African Language Families and their Structural Properties

African language families and their structural properties Sonja Bosch Department of African Languages University of South Africa [email_address] Workshop: Language Technologies for African Languages, EACL, Athens, Greece. March 31 2009.

Goal of the workshop

to provide a forum to meet and share the latest

developments in the field of language technologies for African languages;

to attract linguists who specialise in African languages and who would like to leverage the tools and approaches of computational linguistics;

to attract computational linguists who are interested in learning about the particular linguistic challenges posed by African languages.

Overview of tutorial

Introduction

- Video: The History of Mankind

Four African Phyla

- History of division

- Main characteristics

Africanisms

Discussion / Interaction

Introduction

Aim of tutorial -

to give an overview of the complex language situation on the African continent, not only regarding the vast variety of languages spoken, but also regarding the classifications of languages;

to create an awareness of a few of the characteristic structural properties of some of the African languages;

to hopefully inspire as many researchers as possible to get involved with language technology research in African languages.

Video: The History of Mankind

Journey of Mankind -The Peopling of the World

Who were our ancestors? From where did we originate?

Interaction of migration and climate over the last 160 000 years.

“ We are the descendants of a few small groups of tropical Africans who united in the face of adversity, not only to the point of survival but to the development of a sophisticated social interaction and culture expressed through many forms.”

Stephen Oppenheimer - tracked routes and timing of migration, placing it in context with ancient rock art around the world.

http:// www.bradshawfoundation.com /journey

Distribution of languages by area of origin http:// www.ethnologue.com/ethno_docs/distribution.asp?by =area#1 7,000 828,105 100.0 5,723,861,210 100.0 6,912 Totals 800 4,675 0.1 6,124,341 19.0 1,310 Pacific 220,000 6,294,532 26.3 1,504,393,183 3.5 239 Europe 10,171 1,538,077 61.0 3,489,897,147 32.8 2,269 Asia 2,000 47,464 0.8 47,559,381 14.5 1,002 Americas 25,391 323,082 11.8 675,887,158 30.3 2,092 Africa Median Mean % Count % Count Number of speakers Living languages Area

African Language Families http://encarta.msn.com/media_461520382_761565449_-1_1/African_Language_Families.html

Main research constraints shared by all African languages

Limited number of researchers

Large number of languages involved

Poor documentation for most languages

Long-standing interaction between adjacent languages

Disappearance of some languages in second half of 20 th century

(cf. Heine & Nurse, 2000:5)

Documentation for African languages

Quality and quantity – fairly high to nil

Reasonably accurate and comprehensive reference grammar – fewer than 100 African languages

Majority – inadequate grammar, analysis of part of language, article or two

Some – word list, or even less

(cf. Heine & Nurse, 2000:5)

Four African Phyla

Greenberg in The Languages of Africa (1963) - traced the historical origin and development of African languages, and classified them into four major groups:

Niger-Congo - 300 million to 400 million speakers (1,436 languages)

Afro-Asiatic - 200 million to 300 million speakers (371 languages)

Nilo-Saharan - 30 million speakers (approx. )

(196 languages)

Khoisan - 200,000 to 300,000 speakers

(35 languages)

Classification of four African phyla

Khoisan – language phyla or collection of languages?

Afro-Asiatic – most widely recognised phylum, longest history of research, largest number of researchers

Nilo-Saharan – proposed by Greenberg 50 years ago

Niger-Congo – recognised approx. in same format since 19 th century

Four African Phyla

Nilo-Saharan - 30 million speakers (approx.)

(196 languages)

(35 languages)

Niger-Congo

Kordofanian languages : southern Sudan (Nuba Hills).

Mande : West Africa; incl. Bambara (Mali), Soninke (Mali, Senegal and Mauritania).

Atlantic-Congo :

Atlantic: incl. Wolof (Senegal), and Fulfulde (across West Central Africa) NB : v alidity of Atlantic as genetic grouping is controversial).

Ijoidin (Nigeria), incl. Ijo and Defaka.

Dogon (Mali).

Volta-Congo:

Senufo (Côte d'Ivoire and Mali) and incl. Senari and Supyire.

Gur ( Côte d'Ivoire,Togo, Burkina Faso and Mali) incl. Dagbani (Northern Ghana).

Adamawa-Ubangi: incl. Sango (Central African Republic).

