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27Арабистика Евразии, № 12, Декабрь 2020
jjauj^ i ^Y iAj^iljjVI t"i1i nlj^Sl
Eurasian Arabic Studies, № 12, December 2020
УДК 811.41,42,43,45
Original paper Оригинальная статья
STRUCTURAL AND TYPOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF THE GENEALOGY
OF AFRICAN LANGUAGES
V.G. Subich
Kazan Federal University
s_vitaly1 @mail.ru
Submitted: September 2, 2020 Поступила в редакцию: 2 сентября 2020 г. Reviewed: September 30, 2020 Одобрена рецензентами: 30 сентября 2020 г. Accepted: October 4, 2020 Принята к публикации:4 октября 2020 г.
Abstract
The languages of continental Africa are allegedly divided into four huge phyla (Afro-Asiatic, Nilo-Saharan, Niger-Kordofanian, and Khoisan) in accordance with their genealogical features regardless of their grammatical peculiarities. The classification was created in 1963 by J. Greenberg and has no changed since its emergence. However, investigation of morphology and syntax in the languages of the phyla in question shows part incongruence between the genealogical and typological considerations as far as the African languages are concerned. The research aims at establishing structural and typological features of the African languages and comparing them with the genealogical data to clarify the linguistic situation in the African continent. As a result, unique grammatical regularities of Afro-Asiatic, Nilo-Saharan, Niger-Kordofanian, and Khoisan languages are formulated and analyzed in connection with their genealogical classification.
Keywords: typological classification, genealogical classification, Afro-Asiatic languages, Nilo-Saharan languages, Niger-Congo languages, Khoisan languages
For citation: Subich, V.G. (2020). Structural and typological analysis of the genealogy of African languages. Eurasian Arabic Studies, 12,103-117.
Арабистика Евразии, № 12, Декабрь 2020
jjauj^ i ^Y iAj^iljjVI t"i1i nlj^Sl
Eurasian Arabic Studies, № 12, December 2020
СТРУКТУРНО-ТИПОЛОГИЧЕСКИИ АНАЛИЗ ГЕНЕАЛОГИИ
ЯЗЫКОВ АФРИКИ
В.Г. Субич Казанский федеральный университет s_vitaly1@mail. ru
Аннотация
В лингвистике выделяют 4 основные группировки языков континентальной Африки: Афро-азиатскую, Нило-сахарскую, Нигеро-конголезскую и Койсанскую. Данная классификация была разработана лингвистом Дж. Гринбергом и основывается на генеалогических особенностях африканских языков и не учитывает их грамматические и типологические особенности. Изучение морфологии и синтаксиса указанных групп обнаруживает несоответствия между генеалогической и типологической классификациями африканских языков. Целью исследования является выявление таких несоответствий и прояснение лингвистической ситуации на африканском континенте. В результате исследования уникальные грамматические особенности Афро-азиатской, Нило-сахарской, Нигеро-конголезской и Койсанской языковых семей анализируются параллельно с генеалогическими особенностями указанных языков.
Ключевые слова: типологическая классификация, генеалогическая классификация, Афро-азиатские языки, Нило-сахарские языки, Нигеро-конголезские языки, Койсанские языки
Для цитирования: Субич В.Г. Структурно-типологический анализ генеалогии языков Африки // Арабистика Евразии. 2020. № 12. С. 103-117. (на английском языке)
INTRODUCTION
According to J. Greenberg's classification (1963), all African continental languages are to be divided into 4 phyla: Niger-Kordofanian, Afro-Asiatic, Nilo-Saharan, and Khoisan [Greenberg, 1963]. Despite its popularity, in recent years Greenberg's scheme has received much criticism from scholars on its conceptual and structural approach, e.g. Newman (1977), Bendor-Samuel (1989), Hayward (1997), Hetzron (1997), Bender (2000) [Bender, 2000], Williamson & Blench (2000) and, more recently, by Campbell and Poser (2008) as well as some additional comments and
statements [Dimmendaal, 2008], [Güldemann, 2018]. Some linguists argued that some of the phyla might be united in wider phyla, e.g. Edgar Gregersen (1972) proposed joining Niger-Congo (Niger-Kordofanian) and Nilo-Saharan into a larger family, which he termed Congo-Saharan [Heine, 2008]. Roger Blench suggests Niger-Congo is a subfamily of Nilo-Saharan [Blench, 2006, p. 108]. MATERIALS AND METHODS NIGER-CONGO (NIGER-KORDOFANIAN) LANGUAGES
Niger-Congo are spoken by more than 600 million people, making it the largest phylum in Africa. Niger-Congo verbs demonstrate a high degree of agglutination while the nouns are united in classes.
