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The Chadic languages form a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken in parts of the Sahel. They include 196 languages spoken across northern Nigeria, southern Niger, southern Chad, and northern Cameroon. By far the most widely spoken Chadic language is Hausa, a lingua franca of much of inland Eastern West Africa, particularly Niger and the northern half of Nigeria. Hausa, along with Mafa and Karai Karai, are the only three Chadic languages with more than 1 million speakers.
| Chadic | |
|---|---|
| Geographic distribution | Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroon |
| Linguistic classification | Afro-Asiatic
|
| Proto-language | Proto-Chadic |
| Subdivisions |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-5 | cdc |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | chad1250 |
 Map of the distribution of the Chadic languages within Africa | |
 Detailed map of the distribution of Chadic languages in Western and Central Africa | |
Composition
Paul Newman (1977) classified the languages into the four groups which have been accepted in all subsequent literature. Further subbranching, however, has not been as robust; Roger Blench (2006), for example, only accepts the A/B bifurcation of East Chadic. Subsequent work by Joseph Lovestrand argues strongly that Kujarge is a valid member of East Chadic. The placing of Luri as a primary split of West Chadic is erroneous. Bernard Caron (2004) shows that this language is South Bauchi and part of the Polci cluster. A suggestion for including the language isolate Kujargé as an early-diverged member, which subsequently became influenced by East Chadic, has been made by Blench (2008).
- Chadic
- West Chadic
- the Hausa, Ron, Bole, and Angas languages
- the Bade, Warji, and Zaar languages
- Biu–Mandara (Central Chadic)
- the Bura, Kamwe, and Bata languages, among other groups
- the Buduma and Musgu languages
- Gidar
- East Chadic
- the Tumak, Nancere, and Kera languages
- the Dangaléat, Mukulu, and Sokoro languages
- Masa
- West Chadic
Loanwords
Chadic languages contain many Nilo-Saharan loanwords from either the Songhay or Maban branches, pointing to early contact between Chadic and Nilo-Saharan speakers as Chadic was migrating west.
Although Adamawa languages are spoken adjacently to Chadic languages, interaction between Chadic and Adamawa is limited.
Pronouns
Pronouns in Proto-Chadic, as compared to pronouns in Proto-Afroasiatic (Vossen & Dimmendaal 2020:351):
| Pronoun | Proto-Chadic | Proto-Afroasiatic |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | *ní | *i ~ *yi |
| 2M | *ka | *ku, *ka |
| 2F | *ki(m) | *kim |
| 3M | *nì | *si, *isi |
| 3F | *ta | |
| 1PL | *mun (incl.), *na (excl.) | (*-na ~ *-nu ~ *-ni) ? |
| 2PL | *kun | *kuuna |
| 3PL | *sun | *su ~ *usu |
Comparative vocabulary
Sample basic vocabulary in different Chadic branches listed in order from west to east, with reconstructions of other Afroasiatic branches also given for comparison:
| Language | eye | ear | nose | tooth | tongue | mouth | blood | bone | tree | water | eat | name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Proto-Chadic | *ydn | *km/*ɬm | *ntn | *s₃n; *ƙ-d | *ls₃- | *bk | *br | *ƙs₃ | *ymn | *hrɗ (hard); *twy (soft) | *s₃m | |
