers
Greenberg (1963a) divided into 8 groups, intigrated Central Togo languages into his group
Benett & Sterk (1977) reassigned Ijoid and Kru to Benue-Congo

15. 6.2.2 Benue-Congo 
Occupy a vast area 
Greenberg divided into 4 branches:
Platoid
Jukunoid
Cross River
Bantoid
Shimizu (1975) and Gerhardt (1989) integrated Jukunoid to Platoid
Bennett and Sterk (1977) added eastern branches of Greenberg's Kwa
→ grouped together as "West Benue-Congo"
→ former "Benue-Congo" was named "East Benue-Congo"

16. Term 6.2.2.1 Bantoid First used by Krause in 1895
→ describing languages with similarity in vocabulary of Bantu
Guthrie (1948) used it for languages with noun class systems resembling Bantu (no regular sound correspondence)
→ established “Guthrie Zones”
Standart referential scheme
Most zones not genetic groups → geographical
Present meaning goes back to Greenberg
→ Bantu together with its closest relatives ("non-Bantu Bantoid")

18. Classification
Benue-Congo working group tried to define in the 1970s and 1980s "Narrow Bantu" - the languages recognised by Guthrie as Bantu - as a subgroup of "Wide Bantu"
Blench and Williamson (1988) proposed a basic division within Bantiod is between North Bantoid (old "non-Bantu Bantiod" without Tivoid) and South Bantoid (all remaining Bantu languages)
→ North Bantu consisting of Mambiloid and Dakoid
→ Dakoid includes Chamba Daka
Classified by Greenberg as Adamawa, by Bennett (1983) as Benue-Congo
Blench assigned it to North Bantoid
Classification of Narrow Bantu is based on lexicostatistics → not overall agreed
Mostly agreed, that there is North-West Bantu (Zones A, B, C and parts of D)
→ those languages are more distinct from the rest and one another
→ ancient splits
Definition of boundaries between West and East Bantu differs a lot
Even suggestions for Central Bantu

19. Problem with these classifications
Accept arbitrary boundaries of Guthrie
Piron (1998) presented most recent lexicostatistic classification, including samples of all Bantiod groups
Because of various problems (defective lists, inadequate or unrepresentative data) the work suggests different levels of relationships
South Bantoid appears as coherent group
Furthest Neightbor method shows a break between (Narrow) Bantu and the rest
Average method splits East
and South Bantu from
all the rest
→ further work needed

20. Typology and Reconstructions
 1 Vowels
Niger-Congo languages often show vowel harmony
Maximal systems:
[+ATR] Vowels: / i e ɜ o u/
[-ATR] Vowels: / ɪ ɛ a ɔ ʊ /
Some systems with only oral vowels, some with both, oral and nasalised
Always fewer nasalised than oral vowels
Westermann reconstructed #a #i #u for Proto-West-Sudanic
→ midvowels as later developments from coalescence or assimilation
Steward (1998) reconstructed *i *ɪ *a *ʊ *u as oral and *ĩ̃ *ɪ̃ *ã *ʊ̃ *ũ as nasal vowels for Proto-East Volta-Congo
Doneux (1975) even reconstructed a system of ten vowels with ATR harmony for Proto Northern Atlantic
→it is possible that Proto-Niger-Congo had ten vowels

21. 2 Consonats Typically five contrasting places of articulation:
Labial
Dental/alveolar
Palatal (incl. post-alveolar)
Velar
Labial-velar
Almost always voiceless and voiced plosives (often affricates)
Usually voiced implosives (except for Kordofanian, Dogon, parts of Benue-Congo)
Occasionally unvoiced implosives
Often labialisation as secondary articulation
Sometimes palatalisation
Very rarely verlarisation

22. Westermann(1927): Very small consonant inventory
Reconstruction
Westermann(1927): Very small consonant inventory
Mukarovsky (1976-7:37) richer one, including a series of consonants represented as Ch (might have been aspirate plosive, implosive, affricate or fricative)
Stewardt(1973): reconstructed the consonants of Proto-Bantu-Potou-Tano from sound correspondences
4 series of stops
Voiceless and voiced lenis
1993: proposed that lenis consonants were rather implosives
→more promising given wide distribution of implosives in Niger-Congo
Non-implosive/implosive contrast has not been confirmed as going farther back than Proto-Potou-Tano
Possibly the voiced plosives found in daughter languages of Proto-Bantu-Potou-Tano go back to voiced implosives

23. Steward (1973) showed regular sound correspondence between Potou-Tano and Bantu
Also possible between Proto-Ijo and Bantu

24. Mande as instance for exception
3 Noun Classes
Doubtlessly Proto-Niger-Congo must have had a grammaticalised noun-class-system
every family shows at least traces of the system
Mande as instance for exception
But initial consonant mutation in nouns suggest conditioning by earlier prefixes