NIGER-KORDOFANIAN LANGUAGE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does Niger-Kordofanian language mean? 

• NIGER-KORDOFANIAN LANGUAGE (noun)
  The noun NIGER-KORDOFANIAN LANGUAGE has 1 sense:

1. the family of languages that includes most of the languages spoken in Africa south of the Sahara; the majority of them are tonal languages but there are important exceptions (e.g., Swahili or Fula)

  Familiarity information: NIGER-KORDOFANIAN LANGUAGE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• NIGER-KORDOFANIAN LANGUAGE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The family of languages that includes most of the languages spoken in Africa south of the Sahara; the majority of them are tonal languages but there are important exceptions (e.g., Swahili or Fula)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

Niger-Kordofanian; Niger-Kordofanian language

Hypernyms ("Niger-Kordofanian language" is a kind of...):

natural language; tongue (a human written or spoken language used by a community; opposed to e.g. a computer language)

Domain category:

Swahili (the most widely spoken Bantu languages; the official language of Kenya and Tanzania and widely used as a lingua franca in east and central Africa)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "Niger-Kordofanian language"):

Kordofanian (a group of languages spoken in the relatively small Kordofan area of the south Sudan)

Niger-Congo (a family of African language spoken in west Africa)