| Hausa | ido | kunne | hanci | haƙori | harshe | baki | jini | ƙashi | itaci; bishiya | ruwa | ci | suna |
| Proto-Ron | *kumu | **atin | *haŋgor | *liʃ | *fo | ɟɑ̄lɑ̄, tɾɔ̃̄ | *kaʃ | *sum | ||||
| Proto-South Bauchi | *(gwà)yìr(-ŋ) | *kə̂m(-si) | *bʸak(-ì) | *bìràm | *gu(ŋ)ul | *pit-ə̀ | *(yì)sûm(-s₃) | |||||
| Polci | yiir | kəəm | cin | haƙori | shen | bii | buran; bəran | gooloo | pət | maa | ci | suŋ |
| Proto-Central Chadic | *hadaj; *tsɨʸ | *ɬɨmɨɗʸ | *hʷɨtsɨnʸ | *ɬɨɗɨnʸ | *ɗɨrɨnɨhʸ; *ɣanaɗʸ; *naɬɨj | *maj | *ɗiɬ; *kɨrakaɬʸ | *hʷɨp | *ɗɨjɨm | *zɨm | *ɬɨmɨɗʸ | |
| Proto-Masa | *ir | *hum | *cin | *s- | *si | *vun | *vuzur | *sok | *gu | *mb- | *ti | *sem |
| Kujarge | kunɟu | kumayo ~ kime | kaata | kiya | aliŋati | apa | ɪbɪrí | (kaɟeɟa), kàyɛ́ya | kaʃíè | ʃia | (tona), tuye [imp. sg.]; tuwona [imp. pl.] | rúwà |
| Other Afroasiatic branches | ||||||||||||
| Proto-Cushitic | *ʔil- | *ʔisŋʷ- | *ʔiɬkʷ- | *caanrab- | *ʔaf-/*yaf- | *mikʷ’-; *moc’- | *-aħm-/*-uħm-; *ɬaam- | *sim-/*sum- | ||||
| Proto-Maji | *ʔaːb | *háːy | *aːç’u | *eːdu | *uːs | *inču | *haːy | *um | ||||
| Tarifiyt Berber | ŧit’t’ | aməžžun, aməz’z’uɣ | ŧinzā | ŧiɣməsŧ | iřəs | aqəmmum | iđammən | iɣəss | aman | šš | isəm | |
| Coptic | ia | ma'aje | ša | šol, najhe | las | ro | snof | kas | šēn | mou | wōm | ran |
| Proto-Semitic | *ʕayn- | *ʔuḏn- | *ʔanp- | *šinn- | *lišān- | *dam- | *ʕaṯ̣m- | *ʕiṣ̂- | *mā̆y- | *ʔ-k-l | (*šim-) | |
| Proto-Afroasiatic | *ʔǐl- | *-ʔânxʷ- | *sǐn-/*sǎn- 'tip, point' | *-lis’- 'to lick' | *âf- | *dîm-/*dâm- | *k’os- | *ɣǎ | *âm-; *akʷ’- | *-mǎaʕ-; *-iit-; *-kʷ’-̌ | *sǔm-/*sǐm- | |
Bibliography
- Caron, Bernard 2004. Le Luri: quelques notes sur une langue tchadique du Nigeria. In: Pascal Boyeldieu & Pierre Nougayrol (eds.), Langues et Cultures: Terrains d’Afrique. Hommages à France Cloarec-Heiss (Afrique et Language 7). 193–201. Louvain-Paris: Peeters.
- Lukas, Johannes (1936) 'The linguistic situation in the Lake Chad area in Central Africa.' Africa, 9, 332–349.
- Lukas, Johannes. Zentralsudanische Studien, Hamburg 1937;
- Newman, Paul; Ma, Roxana (1966). "Comparative Chadic: Phonology and lexicon". Journal of African Languages. 5: 218–251. hdl:2022/21342.
- 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.
- Herrmann Jungraithmayr, Kiyoshi Shimizu: Chadic lexical roots. Reimer, Berlin 1981.
- Herrmann Jungraithmayr, Dymitr Ibriszimow: Chadic lexical roots. 2 volumes. Reimer, Berlin 1994
- 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, , 55–60.
- Data sets
- Kraft, Charles H. (1981). "CLDF:Wordlist". CLDF dataset derived from Kraft's "Chadic Wordlists" from 1981. Geneva. doi:10.5281/zenodo.3534953.
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See also
- Proto-Chadic reconstructions (Wiktionary)
References
- "Chadic Languages; Ethnologue".
- Blench, 2006. The Afro-Asiatic Languages: Classification and Reference List Archived 2013-10-07 at the Wayback Machine (ms)
- Blench, Roger. 2008. Links between Cushitic, Omotic, Chadic and the position of Kujarge Archived 2019-12-22 at the Wayback Machine. 5th International Conference of Cushitic and Omotic languages.
