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Glite Dictionary
Nilo-Saharan language

Nilo-Saharan language

9.9
A language from a family spoken in East and Central Africa by people like the Maasai
  • noun
  • Specialized
translation icon : lengua nilo-sahariana
  • Linguistic studies of Nilo-Saharan language groups help trace ancient migration patterns in Africa.

Examples

  • The Maasai speak a Nilo-Saharan language that has deep historical roots in East Africa.

  • Scholars debate the classification of some Nilo-Saharan languages due to their complex linguistic features.

  • The Nilo-Saharan language family includes several dialects.

  • Many people in South Sudan speak a Nilo-Saharan language.

  • The Nilo-Saharan language family includes several dialects spoken by the Nilotic peoples in South Sudan.

  • Luo is one of the prominent Nilo-Saharan languages belonging to the group in East Africa.

  • Many researchers study the Nilo-Saharan languages to understand the linguistic diversity of the region between the Sahara and Kenya.

Synonyms

Saharan language
vsNilo-Saharan language
  • Specialized
9.9

A language spoken in Chad and nearby parts of central Africa

is a broad family of languages that spans the Sahara to Kenya and Tanzania
Saharan
vsNilo-Saharan language
  • Specialized
9.9

A language from the Nilo-Saharan family spoken in parts of Chad

is the broader family covering languages across East and Central Africa

Surface Forms

Nilo-Saharan language singular
Nilo-Saharan languages plural

Morphology

Nilo-Saharan + language

The compound 'Nilo-Saharan' gives a geographic cue (Nile + Sahara) so a learner who knows 'language' and the place names may guess it refers to languages from that African region. However, the term is a technical classificatory label for a specific language family and its precise meaning (a family spoken by Nilotic peoples across East/Central Africa) is not fully predictable from the parts, making it only partially transparent to a B1 learner.

Etymology

Nilo-Saharan language comes from the two parts Nilo meaning 'Nile river' and Saharan meaning 'Sahara desert'. So the name points to a family of languages spoken across the land from the 'Sahara' to the 'Nile', which is why it describes where these languages are found.