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The Adamawa–Ubangi languages are a geographic grouping and formerly postulated family of languages spoken in Nigeria, Chad, the Central African Republic, Cameroon, Gabon, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan, by a total of about 12 million people.

Adamawa–Ubangi
(obsolete)
Geographic distribution	West and Central Africa
Linguistic classification	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Adamawa–Ubangi
Subdivisions	Adamawa Ubangian
Glottolog	adam1258

History of classification

The family was proposed by Joseph Greenberg in The Languages of Africa under the name Adamawa–Eastern as a primary branch of the Niger–Congo family, which is in turn divided in two branches, Adamawa (e.g. Niellim) and Ubangian (e.g. Azande (Zande language), Ngbandi, on which the creole Sango is based).[1] Kleinewillinghöfer (2014) believes that the Adamawa languages are most closely related to the Gur languages, although the unity of both the Gur and the Adamawa branch is frequently questioned.[2] Roger Blench replaced Adamawa–Ubangi with a Savannas family, which includes Gur, Ubangian and the various branches of Adamawa as primary nodes. Dimmendaal (2008) doubts that Ubangian is a subfamily of Niger–Congo at all, preferring to classify it as an independent family until proven otherwise.[3]

Demographics

The Adamawa languages are among the least studied in Africa, and include many endangered languages; by far the largest of the nearly one hundred small Adamawa languages is Mumuye, at 400,000 speakers. A couple of unclassified languages—notably Laal and Jalaa—are found along their fringes. Ubangian languages, while nearly as numerous, are somewhat better studied; one in particular, Sango, a Ngbandi-based creole, has become a major trade language of Central Africa.

Linguistic features

Adamawa–Ubangi languages a branch of the Bantu family often have partial vowel harmony, involving restrictions on the co-occurrence of vowels in a word.

As in most branches of the Niger–Congo family, noun class systems are widespread. Adamawa–Ubangi languages are notable for having noun class suffixes rather than prefixes. The noun class system is no longer fully productive in all languages.

Adamawa subject pronouns (Boyd 1989[4]) were originally approximately:

• "I": *mi or *ma
• "you (sg.)": *mo
• "you (pl.): *u, *ui, *i (+n?)

The third person pronouns vary widely.

In possessive constructions, the possessed typically precedes the possessor, and sentence order is usually subject–verb–object.

Classification

In Williamson and Blench (2000), since abandoned, the internal classification was:[5]

Proto‑Adamawa‑Ubangi	Adamawa     Leko     Duru     Mumuye/Yendang     Nimbari         Mbum     Bua     Kim     Day         Waja     Longuda     Jen     Bikwin     Yungur       Ba (=Kwa)     Kam   ? Fali     Ubangi   Gbaya       Banda     Ngbandi       Sere       Ngabaka     Mba           Zande

References

External links

• Blench, Roger (2004). List of Adamawa languages.

На других языках

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- [en] Adamawa–Ubangi languages

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[fr] Langues adamaoua-oubanguiennes

Les langues adamaoua-oubanguiennes (ou langues adamawa-oubanguiennes) sont une famille de langues qui constituent une des branches des langues nigéro-congolaises.

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[ru] Адамава-убангийские языки

Адама́ва-убанги́йские языки (устар. адамауа-восточные языки) — семья в составе нигеро-конголезских языков. Распространены на востоке Нигерии, севере Камеруна, юге Чада, в Центральноафриканской республике, Демократической Республике Конго, Южном Судане. Общее число говорящих на адамава-убангийских языках — около 7 млн человек: подсемья адамава — около 2 млн человек. (в том числе мумуйе — 400 тыс., тупури — 215 тыс., мунданг — 205 тыс.), убангийская подсемья — около 5 млн человек (в том числе занде — 1 млн. 150 тыс., нгбака — 1 млн, банда — 670 тыс., гбайя — 650 тыс.) (оценка, 2000). К данной семье также принадлежит креольский язык санго.

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