Niger-Congo predominates in sub-Saharan Africa extending from Senegal in the west to Kenya in the east, and south up to South Africa. Though, its classification is not settled, it is generally agreed that Niger-Congo encompasses nine families (or subfamilies): Atlantic, Mande, Kru, Gur (Voltaic), Kwa, Adamawa-Ubangi, Benue-Congo (which includes the Bantu languages), Ijoid and Kordofanian [Maho, 2009]. Mande
Exceptionally among Niger-Congo, Mande languages do not have a noun class system.
Mande verbs are not inflected for subject. Tense and aspect are marked with verb suffixes or in some languages with a 'predicative marker' placed between subject and object. The 'predicative marker' reflects the person and number of the subject. There are no serial verbs.
Sentence word order is Subject-Object-Verb. Nouns are preceded by possessive pronouns and followed by articles, demonstratives and adjectives. Postpositions are used.
Mande languages distinguish between inalienable and alienable possession; in the first one, possession is indicated by mere juxtaposition, in the second one by a genitive marker or possessive affixes. Atlantic
Prevalence of noun-class systems (similar to those of Bantu languages) marked by prefixes (e.g. Temne) or suffixes (e.g. Fula). In Wolof, nouns are not marked but the marker (a single consonant) is prefixed to nominal determiners. The number of noun-classes varies from 3 to 25. Some classes are reserved for singular nouns and others for plurals. Some classes include semantically related nouns, others are based on morphological categories, others are miscellaneous.
Another distinctive feature of Atlantic languages is the system of agreement or concordance between noun modifiers and the noun i.e., they all share the same class prefix. This concord can extend also to the verb.
Related to the noun-class system is the phenomenon of initial consonant mutation by which the initial consonants of nouns, adjectives and verb stems alternate between a basic stop grade in the singular and a fricative or nasal grade in the plural. The place of articulation stays the same but the manner of articulation of the consonant changes. For example: p ^ f; d ^ nd, w ^ ng, etc. Many Atlantic languages have complex verbal systems in which a number of derivational and inflectional suffixes are added to the verbal root. The former, called also verbal extensions, encode causative, reciprocal, benefactive, passive and other meanings.
In Atlantic languages word order is generally Subject-Verb-Object though an emphasized word may take the initial position in the sentence. They use prepositions and are head-initial: within the noun phrase, all modifiers follow the head noun.
Kru
Many grammatical features, like plurality and aspect, are marked by suffixes. In some Kru languages there are remnants of a noun-class system similar to that of Bantu languages except that in them suffixes are used instead of prefixes. The verbal system is based more on aspect than tense. Imperfective and perfective are marked by suffixes; progressive, perfect and conditional are often marked by an auxiliary verb.
The basic word order is Subject-Verb-Object (SVO), but when an auxiliary verb is present it changes to S-AUX-O-V.
Noun-modifiers (adjectives, articles, etc.) usually follow their heads and direction is indicated by body parts placed also after the noun. In contrast, possessives and genitives precede their nouns.
Gur
Gur languages have noun class systems which, in contrast to the prevailing tendency in Niger-Congo, are marked by suffixes. In some languages there is class agreement between elements of the noun phrase and the head-noun. The concord system is less developed than in Bantu languages. Nominal compounds are common. The noun stem may be followed by an adjective and a single class suffix. The main tense distinctions are between past/non-past and future/non-future. Aspect (imperfective/perfective) is usually conveyed by verbal extensions. Most Gur languages have Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) word order but in the Senufo group it is SOV.
