Central Sudanic languages

The languages ​​spoken in Africa zentralsudanischen languages ​​are an important branch of the Nilo-Saharan language family. They are named after the great landscape Sudan.

They are spoken in a large area between Lake Chad and the Logone River in the west and Lake Albert and the Albert Nile in the east and extend over the States Cameroon, Chad, Central African Republic, Sudan, South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda.

Ethnologue counts 65 zentralsudanische languages ​​and divided them as follows:

  • West: Bongo Bagirmi group (41 languages, among others Bagirmi / Barma, Sara / Sar and Ngambay )
  • Kresh group ( 2 languages)
  • Lendu group (3 languages, inter alia Bale / " Lendu " )
  • Mangbetu group (3 languages, inter alia Mangbetu )
  • Mangbutu - Efe group ( 6 languages ​​)
  • Moru Ma'di Group (10 languages, among others Lugbara )

The largest language is the Lugbara [ lgg ] with approximately 1 million speakers in DR Congo and Uganda, which is also referred to as "high Lugbara "; as "low Lugbara " is the Aringa [ luc ] with approximately 590,000 speakers in Uganda known.

Zentralsudanische languages ​​with more than 500,000 speakers are also:

  • Bale ( " Lendu " ) [ led ] of about 760,000 in the DRC ( and in Uganda)
  • Ngambay [ sba ]: about 750,000 in Chad ( and in Cameroon)
  • Mangbetu [ mdj ] of about 620,000 in the DR Congo

The Speaker of the Bagirmi were the supporting people of Bagirmi Empire.

The zentralsudanischen languages ​​generally have the basic word order subject-verb - object ( SVO).

Lake Albert (Africa) Bagirmi language Kingdom of Baguirmi Linguistic typology
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