2009/02/25 by Bonny Sands · 5 citations
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Language, Linguistics, Cultural Analysis #Language and cultural evolution #Historical Linguistics and Language Studies
paper · doi:10.1111/j.1749-818x.2008.00124.x
openalex publication_date 2009/02/25 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
Abstract African language classification in the latter half of the 20th century has been dominated by Joseph Greenberg's work classifying African languages into four linguistic genetic groupings: Afroasiatic, Niger‐Kordofanian, Nilo‐Saharan, and Khoisan. Current research indicates that there are a minimum of 20 unrelated African language families or isolates. Africa's linguistic diversity will remain poorly documented unless significant efforts are made to document some of the continent's most endangered, underdescribed languages and language families.