尼罗-撒哈拉诸语言

尼罗-撒哈拉诸语言(Nilo-Saharan languages)

一个假设性的超大语族，也许西从马利（Mali）到伊索比亚、从埃及东南方到坦桑尼亚、有超过2,700万的人口所使用的115种非洲语言。尼罗-撒哈拉作为单一的族系、合并许多早期群组的概念是在1963年由格林伯格所引进；大多数的非洲文化研究者都接受它是一个可供操作的假说。格林伯格的图式（scheme）大多为後来的学者所支持，将尼罗-撒哈拉分为两大语族：中央苏丹（Central Sudanic）语族，以及东苏丹语族（Eastern Sudanic），以及许小语族和单一语言。後者之中，在马利和尼日的尼日河（Niger River）河湾，有超过200万人使用宋海语（Songhai），而在奈及利亚东北部，以及邻近的查德与尼日，约有450万人使用卡奴里语（Kanuri）。中央苏丹语族则包含南查德语、南苏丹语、东北刚果（Congo，旧称萨伊〔Zaire〕）语。东苏丹中，包含苏丹北部和埃及南部，沿尼罗河岸所使用的奴比亚（Nubian）语族（包括尼罗-撒哈拉语中唯一个拥有古代书写传统的语言），以及约1,400万人所使用的尼罗（Nilotic）语（参阅Nilot），包括丁卡人、努埃尔人、卢奥人和屠卡纳人（Turkana）、卡伦金人（Kalenjin）和马赛人。

English version：

Nilo-Saharan languages

Hypothesized superfamily of perhaps 115 African languages spoken by more than 27 million people from Mali west to Ethiopia and from southernmost Egypt south to Tanzania. The concept of Nilo-Saharan as a single stock combining a number of earlier groupings was introduced in 1963 by Joseph H. Greenberg; most Africanists accept it as a working hypothesis. Greenberg's scheme, largely upheld by later scholars, divided Nilo-Saharan into two large families, Central Sudanic and Eastern Sudanic, and a number of small families and single languages. Among the latter are Songhai, spoken by over 2 million people around the bend of the Niger River in Mali and Niger, and Kanuri, spoken by about 4.5 million in northeastern Nigeria and adjacent Chad and Niger. Central Sudanic comprises languages of southern Chad, southern Sudan, and northeastern Congo (Zaire). Eastern Sudanic includes the Nubian family (including the only Nilo-Saharan language with an ancient written tradition), spoken along the Nile in northern Sudan and southern Egypt, and the Nilotic languages, spoken by about 14 million people (see Nilotes), including the Dinka, Nuer, Luo, Turkana, Kalenjin, and Masai.