4 Major African Phyla

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Last updated 7:35 PM on 8/22/26
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5 Terms

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Four phyla

  1. Niger Congo

  2. Nilo-Saharan

  3. Afroasiatic

  4. Khoisan


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Niger-Congo Characteristics

  • Largest of the phyla contains 1650 languages

  • Location: Sub-Saharan Africa (West, central, east, and some parts of South)

  • classification based on:

    • noun class systems

    • verbal extensions

    • Basic lexicon — language vocabulary

  • Bantu is the largest family within the phylum

  • Kordofanian = first family to break off

  • IJOID = Niger delta

  • Example languages:

    • swahili

    • yoruba

    • igbo

    • bambara


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Afroasiatic Characteristics

  • Location: Northern Africa + parts of the Horn of Africa

  • contains around 200-300 languages

  • example languages:

    • arabic

    • hausa

    • somali

    • tigrinya

  • Hausa = located in west africa


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Nilo-Saharan

  • Location: Northeastern and Central Africa; areas around the nile and the south of the Sahara

  • Contains around 80 languages

  • Nilotic languages are generally classified within this phyla

  • Example languages:

    • Dinka

    • Luo

    • Kanuri


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Khoisan

  • Location: Southern Africa (Namibia, Botswana, parts of south africa and Angola)

  • contains around 40-70 languages (smallest family)

  • known for languages with click consonants