- Ehret, Christopher (5 December 2006). "The Nilo-Saharan background of Chadic". Studies in African Linguistics. 35: 56–66. doi:10.32473/sal.v35i0.107316. S2CID 195404449.
- Blench, Roger. 2012. Linguistic evidence for the chronological stratification of populations South of Lake Chad. Presentation for Mega-Tchad Colloquium in Naples, September 13–15, 2012.
- Vossen, Rainer and Gerrit J. Dimmendaal (eds.). 2020. The Oxford Handbook of African Languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Jungraithmayr, Herrmann; Ibriszimow, Dymitr (1994). Chadic Lexical Roots: Tentative reconstruction, grading, distribution and comments. (Sprache und Oralität in Afrika; 20), volume I, Berlin: Dietrich Reimer Verlag.
- Cosper, Ronald. 2015. Hausa dictionary. In: Key, Mary Ritchie & Comrie, Bernard (eds.) The Intercontinental Dictionary Series. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. (Available online at http://ids.clld.org/contributions/220 Archived 2020-01-01 at the Wayback Machine, Accessed on 2019-12-31.)
- Blench, Roger. no date. Ron comparative wordlist Archived 2015-04-21 at the Wayback Machine.
- Shimizu, Kiyoshi. 1978. The Southern Bauchi group of Chadic languages: a survey report. (Africana Marburgensia: Sonderheft, 2.) Marburg/Lahn: Africana Marburgensia.
- Cosper, Ronald. 2015. Polci dictionary. In: Key, Mary Ritchie & Comrie, Bernard (eds.) The Intercontinental Dictionary Series. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. (Available online at http://ids.clld.org/contributions/221 Archived 2020-01-01 at the Wayback Machine, Accessed on 2019-12-31.)
- Gravina, Richard. 2014. Proto-Central Chadic Lexicon Archived 2021-01-20 at the Wayback Machine. Webonary.
- Shryock, Aaron (June 1997). "The classification of the Masa group of languages". Studies in African Linguistics. 26 (1): 30–62. doi:10.32473/sal.v26i1.107396. S2CID 185914860.
- Doornbos, Paul. 1981. Field notes on Kujarge, language metadata, 200-word list plus numerals and pronouns.
- Ehret, Christopher (1987). "Proto-Cushitic Reconstruction". Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika. 8: 7–180.
- Aklilu, Yilma (2003). "Comparative phonology of the Maji languages". Journal of Ethiopian Studies. 36: 59–88.
- Kossmann, Maarten. 2009. Tarifiyt Berber vocabulary Archived 2024-05-26 at the Wayback Machine. In: Haspelmath, Martin & Tadmor, Uri (eds.) World Loanword Database. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
- Kogan, Leonid (2012). "Proto-Semitic Lexicon". In Weninger, Stefan (ed.). The Semitic Languages: An International Handbook. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 179–258. ISBN 978-3-11-025158-6.
- Ehret, Christopher (1995). Reconstructing Proto-Afroasiatic (Proto-Afrasian): vowels, tone, consonants, and vocabulary. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-09799-8.
