Saharan languages

The Saharan languages are a group of languages spoken by people living in parts of the eastern Sahara desert. These languages are found in several countries, stretching from northwestern Sudan to southern Libya, through north and central Chad, eastern Niger, and northeastern Nigeria. Some well-known Saharan languages include Kanuri, which has around 9.5 million speakers living around Lake Chad in Chad, Nigeria, Niger, and Cameroon. Other languages in this family are Daza with about 700,000 speakers in Chad, Teda with roughly 60,000 speakers in northern Chad, and Zaghawa with around 350,000 speakers in eastern Chad and Sudan.

Experts sometimes suggest that these languages belong to a larger group called the Nilo-Saharan family, although this idea is debated among linguists. Researchers have worked hard to compare words from different Saharan languages to better understand their connections. One such study was done by Václav Blažek in 2007, who created a list of words from these languages to show how they are related.

Internal classification

• Saharan
  • Eastern
    • Berti † (also called Sagato; no longer spoken)
    • Zaghawa (also called Beria)
  • Western
    • Kanuri
      • Kanuri (Bilma, Manga, Tumari, Central)
      • Kanembu (Tarjumo)
    • Tebu
      • Daza
      • Teda

External classification

Roger Blench believes that the Saharan languages and the Songhay languages are closely related. Together, they form a group called Songhay-Saharan, which is part of a larger language family known as Nilo-Saharan.

Reconstruction

Here are some early reconstructed words from the Saharan languages, based on research by Cyffer in 2020.

Comparative vocabulary

Here is a look at some basic words from the Saharan languages, gathered by Blažek in 2007.

Numerals

We can also see how numbers are said in different Saharan languages.