The possessor precedes the possessed; adjectives, demonstratives and numerals follow the head-noun. Postpositions are used.
Kwa
Nominal morphology is variable. Some Kwa languages have several noun classes marked by specific singular and plural prefixes; noun modifiers and pronouns might show agreement with the noun by having the same noun class prefix. In contrast, Tano languages do not usually show agreement though they use singular and plural prefixes. In Ga-Dangme the singular is unmarked and the plural is marked with just one suffix. Gbe languages use a particle at the end of the phrase to mark the plural. In all Kwa languages, the basic word order is Subject-Verb-Object. They are head-initial, noun modifiers (adjectives, articles, etc) following the noun. The possessor precedes the possessed. Adamawa- Ubangi
Remnants of a noun class system are found in Adamawa. In contrast to the prevailing tendency in Niger-Congo, noun classes are marked by suffixes. Inflectional morphemes are usually prefixes while derivational ones are suffixes. The verbal system is based more on aspect (perfective and imperfective) than on tense.
Suffixes known as verbal extensions are used to convey additional meanings to the stem, like iterative, intensive, benefactive and causative.
Predominant word order in the sentence is Subject-Verb-Object. Genitives, adjectives, demonstratives and numerals follow the head-noun; prepositions are used. Interrogative markers are placed at the end of the sentence, and negative markers at the end of a clause.
Benue-Congo
Bantu is a quite homogeneous group showing comparatively little morphological variation among its languages; in contrast non-Bantu languages are much more diverse.
The most distinctive morphological feature of Benue-Congo languages is the grouping of nouns in different classes, marked by prefixes, suffixes or both. Typically, Bantu languages use prefix markers while non-Bantu languages may use also suffixes. All members of a given class share the same affix. Some classes are semantic, others are based on grammatical categories but many are heterogeneous. There is no gender distinction. Some non-Bantu languages (like Jukun and Kana) have lost the noun-class system.
Another distinctive feature of Benue-Congo languages is the system of agreement or concordance between noun modifiers and the noun i.e., they all share the same class
prefix. This concord extends also to the verb, and to the subject, object and relative markers.
Verbs often take suffixes, known as verbal extensions, which add causative, reciprocal or separative meaning to the root. Existence of serial verb constructions in which several verbs, unconnected by conjunctions and having the same tense and mood, stand next to each order. Serial verbs function as a single verb.
Subject-Verb-Object is the basic order. In most Benue-Congo languages, all noun modifiers follow the head noun. However, in some languages the adjective precedes the noun though the other modifiers follow it.
Ijoid
Exceptionally among Niger-Congo, Ijoid languages do not have a noun class system. Personal pronouns distinguish three genders: human masculine, human feminine and neuter non-human. Nouns and pronouns distinguish singular and plural. Tense and aspect are indicated by markers placed after the verb. Serial verbs are common, only the last verb is marked for tense and aspect. Suffixes, called verbal extensions, give a causative, directional or reciprocal meaning to the stem.
Word order is Subject-Object-Verb which is exceptional among Niger-Congo. Noun and verb modifiers precede their heads.
Kordofanian languages
Noun class systems, marked by prefixes, are found in at least three branches of Kordofanian (Heiban, Talodi, Rashad). They are similar to those found in Bantu and other Niger-Congo languages. Adjectives, determiners and even verbs are marked by the same prefix as the head-noun.
There seems to be a lot of variation in word order among Kordofanian languages. Some, like Heiban, are Subject-Verb-Object (SVO); others are SOV and one is VSO [https: //www.languagesgulper.com/eng/Niger.html].
So, according to the grammatical features of the Niger-Congo languages, Mande and Ijoid can not be considered purely Niger-Congo as they do not possess the noun class system and are SOV languages. Grammatically speaking, they can be excluded from the Niger-Congo phylum.