This article should specify the language of its non English content using langx transliteration for transliterated languages and IPA for phonetic transcriptions with an appropriate ISO 639 code Wikipedia s multilingual support templates may also be used See why June 2022 The Chadic languages form a branch of the Afroasiatic language family They are spoken in parts of the Sahel They include 196 languages spoken across northern Nigeria southern Niger southern Chad and northern Cameroon By far the most widely spoken Chadic language is Hausa a lingua franca of much of inland Eastern West Africa particularly Niger and the northern half of Nigeria Hausa along with Mafa and Karai Karai are the only three Chadic languages with more than 1 million speakers ChadicGeographic distributionNigeria Niger Chad CameroonLinguistic classificationAfro AsiaticChadicProto languageProto ChadicSubdivisionsBiu Mandara East Chadic Masa West ChadicLanguage codesISO 639 5 a href https iso639 3 sil org code cdc class extiw title iso639 3 cdc cdc a ISO 639 3 Glottologchad1250Map of the distribution of the Chadic languages within AfricaDetailed map of the distribution of Chadic languages in Western and Central AfricaCompositionPaul Newman 1977 classified the languages into the four groups which have been accepted in all subsequent literature Further subbranching however has not been as robust Roger Blench 2006 for example only accepts the A B bifurcation of East Chadic Subsequent work by Joseph Lovestrand argues strongly that Kujarge is a valid member of East Chadic The placing of Luri as a primary split of West Chadic is erroneous Bernard Caron 2004 shows that this language is South Bauchi and part of the Polci cluster A suggestion for including the language isolate Kujarge as an early diverged member which subsequently became influenced by East Chadic has been made by Blench 2008 Chadic West Chadic the Hausa Ron Bole and Angas languages the Bade Warji and Zaar languages Biu Mandara Central Chadic the Bura Kamwe and Bata languages among other groups the Buduma and Musgu languages Gidar East Chadic the Tumak Nancere and Kera languages the Dangaleat Mukulu and Sokoro languages Masa A chart of the Chadic branch of the Afroasiatic languages LoanwordsChadic languages contain many Nilo Saharan loanwords from either the Songhay or Maban branches pointing to early contact between Chadic and Nilo Saharan speakers as Chadic was migrating west Although Adamawa languages are spoken adjacently to Chadic languages interaction between Chadic and Adamawa is limited PronounsPronouns in Proto Chadic as compared to pronouns in Proto Afroasiatic Vossen amp Dimmendaal 2020 351 Pronoun Proto Chadic Proto Afroasiatic1 ni i yi2M ka ku ka2F ki m kim3M ni si isi3F ta1PL mun incl na excl na nu ni 2PL kun kuuna3PL sun su usuComparative vocabularySample basic vocabulary in different Chadic branches listed in order from west to east with reconstructions of other Afroasiatic branches also given for comparison Language eye ear nose tooth tongue mouth blood bone tree water eat nameProto Chadic ydn km ɬm ntn s n ƙ d ls bk br ƙs ymn hrɗ hard twy soft s mHausa ido kunne hanci haƙori harshe baki jini ƙashi itaci bishiya ruwa ci sunaProto Ron kumu atin haŋgor liʃ fo ɟɑ lɑ tɾɔ kaʃ sumProto South Bauchi gwa yir ŋ ke m si bʸak i biram gu ŋ ul pit e yi sum s Polci yiir keem cin haƙori shen bii buran beran gooloo pet maa ci suŋProto Central Chadic hadaj tsɨʸ ɬɨmɨɗʸ hʷɨtsɨnʸ ɬɨɗɨnʸ ɗɨrɨnɨhʸ ɣanaɗʸ naɬɨj maj ɗiɬ kɨrakaɬʸ hʷɨp ɗɨjɨm zɨm ɬɨmɨɗʸProto Masa ir hum cin s si vun vuzur sok gu mb ti semKujarge kunɟu kumayo kime kaata kiya aliŋati apa ɪbɪri kaɟeɟa kayɛ ya kaʃie ʃia tona tuye imp sg tuwona imp pl ruwaOther Afroasiatic branchesProto Cushitic ʔil ʔisŋʷ ʔiɬkʷ caanrab ʔaf yaf mikʷ moc aħm uħm ɬaam sim sum Proto Maji ʔaːb haːy aːc u eːdu uːs incu haːy umTarifiyt Berber ŧit t amezzun amez z uɣ ŧinza ŧiɣmesŧ ires aqemmum iđammen iɣess aman ss isemCoptic ia ma aje sa sol najhe las ro snof kas sen mou wōm ranProto Semitic ʕayn ʔuḏn ʔanp sinn lisan dam ʕaṯ m ʕiṣ ma y ʔ k l sim Proto Afroasiatic ʔǐl ʔanxʷ sǐn sǎn tip point lis to lick af dim dam k os ɣǎ am akʷ mǎaʕ iit kʷ sǔm sǐm BibliographyCaron Bernard 2004 