Chadic

Ethnic territories of the Chadic speaking peoples in Nigeria

The Chadic languages constitute a language family spoken across northern Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Central African Republic and Cameroon, belonging to the Afroasiatic phylum. The most widely spoken Chadic language is Hausa, the lingua franca of much of West Africa.

Newman 1977 divided the family into four groups, which have been accepted in all subsequent literature:

• West Chadic languages

Two branches, which include

(A) the Hausa, Ron, Bole, and Angas languages; and

(B) the Bade, Warji, and Zaar languages.

• Biu-Mandara languages (Central Chadic)

Three branches, which include

(A) the Bura, Kamwe, and Bata languages, among other groups;

(B) the Buduma and Musgu languages; and

(C) the Gidar language

• East Chadic languages

Two branches, which include

(A) the Tumak, Nancere, and Kera languages; and

(B) the Dangaléat, Mokulu, and Sokoro languages

• Masa languages

See also

List of Chadic languages

Bibliography

• Ethnologue entry for Chadic languages
• Lukas, Johannes (1936) 'The linguistic situation in the Lake Chad area in Central Africa.' Africa, 9, 332–349.
• Newman, Paul (1977) 'Chadic classification and reconstructions.' Afroasiatic Linguistics 5, 1, 1–42.
• Newman, Paul (1978) 'Chado-Hamitic 'adieu': new thoughts on Chadic language classification', in Fronzaroli, Pelio (ed.), Atti del Secondo Congresso Internazionale di Linguistica Camito-Semitica. Florence: Instituto de Linguistica e di Lingue Orientali, Università di Firenze, 389–397.
• Newman, Paul (1980) The Classification of Chadic within Afroasiatic. Leiden: Universitaire Pers Leiden.
• Newman, Paul and Ma, Roxana (1966) 'Comparative Chadic: phonology and lexicon.' Journal of African Languages, 5, 218–251.
• Schuh, Russell (2003) 'Chadic overview', in M. Lionel Bender, Gabor Takacs, and David L. Appleyard (eds.), Selected Comparative-Historical Afrasian Linguistic Studies in Memory of Igor M. Diakonoff, LINCOM Europa, 55–60.
• Cerny et al (2009). Migration of Chadic speaking pastoralists within Africa based on population structure of Chad Basin and phylogeography of mitochondrial L3f haplogroup. http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1471-2148-9-63.pdf. 
• Tishkoff et al (2009). The Genetic Structure and History of Africans and African Americans. http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/data/1172257/DC1/1. 

External links

• Chadic Newsletter Online

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