334 Sentences With "blench" | Random Sentence Generator

Voters bored by the whole subject may blench at the prospect.

Knowing how despicably he treated black leaders who consulted him in the Oval Office and various other statements of his -- such as praising "The Birth of a Nation" as "writing history with lightning" -- I would blench somewhat to be an undergraduate having to walk by a building named after him at Princeton.

This blogger has been told by Asian diplomats that—for all that they blench when Mr Trump mocks the 34-year old Mr Kim as "Little Rocket Man" or boasts about the size of America's nuclear button—they can see a value to challenging the North Koreans in the field of unpredictability, which the Stalinist state has had to itself for so long.

The following classification is taken from Blench (2008). Blench (2019) also includes Nincut.

Rau and Sidwell (2019),Rau, Felix and Paul Sidwell 2019. "The Maritime Munda Hypothesis." ICAAL 8, Chiang Mai, Thailand, 29–31 August 2019. along with Blench (2019),Blench, Roger. 2019.

Two varieties, Alumu and Tesu, differ only in intonation. Information for Alumu and Tesu is listed from Blench (2004).Blench, Roger. 2004. Tarok and related languages of east-central Nigeria.

Belnəng is a West Chadic language of Plateau State, Nigeria closely related to Angas. It was discovered by Roger Blench in 2016. It is spoken by about 500 people in the single village of Langung, which is surrounded by Tal villages in the east and Miship villages in the west (Blench 2017).Blench, Roger. 2017.

Armstrong (1955, 1983) classified Eloyi as Idomoid, but that identification was based on a single word list and Armstrong later expressed doubts. All other preliminary accounts classify it as Plateau, and Blench (2008) leaves it as a separate branch of Plateau. Blench (2007)Blench, Roger. 2007. The Eloyi language of Central Nigeria and its affinities.

Chakato (Jakato [ʒàkàtɔ̀]) is a West Chadic language spoken in Plateau State, Nigeria. It was identified by Roger Blench in 2016.Blench, Roger. 2017. Current research on the A3 West Chadic languages.

Bəlnəŋ, an A3 West Chadic language closely related to Angas, was discovered by Roger Blench in 2016. It is spoken by about 500 people in the single village of Langung, which is surrounded by Tal villages in the east and Miship villages in the west (Blench 2017).Blench, Roger. 2017. Current research on the A3 West Chadic languages.

Roger Blench (2013)Blench, Roger. 2013. However did Ywom become so strange?. reports that Ywom is spoken in Hyel Ywom town and nearby hamlets. Many Ywom speak Jukun and Tarok as additional languages.

Blench, Roger 2004: Notes on the Seni people and language with an addendum on the Ziriya Newsletter of Foundation for Endangered Languages 2.12 Blench (2012) reports that there are only six speakers of Sheni.

There are three languages: Kimba, Gaushi (Agaushi) and Wənci (Ngwunci). Blench considers Gaushi and Wənci (Ngwunci) to be distinct languages.Roger Blench, 2010. The Kambari languages The Kimba language has three dialects: Auna, Yumu and Wara.

Greenberg placed Samba Daka within his Adamawa proposal, as group G3, but Bennett (1983) demonstrated to general satisfaction that it is a Benue–Congo language, though its placement within Benue–Congo is disputed. Blench (2011) considers it to be Bantoid. Boyd (ms), however, considers Daka an isolate branch within Niger–Congo (Blench 2008). Blench (2011) lists Taram as a separate, though closely related, language.

Ajuwa (Ajegha) is a Plateau language of Kaduna State, Nigeria. It is spoken in Kalla, Afogo, Iburu, Idon, and Makyali towns. Ajuwa was reported by Roger Blench (2019), but is not reported in Ethnologue or Glottolog. Blench classifies it as Northwestern.

Blench (2019)Blench, Roger. 2019. Morphological evidence for the coherence of East Sudanic. Paper submitted for a Special Issue of Dotawo. Also presented at the 14th Nilo-Saharan Linguistics Colloquium Department of African Studies, University of Vienna, 31 May 2019.