AFRO-ASIATIC LANGUAGES
Afro-Asiatic languages are spoken by more than 400 million people in Africa. With the exception of the extinct Sumerian, Afro-Asiatic has the longest documented history of any language phylum in the world: Egyptian was recorded as early as 3200
BCE while the documentation of Semitic languages goes back to 2500 BCE [Guldemann, 2018a].
Semitic
The older languages (Akkadian, Classical Arabic, Phoenician) have a rudimentary case system consisting of nominative, accusative and genitive; the last two only differentiated in the singular. In modern languages, cases have been largely replaced by prepositions or postpositions. Semitic distinguishes masculine and feminine genders in nouns and pronouns (except in the first person). The feminine is marked in most languages with the suffix t.
Singular, dual and plural numbers are distinguished in some languages. The dual is alive in Arabic, is marginal in Akkadian and Hebrew and has been lost in Ethiopian. The formation of plurals is usually complex, involving vowel changes in the stem ('broken plural') and/or a suffix marker accompanied, sometimes, by reduplication. Nouns can be in an absolute or in a construct state. The construct state denotes a genitival relationship (belonging to). The qualified or possessed noun (which may have some phonetic change at its end) comes first and the qualifying after (except in modern Ethiopian).
The verb occupies a central position in Semitic languages, and many nouns derive from them. Verbs have bi-, tri- or tetraconsonantal lexical roots to which vowels add grammatical information ('root and pattern system'). For this reason, these languages do not write their vowels, a feature that makes linguistic comparisons and reconstructions difficult. Further grammatical information is provided by prefixes and suffixes.
Proto-Semitic seems to have had a Verb-Subject-Object (VSO) syntactic order which is, more or less, preserved in the old languages (Classical Arabic, Biblical Hebrew and Ge'ez). Later, word order becomes SVO in Colloquial Arabic and Modern Hebrew, or SOV in the modern Ethiopian languages (probably under the influence of neighboring Cushitic).
When adjectives are used attributively, they agree with the noun they qualify in
gender, number, case and definiteness. They follow their noun except in modern
Ethiopian. Demonstratives also follow the noun (except in Arabic and in some
modern Ethiopian languages) but numerals most often precede it.
There are usually two genitive constructions, one using the construct state, the other
employing a genitive particle. Except in modern Ethiopian, the order is always
possessed-possessor.
Berber
Case: nouns are free (unmarked) or annexed (marked). The annexed state is taken by nouns when they follow a preposition or a numeral. It may also express a genitival relation, being applied to the possessor while the possessed remains in the free state. Some dialects have lost this opposition.
Gender: masculine (unmarked) and feminine (marked, usually with the suffix t). Number: singular, plural. The plural is formed by adding a suffix and/or by changing the vowel pattern of the word (broken plural).
The verb is composed by a tense marker prefix followed by a bi- or triconsonantal root, in which the quality of the vowel marks the aspect; finally a personal pronoun suffix is added to indicate, person, number and gender. There are special negative forms.
person and number: 1s, 2s, 3sm, 3sf; 1p, 2pm, 2pf, 3pm, 3pf. The Berber verb distinguishes, three persons (1st, 2nd, 3rd), two numbers (singular, plural), and two genders (masculine, feminine) which are specified by a personal affix. Aspect: aorist, perfective, imperfective. The aorist and perfective aspects are marked by a vowel change in the root; the imperfective by adding the prefix te between the tense marker and the root. The aorist aspect expresses a simple or neutral action, the perfective a completed action, the imperfective an ongoing or unfinished action. Tense: present,past, future. Berber tense is not completely separable from aspect. In fact, each is the result of the combination between a tense and an aspect marker. Berber has three tense markers which are ad (future), da (future non-finite) and la (present).