Kru (West Africa) incl. Bété, Nyabwa, and Dida .

Kwa: includes Akan (Ghana) and Gbe languages (Ghana , Togo, Benin, and Nigeria, of which Ewe is best known.

Benue-Congo, incl. among others:

Bantu: a very large group, incl. Swahili (Kiswahili) and Zulu (isiZulu).

Yoruba and Igbo (Nigeria).

Niger-Congo structures

Tonal languages

e.g. Zulu: ínyàngá (HLH) „moon/month“

ínyàngà (HLL) „medicine man“

Noun class system

singular/plural by means of affixes

e.g. Zulu: umuntu/abantu „person/persons“

concordial agreement

e.g. Zulu: aba ntu aba ningi ba yasebenza „Many people work“

Verb suffixes

modification of meaning of the verb

e.g. Zulu: -pheka „cook“, -phekela „cook for “, -phekwa „cooked by “,

-phek is a „let cook“

Word order

SVO widespread, but SOV found in Mande, Ijoid and Dogon.

Four African Phyla

(196 languages)

(35 languages)

Nilo-Saharan

Komuz languages.

Saharan languages (incl. Kanuri (Niger, Nigeria)).

Songhay languages (Mali, Niger).

Fur languages (incl. Fur).

Maban languages.

( Chari-Nile languages - later rejected, placing four branches below on equal footing with above ).

Central Sudanic languages (CAR, Chad, DRC).

Kunama language.

Berta language.

Eastern Sudanic languages (incl. Nubian (Sudan, S Egypt) and Nilotic languages (incl. Dinka (Sudan), Luo & Maasai (Kenya, Tanzania)).

Nilo-Saharan structures

Tonal languages

Verb prefixation and suffixation – no class agreement

Case-marking on nouns, e.g. dative and locative (to indicate grammatical relations and semantic functions)

Simplified noun class systems

Word order – SOV most common

Four African Phyla

(196 languages)

(35 languages)

Afroasiatic

* Chadic (Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Central African Republic and Niger. Hausa, its principal language).

* Berber (dominant language Tamarshak / Tamasheq).

* Semitic (incl. Amharic and Tigrinya).

Cushitic (incl. Beja and Oromo as principal languages. Beja (Sudan and Eritrea), Oromo (Ethiopia).

* Egyptian (4,500 years of written records, not spoken for 600 years. Its final phase, Coptic is liturgical language of Coptic Church).

Omotic (Omo plateau in Ethiopia. North and South Omotic subfamilies).

* General agreement that these major branches are clear-cut entities.

Afro-Asiatic structures

Tonal languages - appear in the Omotic, Chadic, and South and East Cushitic branches of Afro-Asiatic.

Two-gender system in singular, with the feminine marked by –(a)t,

e.g. Amharic: sew “ man”, set “woman”; ligu “boy”, ligitu , “girl”.

Emphatic consonants , variously realised as glottalized, pharyngealised or implosive – changes meaning of word.

Word order - VSO with SVO tendencies.

Four African Phyla

(196 languages)

(35 languages)

Khoisan

(1) Non-Khoe

Ju (Northern) - (!O)!Xũũ, ||X’au||’e, Ju|’hoan (DC)

!Ui-Taa (Southern)

(1.2.1) !Ui

(1.2.2) Taa

‡ Hõã (200 speakers, Botswana. Moribund.)

(2) Khoe (Central)

Khoekhoe

(2.1.1) North Nama/Damara, Hai//om, ‡Aakhoe (DC)

(2.1.2) South †!Ora; Cape Khoekhoe varieties

Kalahari Khoe

(2.2.1) West Kxoe, Buga, ||Ani (DC),Naro (DC), G||ana, G|ui, ‡Haba (DC)

(2.2.2) East Shua, Ts’ixa, Danisi, |Xaise, †Deti, Kua-Tsua (DC)

( 3) Sandawe

40,000 speakers in Tanzania (some indication - Sandawe may be related to Khoe-Kwadi family, but the relationship remains speculative).

