Afar - The Afar language (Afar: 'Qafár af') (also known as Adal, 'Afar Af, Afaraf, Qafar) is an Afroasiatic language, belonging to the family's Cushytic branch. It is spoken by the Afar people in Djibouti, Eritrea and Ethiopia.
African language diversity thread
- Thread starter Raptor
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Oromo (pron. /ˈɒrəmoʊ/ or /ɔːˈroʊmoʊ/) is an Afroasiatic language. It is the most widely spoken tongue in the family's Cushytic branch. Forms of Oromo are spoken as a first language by more than 24 million Oromo and neighboring peoples in Ethiopia and parts of northern Kenya.
Cape Verdean Creole (also known CVC or Kriolu) is a creole language of Portuguese basis, spoken on the islands of Cape Verde. It is the native language of virtually all Cape Verdeans, and it is used as a second language by the Cape Verdean diaspora. The current designation of this language is "Cape Verdean Creole", but in everyday use the language is simply called "Creole" by its speakers. The names "Cape Verdean" (cabo-verdiano in Portuguese, kabuverdianu in Cape Verdean Creole) and "Cape Verdean language" (língua cabo-verdiana in Portuguese, língua kabuverdianu in Sotavento Creole and língua kabverdian in Barlavento Creole) have been proposed for whenever the language will be standardized. In spite of Creole being the mother tongue of nearly all the population in Cape Verde, Portuguese is still the official language. As Portuguese is used in everyday life (at school, in administration, in official acts, in relations with foreign countries, etc.), Portuguese and Cape Verdean Creole live in a state of diglossia.[7] Due to this overall presence of Portuguese, adecreolization process occurs for all the different Cape Verdean Creole variants. Even though over 90% of Cape Verdean Creole words are derived from Portuguese, the grammar is very different, which makes it extremely difficult for an untrained Portuguese native speaker even to understand a basic conversation. On the other hand, the grammar shows a lot of similarities with other creoles, Portuguese-based or not. In spite of Cape Verde's small size, each island has developed its own way of speaking Creole. Each of these nine ways (there are 10 islands, one of which is uninhabited) is justifiably a different dialect, but the scholars in Cape Verde usually call them “variants”. These variants can be classified into two branches: in the South there are the Sotavento Creoles, which comprise the Brava, Fogo, Santiago and Maio variants; in the North there are the Barlavento Creoles, which comprise the Boa Vista, Sal, São Nicolau, São Vicente and Santo Antão variants.
The language has particular importance for creolistics studies since it is the oldest (still-spoken) creole,[3] and the most widely spoken Portuguese-based creole.
The language has particular importance for creolistics studies since it is the oldest (still-spoken) creole,[3] and the most widely spoken Portuguese-based creole.
Tommy Knocks
retired
I speak Lingala. Neighboring countries have similar phrases and words.
The first song is "Give me your love" the second is "what do you see" hard to translate, omona means see, wapi means where.
The first song is "Give me your love" the second is "what do you see" hard to translate, omona means see, wapi means where.
Ifa/Santeria
IMO the most interesting one because Niger-Congo languages are associated with West Africans yet may come from the Nuba mountains:
The Kordofanian languages are a geographic grouping of half a dozen language families spoken in the Nuba Mountains of Kordofan Province, Sudan. In 1963 Joseph Greenberg added them to the Niger–Congo family, creating his Niger–Kordofanian proposal. The Kordofanian languages have not been shown to be more distantly related than other branches of Niger–Congo, however, nor have they been shown to constitute a valid group. Today the Kadu family is excluded, and the others usually included in Niger–Congo proper.
Roger Blench notes that the Talodi and Heiban families have the noun-class systems characteristic of the Atlantic–Congo core of Niger–Congo, but that the two Katla languages have no trace of ever having had such a system, whereas the Kadu languages and some of the Rashad languages appear to have acquired noun classes as part of a Sprachbund rather than having inherited them. He concludes that Talodi and Heiban are core Niger–Congo whereas Katla and Rashad form a peripheral branch along the lines of Mande.
The Kordofanian languages are a geographic grouping of half a dozen language families spoken in the Nuba Mountains of Kordofan Province, Sudan. In 1963 Joseph Greenberg added them to the Niger–Congo family, creating his Niger–Kordofanian proposal. The Kordofanian languages have not been shown to be more distantly related than other branches of Niger–Congo, however, nor have they been shown to constitute a valid group. Today the Kadu family is excluded, and the others usually included in Niger–Congo proper.
Roger Blench notes that the Talodi and Heiban families have the noun-class systems characteristic of the Atlantic–Congo core of Niger–Congo, but that the two Katla languages have no trace of ever having had such a system, whereas the Kadu languages and some of the Rashad languages appear to have acquired noun classes as part of a Sprachbund rather than having inherited them. He concludes that Talodi and Heiban are core Niger–Congo whereas Katla and Rashad form a peripheral branch along the lines of Mande.
subs to this