Languages of Africa - 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:  Languages Of Africa

Famous quotes containing the words language and/or groups:

    Surrealism is not a school of poetry but a movement of liberation.... A way of rediscovering the language of innocence, a renewal of the primordial pact, poetry is the basic text, the foundation of the human order. Surrealism is revolutionary because it is a return to the beginning of all beginnings.
    Octavio Paz (b. 1914)

    Writers and politicians are natural rivals. Both groups try to make the world in their own images; they fight for the same territory.
    Salman Rushdie (b. 1947)