ABSTRACT
The Chadic language family, which is a constituent part of the Afroasiatic phylum, contains some 170 languages spoken in the sub-Saharan region west, south and east of Lake Chad. The exact number of languages is not known since new languages continue to be discovered while other supposedly independent languages turn out to be mere dialects or terminological variants. The largest and best-known Chadic language is Hausa. Other Chadic languages are considerably smaller, ranging from a quarter of a million speakers to fewer than a thousand. Most of the languages at the lower end of the spectrum are now seriously endangered.