(4) Kwadi

† Kwadi (Extinct, Angola)

(5) Hadza

Hadza (200-800 speakers in Tanzania), isolate

(DC = dialect cluster; † = (presumably extinct)

Khoisan structures

Sound system – unique and complex, click sounds

Non-Khoe

SVO – different from other Khoisan languages

Syntactic context determines meaning of a stem

Khoe

Rich morphology – inflection, derivation (suffixes)

Nouns – person, gender, number suffix

Grammatical agreement (adj, poss, dem, numerals, interrogatives)

Sandawe

Two genders (masc & fem), and two numbers (sing. & plural)

SOV

Kwadi (hardly any linguistic information)

SOV, frequent stem reduplication

Hadza

VSO, two genders (masc & fem)

Africanisms: special features of African languages

*Heine, B. & Nurse, D. 2008. A Linguistic Geography of Africa. Cambridge [England]; New York: Cambridge University Press.

Quantitative survey of African languages of all major genetic groupings (99 languages: 55 Niger-Congo, 23 Afro-Asiatic, 15 Nilo-Saharan, 6 Khoisan) and major regions.

Properties chosen that are claimed by researchers to be wide spread in Africa but not elsewhere.

Catalogue drawn up of phonological, morphosyntactic and semantic properties that can help to define African languages.

Africa has average of 6.8 of 11 properties.

Outside Africa no language has more than 5 of the properties.

Sub-Saharan Africa stands out typologically with an average of 7.2 properties.

50 11. Noun “child” used productively to express diminutive meaning 82 10. Comparative construction [X is big/defeats/ surpasses/ passes Y] 40 9. Semantic polysemy ‘animal/meat’ 72 8. Semantic polysemy ‘hear/see/understand’ 74 7. Semantic polysemy ‘drink/pull/smoke’ 89 6. Nominal modifiers follow noun 76 5. Verbal derivational suffixes (pass, caus, appl. etc.) 39 4. ATR-based vowel harmony 80 3. Lexical or grammatical tones 36 2. Implosive stops 39 1. Labial-velar stops No. of languages with that property (from total of 99) Property used as criteria *RELATIVE FREQUENCY OF OCCURRENCE OF 11 TYPOLOGICAL PROPERTIES IN AFRICAN LANGUAGES

Conclusion

Language situation in Africa – language technology has important role to play.

Africa lagging far behind.

Pockets of expertise emerging.

Language resources – crucial building blocks for developing language technologies.

Recommended Reading Greenberg, J. H. The languages of Africa . Bloomington: Indiana University, 1963. Heine, B. & Nurse, D. 2000. African languages : an introduction. Cambridge [England]; New York: Cambridge University Press. Heine, B. & Nurse, D. 2008. A Linguistic Geography of Africa . Cambridge [England]; New York: Cambridge University Press.

Siyabonga!

Ke a leboga!

Nkosi!

Ndi a livhuwa !

Thank you!

References

African language families. 2008. [O] Available: http://encarta.msn.com/media_461520382_761565449_-1_1/African_Language_Families.html . Accessed on 30 March 2009.

Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y. / R. M. W. Dixon. 2001. Areal Diffusion and Genetic Inheritance: Problems in Comparative Linguistics . Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Alexandre, P. 1972. An Introduction to languages and Language in Africa. London, Ibadan, Nairobi: Heinemann.

Ethnologue. 2005. [O] Available: http://www.ethnologue.com/ethno_docs/distribution.asp?by=area#1

Accessed on 30 March 2009.

Gourt the home of all knowledge. Sa. [O] Available: http://articles.gourt.com/en/language%20family

Accessed on 30 March 2009.

Greenberg, J. H.. The languages of Afric a. Bloomington: Indiana University, 1963.

Heine, B. & Nurse, D. 2000. African languages : an introduction.

Cambridge [England] ; New York : Cambridge University Press.

Heine, B. & Nurse, D. 2008. A Linguistic Geography of Africa . Cambridge [England] ; New York : Cambridge University Press.

Oppenheimer, S. 2003. Journey of Mankind. [O] Available: http:// www.bradshawfoundation.com /journey . Accessed on 30 March 2009.

Language endangerment in Africa

Brenzinger, M. Language death: factual and theoretical explorations with special reference to East Africa. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 1992.

Brenzinger, M. Endangered languages in Africa. Köln: Köppe, 1998.

Mous, M. “Loss of linguistic diversity in Africa”. In: Janse, M. and S. Tol (eds.). Language Death and Language Maintenance. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2003.

Sommer, G. “A survey on language death in Africa”. In: M. Brenzinger (ed.). Language death: factual and theoretical explorations with special reference to East Africa. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 1992, 301-407.