SUDANIC LANGUAGES

Sudanic Negro languages are distributed over a large zone extending from Gambia in far west Africa to a region west of the River Nile. To the north of the Sudanic area are the Hamitic and Semitic tongues of north Africa, and to the south are the Bantu languages; this juxtaposition has resulted in a mingling of different grammatical elements, to a greater or less degree according to locality. D. Westermann (1930) states that the relationship among the Sudanic languages themselves is less obvious than the interrelation of the Bantu languages, whose affinities to one another can be readily recognized. The phylogenetic relationship of the Sudanic and Bantu Negro languages has been discussed by Westermann in detail (1927). In four groups of the Sudanic languages the affix system is well developed for dividing nouns into classes as in Bantu languages, but this feature may be of independent development, and the classes are not necessarily a proof of phylogenetic connection with Bantu.

The main groups of the Sudanic languages (Westermann’s 1930 classification) are given below:

(1) The Kwa group is spoken from the middle of Liberia to the lower Niger. This group includes Ewe-Akan, Kru, Yoruba, Igara, Okpoto, Nupe, Ibo, Edo, Bini, and Ijaw. Ewe is spoken in the extreme southeast corner of the Gold Coast, in the southern half of Togo and Dahomey up to 8° N. Lat., and along the coast as far east as Badagri. Kru is a Liberian language. The names Yoruba and Ijaw are descriptive of large tribes and linguistic divisions in Nigeria. The Ibo and the I jaw can be regarded as the oldest representatives of true Negro stock.

(2) The Benue Cross-River languages, with Efik and Ibibio as two representatives of the group, are located in eastern Nigeria.

(3) The third group is in central Togoland.

(4) Gur languages are spoken in northern Togoland and the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast. Subgroups in this division are Mosi, Dagomba, Kusai, Mamprusi, Gurundsi, and many others.

(5) The West Atlantic group includes languages spoken in Senegal (Yolof and Serer tribes), in Portuguese Guinea, and by the Temne and Bulom tribes.

(6) The Mandingo and Mande languages comprise a large number of subdivisions that have been described in detail by Delafosse (1929).

(7) At the eastern end of the Sudanic zone the most important languages are Shilluk, Dinka, Nuer, and Zande.

The division of African languages into Hamitic, Semitic, Sudanic, Bantu, and Bushman is convenient for the present. Such classification is justifiable since each main group has distinguishing and definite characters, yet the possibility of remote generic relationship of all the languages should be kept in mind when the characteristic features of any one group are under discussion. With further research the terminology may be improved.

The Sudanic languages have traits that serve to give definiteness of character, and they have a recognizable morphology in which the following features are prominent though not invariable.

In the first place, the Sudanic languages are monosyllabic and isolating, and in this they differ fundamentally from Hamitic and Semitic, which are highly inflectional. Sudanic languages are built up from certain basic units of speech: nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Some parts of speech, instead of being inflected to express gender, number, tense, and degree, are actually changed in form (not merely inflected). Or the unit of speech may preserve its form but receive another position in the sentence in order to mark a change of meaning. Finally, the high, middle, and low tones are used to distinguish differences in meaning of words that are otherwise alike. Tonal values are well developed; but word stress is absent. In showing the genitive (possessive case), the name of the possessor precedes the name of the thing possessed.

Since there are no relative pronouns, complex sentences are not constructed; the arrangement is said to be coordinative. The sentence, "He jumped from the ship into the sea," would be rendered, "He jumped, he left inside of ship, he fell to sea." Despite this apparent simplicity of structure and the absence of inflection, fine shades of meaning can be conveyed in some Sudanic languages. R. S. Rattray (1932a, vol. 1, pp. 61–63) mentions the expression of various conceptions of past and future in the Dagbane language. The particle de denotes immediate past, sa refers to events of yesterday, and da conveys the idea of a past more remote than today or yesterday. In the same way an immediate future, a future limited to tomorrow, and a vague future can be expressed. No passive voice can be expressed in Sudanic. "The horse was killed by Musa," becomes, "It is Musa; he killed the horse."

The following examples will illustrate the way in which changes of meaning are achieved in Sudanic languages, despite the absence of inflections.

In Ibo, which is spoken in several dialects near Onitsha in Nigeria, the syllable bu means "carry" and da means "fall." Then by combination of these the word buda, "bring down," is made. A few examples from Ewe and Yoruba will indicate the dependence of meaning on tone. An acute accent indicates a high tone, and a grave accent shows a low tone. In Ewe, dà means "throw," dá, "crawl." Dó means "say," and dò, "be sad"; do on a level tone means "sleep."

In Yoruba agba on a level tone means "rope"; àgbà means an "elder," and àgbá, "cannon." The meaning of òpó is "a post"; opó is "a window," and òpò is "to be busy." Gender may be shown in this way: ako means male, and abo means female. Therefore, ako-esin is a stallion, and abo-esin is a mare. In the Gã language china-nu means "bull," and china-yo means "cow." Plurals have usually to be judged by the context, but in Nuer singulars and plurals of nouns are known by different tones.

In the Tshi group syllables are brought together to change verbs to nouns. Wu means "to die," from which the word awu, "murderer," is obtained. Bo means "to worship," and abo is "a worshipper."

The Lautbilder described by D. Westermann are sound pictures that frequently occur in the Ewe language. Zo-ka-ka means "to walk upright"; zo-boko-boko refers to the heavy walk of a fat man; and zo-lumo-lumo describes the pattering run of small animals.

For the further study of tones in Sudanic speech the articles of A. L. James (1923, 1928) are important for Yoruba, those of Schober (1933) for Ewe, and I. C. Ward (1933) for Efik. Herzog (1934) should be consulted for an article on "Speech Melody and Primitive Music," and these contributions should be read in conjunction with those of Nekes (1911a, 1911b, 1928) on the subject of musical tones in Bantu speech.

For general study of the character of Sudanic speech contributions by I. C. Ward (1935, 1936), Migeod (1913), N. W. Thomas (1920a), and Westermann (1935a) are of great service. Delafosse (1929) made a noteworthy study of the Mandingo language, and a bibliography of the writings of Delafosse will be found in Fligelman (1931, pp. 283–286). Lukas (1936) has written on the "Linguistic Situation in the Lake Chad Area." Hambly (1935a) has a bibliography containing many items of linguistic interest for Nigeria.

For study of languages of the southern Sudan Struck (1928) has provided a bibliography, and A. N. Tucker (1934) has reported on the present linguistic situation in an article which includes a tribal map. For the Nilotic languages, which are still imperfectly known, G. W. Murray’s (1920) article will prove useful. An English-Nubian Comparative Dictionary by G. W. Murray (1923a) gives excellent examples of the mixture of linguistic elements in Nubian. The language is Sudanic, with Hamitic and Semitic elements. Some Greek words are present because Nubian was the language of the early Christian church of Nubia. Appendix II is a valuable bibliography of Semitic, Hamitic, and Nilotic studies.