Standard Lemma guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
No pronunciation record was provided for this word.
adj
Belonging to the Niger-Congo language family, or pertaining to its associated peoples.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: not-comparable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
name
A major language family of sub-Saharan Africa noted for the use of a noun class system.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: human-sciences, linguistics, sciences
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: Niger-Kordofanian
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A speaker of any Niger-Congo language, or a member of a Niger-Congo culture by ancestry or other affinity.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
An African descendant of the transatlantic middle passage in the Americas.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: broadly
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
a family of African language spoken in west Africa
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: Niger-Kordofanian, Niger-Kordofanian language
Narrower terms: Sango, Bantu, Bantoid language, Gur, Voltaic, West African, Mande, Kwa
History
Coined in the 1950s by Joseph Greenberg, from the name of the two principal rivers in the area in which this language family is spoken, the Niger River and the Congo River.
Across languages
2 source translations are retained for this English entry.
