African Languages - Language Groups

Language Groups

Most languages spoken in Africa belong to one of three large language families: Afroasiatic, Nilo-Saharan, and Niger–Congo. Another hundred belong to small families such as Ubangian and the various families called Khoisan, or the Indo-European and Austronesian language families which originated outside Africa; the presence of the latter two dates to 2,600 and 1,000 years ago, respectively. In addition, African languages include several unclassified languages and sign languages.

Read more about this topic:  African Languages

Famous quotes containing the words language and/or groups:

    Language is a skin: I rub my language against the other. It is as if I had words instead of fingers, or fingers at the tip of my words. My language trembles with desire.
    Roland Barthes (1915–1980)

    Only the groups which exclude us have magic.
    Mason Cooley (b. 1927)