ABSTRACT
The proposal for the group ‘Niger-Kordofanian’ dates from Greenberg’s (1963) classification of the languages of Africa into four families: Niger-Kordofanian, Nilo-Saharan, Afroasiatic and Khoisan. Greenberg’s creation of Niger-Kordofanian differed from earlier work on the classification of the relevant languages with respect to both larger and smaller groupings, as well as in its assignment of certain languages to particular subgroups. For example, at the level of large groupings, he included ‘Kordofanian’ and ‘Niger-Congo’ within a single family; at the level of smaller groupings, he argued that Bantu was actually a sub-sub-subgroup of Niger-Congo-not an independent family of its own; with respect to particular languages, he argued (for example) that Fula properly belongs to the West Atlantic subgroup of Niger-Congo. The basic subdivisions for Niger-Kordofanian proposed by Greenberg are as follows: NIGERCONGO: (1) West Atlantic, (2) Mande, (3) Gur (Voltaic), (4) Kwa, (5) Benue-Congo, (6) AdamawaEastern; KORDOFANIAN: (1) Koalib, (2) Tegali, (3) Talodi, (4) Tumtum, (5) Katla.
