A statistical approach to African personal pronouns
Guillaume Segerer & Martine Vanhove - CNRS LLACAN, France

3. African data

Languages (> Map)
  • 738 languages surveyed (out of ca. 2300 African languages, i.e. 30%) , including
       - 502 from MPLA
       - 236 from other sources, soon to be included in MPLA
  • All 4 African stocks : Afro-Asiatic, Khoisan, Niger-Congo & Nilo-Saharan ; 8 Unclassified languages
  • All branches covered, though not a balanced sample:

    Afro-Asiatic (139) Niger-Congo (493) Nilo-Saharan (96) Unclassified (8)
    unclassified (Ongota)
    Berber (2)
    Chadic (99)
    Cushitic (19)
    Egyptian (1)
    Omotic (13)
    Semitic (4)     		unclassified (Pre, Bangi-Me)
    Adamawa (14)
    Atlantic (42)
    Benue-Congo (222)
    Dogon (4)
    Gur (78)
    Ijoid (3)
    Kordofanian (11)
    Kru (4)
    Kwa (36)
    Mande (18)
    Ubangi (59)     		unclassified (Shabo)
    Berta (1)
    Fur (1)
    Komuz (5)
    Kunama (1)
    Maban (2)
    Saharan (6)
    Songhai (2)
    Central Sudanic (46)
    Eastern Sudanic (31)     		Kamdang
    Katcha
    Keiga
    Krongo
    Laal
    Lufu
    Hadza
    Sandawe
    Khoisan (2)
    South Africa (2)

    Known biases :
    Over-represented branches : Gur (NC), Ubangi (NC), Central Sudanic (NS) due to the amount of available data.
    Under-represented languages : Khoisan, Kru (NC)
    Unrepresented languages : Creoles, mixed languages
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