Verb-Subject-Object is the most common order in Berber but many sentences have no explicit subject. Verbs are the centre of the predicate. When there is no verb, nouns, adjectives and pronouns can function as predicates. In Berber languages the possessor follows the possessed, and modifiers and relative clauses follow the head noun. Prepositions are used. Egyptian
Ancient Egyptian words are based on lexical roots formed by one to four consonants (most are biconsonantal and triconsonantal). The consonantal root is combined with vowels or semivowels to form the stem which determines the functional category of the word. Finally, affixes are added to the stem to convey grammatical functions such as gender, number, tense, aspect and voice transforming it into an actual word. Adjectives agree in gender-number with the noun. There are no articles. Case: Ancient Egyptian, in contrast to most Afro-Asiatic languages has no case endings.
Gender: masculine, feminine. The masculine is unmarked, the feminine is marked by -t preceded by a vowel.
Number: singular, dual, plural. Plurality is usually marked by adding the suffix -w/-aw combined with a change in the vowel pattern of the stem. The latter process, called 'broken plural', is common in Afro-Asiatic languages. Many feminine words do not have plural, though some feminine plurals are marked with the suffix -wt. Tense: past, non-past. Apart from these narrative tenses, Ancient Egyptian had a stative tense to express the result of a verbal action. The simple past is marked by adding the suffix -n after the stem followed by a pronominal suffix or a nominal subject. The present is unmarked. Aspect: imperfective, perfective.
Word order is quite strict and of the Verb-Subject-Object type. There is no distinction between main and subordinate clauses. Adjectives follow their nouns. Like many Semitic languages, Ancient Egyptian has a construct state where a direct genitive relationship is expressed by the apposition of two nouns.
Cushitic
There are two primary cases, an unmarked absolutive and a marked nominative. This system is relatively rare among languages of the world. The nominative refers to the subject. The absolutive is the citation form, used for direct object and when the noun is the predicative in a nominal sentence. Many languages have also a genitive. Other functions are indicated by suffixes or postpositions.
A conjugated verb is composed of several elements disposed in a precise order. Most verbs consists of: stem-voice marker-person and number marker-TMA (tense-mood-aspect) marker. The voice marker may be present or not, the other elements are obligatory. For example, in Oromo 'we knew' is said 'beekne', where beek is the stem, n is the marker for the first person plural and e the marker of the past tense. Verbal derivation is manifested in a number of voice categories such as passive, autobenefactive or middle (action for oneself), reciprocal (mutual action) and causative (instigation of an action). The voice markers are generally suffixes that follow the stem of the verb and come before person and TMA markers. Combinations of two derivational suffixes (like causative + passive) may occur. Total or partial reduplication of the stem can be employed to express repetitive or habitual actions. Cushitic languages generally have Subject-Object-Verb word order. Phrases may be head-initial or head-final.
Focus marking systems are common and often involve cleft constructions. Focus may be on the noun or on the verb. Noun focus distinguishes if the noun is the subject of the sentence or not. The focus system interacts with the case system. For example, a
focalized subject is in the absolutive (instead of in the nominative) and there is no subject agreement on the verb.
Successive events may be expressed by combining one or more converbs with a final main verb. Converbs are reduced in person and/or tense marking and are sometimes marked for subordination.
Chadic
Many Chadic languages have masculine and feminine genders, but only in the singular. Pronouns are marked for gender except in the first person (an Afro-Asiatic feature). Some languages have lost the gender distinction altogether. Plural formation is complex, a characteristic of Afro-Asiatic. Some languages restrict plural marking to human and animal nouns. Chadic languages have no case system. They use, instead, prepositions (besides word order) to establish syntactical relations. Tense, mood and aspect (perfective, imperfective) can be indicated by tone and/or markers. Mood may be coded separately from tense and aspect. New meanings may be added to the verb by means of verbal extensions (a derivational process). They may express location or direction of an action, perfective aspect (completed action), transitivity or voice (benefactive, causative). In some languages, extensions are suffixes included in the verb while in others they are independent particles. Chadic languages have plural verbs (pluractional) to express repeated action or an action performed by several subjects or affecting several objects. Pluractional stems are formed by the insertion of the infix a in the stem, or by syllable reduplication or by doubling of consonants (gemination).
