The Atlantic languages are spoken along the Atlantic coast from Senegal to Liberia, though transhumantFula speakers have spread eastward and are found in large numbers across the Sahel, from Senegal to Nigeria, Cameroon and Sudan. Wolof of Senegal and several of the Fula languages are the most populous Atlantic languages, with several million speakers each. Other significant members include Serer and the Jola dialect cluster of Senegal. Temne, a major language of Sierra Leone, was included in the Atlantic subgroup in earlier classifications but in modern proposals, it is no longer grouped within Atlantic.
Most Atlantic languages exhibit consonant mutation and have noun-class systems similar to those of the distantly related Bantu languages. Some languages are tonal, while others such as Wolof have pitch-accent systems. The basic word order tends to be SVO.
Classification and scope
Traditional classification
The Atlantic family was first identified by Sigismund Koelle in 1854. In the early 20th century, Carl Meinhof claimed that Fula was a Hamitic language, but August von Klingenhaben and Joseph Greenberg's work established Fula's close relationship with Wolof and Serer. W. A. A. Wilson notes that the validity of the family as a whole rests on much weaker evidence, though it is clear that the languages are part of the Niger–Congo family, based on evidence such as a shared noun-class system. However, comparative work on Niger–Congo is in its infancy. Classifications of Niger–Congo, usually based on lexicostatistics, generally propose that the various Atlantic languages are rather divergent, but less so than Mande and other languages that lack noun classes.
David Sapir (1971) proposed a classification of Atlantic into three branches, a northern group, a southern group, and the divergent Bijago language of the Bissagos Islands off the coast of Guinea-Bissau:[2]
Sapir's classification is widely cited in handbooks on African linguistics (e.g. Bender 1989, Williamson & Blench 2000), and is also used in the Ethnologue (22nd ed., 2019).
Recent proposals
The unity of the Atlantic languages—as traditionally defined—has long been questioned, e.g. Dalby (1965), who argued for the Mel languages as a primary branch of Niger–Congo. At the current state of research, the wide concept of Atlantic (i.e. including the Southern languages) within the Niger–Congo family is no longer held up.[3]
Segerer (2010, 2016[4]) and Pozdniakov & Segerer (2017) propose a narrowed-down version of the Atlantic languages by excluding all languages of the southern branch, which they treat as four primary branches (viz. Sua, Limba, Gola, and the Mel languages) within the Niger–Congo family. The Bak languages are split from the northern languages as a coordinate subbranch within Atlantic (in the narrow sense). Bijago is assigned to the Bak languages.
Güldemann (2018) goes even further, and also treats Nalu and Mbulungish–Baga Mboteni ("Rio Nunez") as unclassified first-order branches of Niger–Congo.[5]
Vossen & Dimmendaal (2020)
Revised classification of the Atlantic languages (Vossen & Dimmendaal 2020:166,[6] from Pozdniakov & Segerer[7]):
Merrill (2021) proposes that Atlantic (or North Atlantic) is not a valid subgroup of Niger-Congo, but rather considers each of the established Atlantic "branches" to all be primary branches of Niger-Congo. Furthermore, Merrill suggests that due to the divergence of the Atlantic languages, the homeland of Niger-Congo may lie in the northwest of sub-Saharan Africa.[1]
North Atlantic geographical area
Fula-Sereer (branch)
Fula
Sereer
Cangin
Wolof
Bainunk-Kobiana-Kasanga (branch)
Kobiana
Gujaher
Gubëeher
Guñaamolo
Biafada-Pajade (branch)
Pajade
Biafada
Tenda (branch)
Konyagi
Bassari
Bedik
Bak (branch)
Joola
Manjak
Balanta
Bijogo (branch)
Merrill (2021) also notes that Tenda and Biafada-Pajade share similarities with each other, and may possibly form a linkage.
^"West Atlantic" is the traditional term, following Diedrich Hermann Westermann; "Atlantic" is more typical in recent work, particularly since Bendor-Samuel (1989), but is also used specifically for the northern branch of West Atlantic.
^Pozdniakov, K.; Segerer, G. "A genealogical classification of Atlantic languages". In Lüpke, F. (ed.). The Oxford Guide to the Atlantic Languages of West Africa. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Dalby, David (1965). "The Mel languages: a reclassification of southern 'West Atlantic'". African Language Studies (6): 1–17.
Güldemann, Tom (2018). "Historical linguistics and genealogical language classification in Africa". In Güldemann, Tom (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of Africa. The World of Linguistics. Vol. 11. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 58–444. doi:10.1515/9783110421668-002. ISBN978-3-11-042606-9. S2CID133888593.
Holst, Jan Henrik (2008). Reconstructing the mutation system of Atlantic. Neuried. ISBN978-3-89391-172-1.
Pozdniakov, Konstantin (2008). Ibriszimow, Dymitr (ed.). "Niveaux linguistiques et problèmes de reconstruction dans les langues atlantiques". Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika (in French). 19. ISBN978-3-89645-094-4. ISSN0170-5946.
Pozdniakov, Konstantin; Segerer, Guillame (2004). "Reconstruction des pronoms atlantiques et typologie des systèmes pronominaux". Systèmes de marques personnelles en Afrique. Afrique et Langage. Vol. 8. pp. 151–162.
Pozdniakov, Konstantin; Segerer, Guillaume (2017). "A Genealogical classification of Atlantic languages (draft)". In Lüpke, Friederike (ed.). The Oxford guide to the Atlantic languages of West Africa. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Segerer, Guillaume; Lionnet, Florian (2010-12-04). Isolates' in 'Atlantic'. Language Isolates in Africa workshop, Lyon. Archived from the original on 2012-03-31.
Sapir, J. David (1971). "West Atlantic: An inventory of the languages, their noun class systems and consonant alternations". In Berry, Jack; Sebeok, Thomas Albert (eds.). Linguistics in Sub-Saharan Africa. Current Trends in Linguistics. Vol. 7. pp. 45–112. doi:10.1515/9783111562520. ISBN9783111191485.
Williamson, Kay; Blench, Roger. "Niger-Congo". In Heine, Bernd; Nurse, Derek (eds.). African Languages: An Introduction. pp. 11–42. ISBN9780521661782. OCLC42810789.
Wilson, W. A. A. (1989). "Atlantic". In Bendor-Samuel, John; Hartell, Rhonda L. (eds.). The Niger-Congo Languages: A Classification and Description of Africa's Largest Language Family. University Press of America. ISBN9780819173751.
