The Chadic languages form a branch of the Afroasiatic language family.
They are spoken in parts of the Sahel.
They include 150 languages spoken across northern Nigeria, southern Niger, southern Chad, the Central African Republic, and northern Cameroon.
The most widely spoken Chadic language is Hausa, a lingua franca of much of inland Eastern West Africa.
Composition
Newman (1977) classified the languages into the four groups which have been accepted in all subsequent literature.
Further subbranching, however, has not been as robust; Blench (2006), for example, only accepts the A/B bifurcation of East Chadic.Blench, 2006.
The Afro-Asiatic Languages: Classification and Reference List (ms) Kujargé has been added from Blench (2008), who suggests Kujargé may have split off before the breakup of Proto-Chadic and then subsequently became influenced by East Chadic.Blench, Roger.
2008.
Links between Cushitic, Omotic, Chadic and the position of Kujarge.
5th International Conference of Cushitic and Omotic languages.
Subsequent work by Lovestrand argues strongly that Kujarge is a valid member of East Chadic.
The placing of Luri as a primary split of West Chadic is erroneous.
Caron (2004) shows that this language is South Bauchi and part of the Polci cluster.
West Chadic.
Two branches, which include
(A) the Hausa, Ron, Bole, and Angas languages; and
(B) the Bade, Warji, and Zaar languages.
Biu–Mandara (Central Chadic).
Three branches, which include
(A) the Bura, Kamwe, and Bata languages, among other groups;
(B) the Buduma and Musgu languages; and
(C) Gidar
East Chadic.
Two branches, which include
(A) the Tumak, Nancere, and Kera languages; and
(B) the Dangaléat, Mukulu, and Sokoro languages
Masa
?
Kujargé
thumb|left|700px|A chart of the Chadic branch of the Afroasiatic languages.
Origin
thumb|right|200px|Main Chadic-speaking peoples in Nigeria.
thumb|right|200px|Hausa-speaking areas in Nigeria and Niger.
Modern genetic studies of Northwestern Cameroonian Chadic-speaking populations have observed high frequencies of the Y-Chromosome Haplogroup R1b in these populations (the R1b-V88 variant).
This paternal marker is common in parts of West Eurasia, but otherwise rare in Africa.
Cruciani et al. (2010) thus proposed that the Proto-Chadic speakers during the mid-Holocene (~7,000 years ago) migrated from the Levant to the Central Sahara, and from there settled in the Lake Chad Basin.
However, a more recent study in 2018 found that haplogroup R1b-V88 entered Chad much more recently during "Baggarization" (the migration of Baggara Arabs to the Sahel in the 17th century AD), finding no evidence of ancient Eurasian gene flow.
Loanwords
Chadic languages contain many Nilo-Saharan loanwords from either the Songhay or Maban branches, pointing to early contact between Chadic and Nilo-Saharan speakers as Chadic was migrating west.Ehret, Christopher.
2006.
The Nilo-Saharan background of Chadic .
In P. Newman and L. M. Hyman (eds), West African linguistics: studies in honor of Russell G. Schuh, pp.
56-66.
Studies in African Linguistics Suppl.
11. Columbus: Ohio University Press.
Although Adamawa languages are spoken adjacently to Chadic languages, interaction between Chadic and Adamawa is limited.Blench, Roger.
2012.
Linguistic evidence for the chronological stratification of populations South of Lake Chad.
Presentation for Mega-Tchad Colloquium in Naples, September 13–15, 2012.
Pronouns
Pronouns in Proto-Chadic, as compared to pronouns in Proto-Afroasiatic (Vossen & Dimmendaal 2020:351):Vossen, Rainer and Gerrit J. Dimmendaal (eds.).
2020.
The Oxford Handbook of African Languages.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Comparative vocabulary
Sample basic vocabulary in different Chadic branches listed in order from west to east, with reconstructions of other Afroasiatic branches also given for comparison:
Bibliography
Caron, Bernard 2004.
Le Luri: quelques notes sur une langue tchadique du Nigeria.
In: Pascal Boyeldieu & Pierre Nougayrol (eds.), Langues et Cultures: Terrains d’Afrique.
Hommages à France Cloarec-Heiss (Afrique et Langage 7).
193-201.
Louvain-Paris: Peeters.
Lukas, Johannes (1936) 'The linguistic situation in the Lake Chad area in Central Africa.'
Africa, 9, 332–349.
Lukas, Johannes.
Zentralsudanische Studien, Hamburg 1937;
Newman, Paul and Ma, Roxana (1966) 'Comparative Chadic: phonology and lexicon.'
Journal of African Languages, 5, 218–251.
Newman, Paul (1977) 'Chadic classification and reconstructions.'
Afroasiatic Linguistics 5, 1, 1–42.
Newman, Paul (1978) 'Chado-Hamitic 'adieu': new thoughts on Chadic language classification', in Fronzaroli, Pelio (ed.), Atti del Secondo Congresso Internazionale di Linguistica Camito-Semitica.
Florence: Instituto de Linguistica e di Lingue Orientali, Università di Firenze, 389–397.
Newman, Paul (1980) The Classification of Chadic within Afroasiatic.
Leiden: Universitaire Pers Leiden.
Herrmann Jungraithmayr, Kiyoshi Shimizu: Chadic lexical roots.
Reimer, Berlin 1981.
Herrmann Jungraithmayr, Dymitr Ibriszimow: Chadic lexical roots.
2 volumes.
Reimer, Berlin 1994
Schuh, Russell (2003) 'Chadic overview', in M. Lionel Bender, Gabor Takacs, and David L. Appleyard (eds.), Selected Comparative-Historical Afrasian Linguistic Studies in Memory of Igor M. Diakonoff, LINCOM Europa, 55–60.
;Data sets
Robert Forkel, & Tiago Tresoldi.
(2019).
lexibank/kraftchadic: Chadic Wordlists (Version v3.0) [Data set].
Zenodo.
See also
Proto-Chadic reconstructions (Wiktionary)
References
External links
Chadic Newsletter Online