In Chadic, word order is, generally, Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) with the adjectival modifier following the head noun, and possessor following possessed. In some Biu-Mandara languages VSO is predominant but this seems to be an innovation. Negative particles occupy the final position in the clause.
Omotic
There is no grammatical gender, the main distinction is between animate and inanimate. In animate nouns, gender is determined by sex. Inanimate nouns are inflected like masculine nouns. Only definite nouns are marked for plural, the singular is unmarked. Omotic distinguishes subject and object by case suffixes as well as by tonal inflection. In some languages the subject case is marked (nominative) while the object remains unmarked (i. e., identical to the quotation form of the noun). In other languages, the object is marked (accusative) while the subject is unmarked. The Ometo group shows a predominance of marked-nominative languages, whereas other North Omotic languages and the South Omotic ones have, mostly, accusative systems.
Most verbs have biconsonantal roots. Suffixes are added to them to indicate tense/aspect, followed by others for person/number.
Omotic languages are head-final. Word order is Subject-Object-Verb in all of them. Nominal modifiers are followed by noun and main verb, which is always final. Postpositions are used.
So, Afro-Asiatic languages, unlike Niger-Congo, demonstrate a high degree of homogenuity. Semitic, Berber and Egyptian have bi- and tri- consonantal lexical roots to which vowels add grammatical information. Chadic, Cushitic and Omotic have roots of unequal length which include a vowel [Hayward, 2003]. The case system consists of two or three cases.
Afro-Asiatic languages distinguish masculine and feminine genders in nouns and pronouns (except in the 1st person). The feminine is marked in many languages with the suffix t.
Verb agreement with the subject, in person, gender and number, may be marked by prefixes and suffixes (in Semitic and Berber) or just by suffixes (Egyptian and many Cushitic languages) [https://www.languagesgulper.com/eng/Afroasiatic.html].
NILO-SAHARAN LANGUAGES
Nilo-Saharan languages are spoken by 46 million people. According to official datum, they are to be divided into Central Sudanic and Northeastern Sudanic. However, as G. Jan Dimmendaal claims, in the border area between Ethiopia and Sudan, there is another group of languages which was considered to be Nilo-Saharan as well [Greenberg, 1963].
Dimmendaal assumes that this group of languages (Koman group) is isolated. He mentions the set of function morphemes in the Koman languages which is different from other Nilo-Saharan languages [Guldemann, 2008].
Nominal case marking systems are widespread across Nilo-Saharan but are absent in areas contiguous to Niger-Congo languages. Cases are marked by suffixes or tonal differences.
Gender is not generally marked except in some Nilotic languages. Nilo-Saharan languages may have complex number-marking systems. Characteristically, many have singulative marking, i.e., the singular is marked while the plural is the basic unmarked form. Collective nouns may be marked in the singular to single out one item (blood ^ drop of blood, hair ^ one hair). Some languages have a three-way number-marking system: in certain nouns the plural is marked, in others the singular, and in others both the singular and the plural are marked.
Word order varies in different language groups. In some, the verb occupies the initial position (Verb-Subject-Object or VSO), others are verb final (Subject-Object-Verb or SOV). In some others, word order is quite free. In eastern Nilo-Saharan languages the VSO type is more common while SOV is more frequent in western languages. Syntactical relations are indicated by case-marking and the use of adpositions [https: //www.languagesgulper.com/eng/Nilo.html].
Recapitulating, we can say that the Nilo-Saharan languages are relatively homogenous (nominal case marking) except for the Koman group.
KHOISAN LANGUAGES
The Khoisan languages are spoken by a million people or less. The most universal feature of this phylum is the tonal system and the clicking sounds [Guldemann, Fehn, 2017].
Central Khoisan (Khoe-Kwadi). The largest group, includes Nama (Khoekhoe, Khoekhoegowab) and Haiom (Saan) spoken in Namibia, and smaller languages spoken in the Kalahari desert of Botswana.
North Khoisan is spoken by hunter-gatherers mainly in Namibia. The largest representation is by the zhu language.