Le Luri quelques notes sur une langue tchadique du Nigeria In Pascal Boyeldieu amp Pierre Nougayrol eds Langues et Cultures Terrains d Afrique Hommages a France Cloarec Heiss Afrique et Language 7 193 201 Louvain Paris Peeters Lukas Johannes 1936 The linguistic situation in the Lake Chad area in Central Africa Africa 9 332 349 Lukas Johannes Zentralsudanische Studien Hamburg 1937 Newman Paul Ma Roxana 1966 Comparative Chadic Phonology and lexicon Journal of African Languages 5 218 251 hdl 2022 21342 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 Universita di Firenze 389 397 Newman Paul 1980 The Classification of Chadic within Afroasiatic Leiden Universitaire Pers Leiden Herrmann Jungraithmayr Kiyoshi Shimizu Chadic lexical roots Reimer Berlin 1981 Herrmann Jungraithmayr Dymitr Ibriszimow Chadic lexical roots 2 volumes Reimer Berlin 1994 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 55 60 Data setsKraft Charles H 1981 CLDF Wordlist CLDF dataset derived from Kraft s Chadic Wordlists from 1981 Geneva doi 10 5281 zenodo 3534953 a href wiki Template Cite book title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint location missing publisher link See alsoProto Chadic reconstructions Wiktionary References Chadic Languages Ethnologue Blench 2006 The Afro Asiatic Languages Classification and Reference List Archived 2013 10 07 at the Wayback Machine ms Blench Roger 2008 Links between Cushitic Omotic Chadic and the position of Kujarge Archived 2019 12 22 at the Wayback Machine 5th International Conference of Cushitic and Omotic languages Ehret Christopher 5 December 2006 The Nilo Saharan background of Chadic Studies in African Linguistics 35 56 66 doi 10 32473 sal v35i0 107316 S2CID 195404449 Blench Roger 2012 Linguistic evidence for the chronological stratification of populations South of Lake Chad Presentation for Mega Tchad Colloquium in Naples September 13 15 2012 Vossen Rainer and Gerrit J Dimmendaal eds 2020 The Oxford Handbook of African Languages Oxford Oxford University Press Jungraithmayr Herrmann Ibriszimow Dymitr 1994 Chadic Lexical Roots Tentative reconstruction grading distribution and comments Sprache und Oralitat in Afrika 20 volume I Berlin Dietrich Reimer Verlag Cosper Ronald 2015 Hausa dictionary In Key Mary Ritchie amp Comrie Bernard eds The Intercontinental Dictionary Series Leipzig Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology Available online at http ids clld org contributions 220 Archived 2020 01 01 at the Wayback Machine Accessed on 2019 12 31 Blench Roger no date Ron comparative wordlist Archived 2015 04 21 at the Wayback Machine Shimizu Kiyoshi 1978 The Southern Bauchi group of Chadic languages a survey report Africana Marburgensia Sonderheft 2 Marburg Lahn Africana Marburgensia Cosper Ronald 2015 Polci dictionary In Key Mary Ritchie amp Comrie Bernard eds The Intercontinental Dictionary Series Leipzig Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology Available online at http ids clld org contributions 221 Archived 2020 01 01 at the Wayback Machine Accessed on 2019 12 31 Gravina Richard 2014 Proto Central Chadic Lexicon Archived 2021 01 20 at the Wayback Machine Webonary Shryock Aaron June 1997 The classification of the Masa group of languages Studies in African Linguistics 26 1 30 62 doi 10 32473 sal v26i1 107396 S2CID 185914860 Doornbos Paul 1981 Field notes on Kujarge language metadata 200 word list plus numerals and pronouns Ehret Christopher 1987 Proto Cushitic Reconstruction Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika 8 7 180 Aklilu Yilma 2003 Comparative phonology of the Maji languages Journal of Ethiopian Studies 36 59 88 Kossmann Maarten 2009 Tarifiyt Berber vocabulary Archived 2024 05 26 at the Wayback Machine In Haspelmath Martin amp Tadmor Uri eds World Loanword Database Leipzig Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology Kogan Leonid 2012 Proto Semitic Lexicon In Weninger Stefan ed The Semitic Languages An International Handbook Walter de Gruyter pp 179 258 ISBN 978 3 11 025158 6 Ehret Christopher 1995 Reconstructing Proto Afroasiatic Proto Afrasian vowels tone consonants and vocabulary University of California Press ISBN 0 520 09799 8
