Mel languages

Mel
Southern (West) Atlantic [reduced]
Geographic
distribution:
Guinea-Bissau through Liberia
Linguistic classification:

Niger–Congo

Subdivisions:
  • Temne
  • Sua–Kissi
Glottolog: mela1257  (Mel + Gola)[1]

The Mel languages are a branch of Niger–Congo languages spoken in Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. The most populous is Temne, with about two million speakers; Kissi is next, with half a million.

Languages

Mel has traditionally been classified as the bulk of a southern branch of a West Atlantic branch of Niger–Congo. However, these are geographic and typological rather than genealogical groups; Segerer (2010) shows that there is no exclusive relationship between Mel and the other southern languages, Gola and Limba.

 Mel 
Temne

Temne



Baga languages





Sua (Mansoanka)


 Bullom–Kissi 

Bullom languages



Kissi





Glottolog retains Golla but removes Sua, classifying the latter with Mboteni and Mbulungish.

Footnotes

  1. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Mel + Gola". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.

References


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