South Khoisan includes a couple of endangered (like xoo and hua), and several extinct, languages of the Kalahari Desert. Also, two isolated languages may be signified: Sandawe and Hadza (Tanzania).
Central Khoisan has a rich morphology with three genders (masculine, feminine, common gender) and three numbers (single, dual, and plural) marked by suffixes. Noun dependents agree with it in gender and number. In contrast, North and South Khoisan have little inflectional morphology and no gender distinction. North Khoisan languages have an almost complete absence of affixes and form their plural by using suppletive forms.
South Khoisan forms plurals by addition of suffixes, reduplication, partial change of the stems or by suppletive forms. North and South Khoisan have a few noun-classes which are, in part, semantically based. For example, Xoo (belonging to South Khoisan) has five noun-classes: class 1 is mainly for mass nouns (water, milk, dust), class 2 is for parts of a whole (head, face) and diminutives, class 3 for living beings and class 4 for human plurals.
Ju'hoan (belonging to North Khoisan) has four noun-classes: class 1 is for plants and singular animate nouns, class 2 is for some plural animate nouns (own social group), class 3 is for body parts and deverbal nouns and class 4 is for long objects and all other plural animates.
Tenses in North and South Khoisan are formed by adding particles before the verb, or a word or an expression indicating time. In Central Khoisan, tenses are marked by particles (Nama) or by suffixes (Khoe, Ani).
Derivative stems with causative, reflexive, reciprocal and benefactive meanings are characteristic of Central Khoisan, which has also passive constructions. In contrast, North and South Khoisan lack passives. Serial verbs are common in all Khoisan languages but are more frequent in North and South Khoisan. Central Khoisan is mostly Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) while Northern and Southern are SVO with a predominantly head-modifier order. In Central Khoisan SVO is also quite common. Central Khoisan is postpositional, Northern and Central -prepositional [https://www.languagesgulper.com/eng/Khoisan.html]. So, Central Khoisan languages are grammatically different from Northern and Southern; thus we can say that as far as the Khoisan languages are concerned, only two branches might be denoted: Central - Non-Central. RESULTS
Comparing the genealogical and typological classifications of the African languages, the following results are seen:
1. Niger-Kordofanian languages are structurally homogenous, however, the Mande and Ijoid languages are typologically different from other Niger-Kordofanian languages and may be excluded from the phylum.
2. Afro-Asiatic demonstrate almost homogenous structure so, in grammatical terms the languages may be united in one family.
3. Nilo-Saharan languages are almost grammatically identical except for the Koman group, which may be excluded from the phylum on typological grounds.
4. In Khoisan languages, three branches are pointed out as far as the genealogical classification is concerned. However, in typological terms, only two groups may be marked - Central Khoisan and Northern-Southern Khoisan languages. CONCLUSION
The research clearly shows that the genealogical classification of the African languages designed by J. Greenberg is based on 4 phyla: Niger-Kordofanian, Afro-Asiatic, Nilo-Saharan, and Khoisan. Typologically speaking, these phyla consist of languages with different structure not only in the families in question but also within the families themselves. So, the genealogical and typological classifications of the African languages have some incongruities in correspondence.
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Информация об авторе
Канд. филол. наук, доцент Виталий Глебович Субич Казанский (Приволжский)
федеральный университет 420008, Казань, ул. Кремлёвская, 18 Россия
s_vitaly1@mail. ru
WOS Research ID: D-7635-2015
Scopus Author ID: 56177154200
Information about the author
Associate Professor, Candidate of Philology
Vitaly Glebovich Subich
Kazan (Volga Region) Federal University
420008, Kazan, Kremlyovskaya str., 18
Russia
svitalyl @mail.ru
WOS Research ID: D-7635-2015
Scopus Author ID: 56177154200
Раскрытие информации о конфликте интересов: Автор заявляет об отсутствии конфликта интересов.
Conflicts of Interest Disclosure: The author declares Conflicts of Interest Disclosure.