Jibyal (also known as Ankwey, a former name for the Goemai people) is a West Chadic language spoken in Plateau State, Nigeria. It was discovered by Roger Blench in 2017.Blench, Roger. 2017. Current research on the A3 West Chadic languages.

The number of Rashad languages, also called Tegali–Tagoi, varies among descriptions, from two (Williamson & Blench 2000), three (Ethnologue), to eight (Blench ms). Tagoi has a noun-class system like the Atlantic–Congo languages, which is apparently borrowed, but Tegali does not.

Vori (also called Surubu or Skrubu) is a Kainji language of Nigeria. Roger Blench (2016)Blench, Roger. 2016. Weeping over the disappearance of Nigeria’s minority languages: how to get more reliable information and what to do about it. Presentation, Jos Linguistic Circle.

Each of the proposed higher-order groups has been rejected by other researchers: Greenberg's Chari–Nile by Bender and Blench, and Bender's Core Nilo-Saharan by Dimmendaal and Blench. What remains are eight (Dimmendaal) to twelve (Bender) constituent families of no consensus arrangement.

The following list of Malagasy mammal names, compiled and edited by Blench (2009),Blench, Roger. 2009. Faunal names in Malagasy: their etymologies and implications for the prehistory of the East African coast. are from Garbutt (1999)Garbutt, N. 1999. Mammals of Madagascar.

Le méroïtique et sa famille linguistique. Leuven: Peeters Publishers. Blench lists the Mandal dialect separately.

Blench, Roger. 2013. The Nupoid languages of west-central Nigeria: overview and comparative word list.

Roger Blench (2017)Blench, Roger. 2017. Waterworld: lexical evidence for aquatic subsistence strategies in Austroasiatic. Presented at ICAAL 7, Kiel, Germany. suggests that vocabulary related to aquatic subsistence strategies (such as boats, waterways, river fauna, and fish capture techniques), can be reconstructed for Proto-Austroasiatic.

Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at Arlington. Adding to the confusion, some other references restrict the usage of "Kadai" to only the Kra branch of the family. The name "Daic" is used by Roger Blench (2008).Blench, Roger. 2008.

Blench, Roger. 2015. The Mey languages and their classification. Presentation given at the University of Sydney.

Mantsi (also known as Ma’as or Mangas) is an endangered Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Mangas town in Bauchi State, Nigeria. Blench (2020) reports that it is also called Mantsi. According to Blench, the structure of Mantsi differs significantly from the other South Bauchi languages.Blench, Roger. 2020.

The only language with significant data is Tarok. Pe (Pai) has been placed in various branches of Plateau, and Kwang (Kwanka) was only recently added, but it now seems clear that the following five languages belong together. The classification below follows Blench (2004).Blench, Roger. 2004.

Guduf-Gava (also known as Gudupe, Afkabiye) is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Borno State, Nigeria. In a 2006 paper, Roger Blench classified Cineni as a dialect.Blench, 2006. The Afro-Asiatic Languages: Classification and Reference List (ms) Blench (2019) lists Cikide as a dialect of Guduf.

Jibyal most likely belongs to the Pan cluster of languages, which includes Kofyar. Some similarities with Cakfem-Mushere have also been noted by Blench (2019). Jibyal is spoken in Jibyal town, and in the hamlets of Monkwat, Lamalang, Shimər, and Dalu. Blench (2017) reports 2,000 speakers total.

Vemgo-Mabas is an Afro-Asiatic language of Cameroon and Nigeria. Dialects are Vemgo, Mabas. Blench (2006) considers these to be separate languages. Ethnologue lists a third dialect, Visik in Nigeria, which is not well attested; Blench suspects it may be a dialect of Lamang instead.

La réorganisation de l'ergativité proto-berbère : de l'état à l'état/procès, in Sounds and Words through the Ages: Afroasiatic Studies from Turin, ed. by Mengozzi, A et Tausco, M., Alessandria, Edizioni dell'Orsa, 177-190. Roger Blench (2018)Blench, Roger. 2018. Reconciling archaeological and linguistic evidence for Berber prehistory.

Ukaan (also Ikan, Anyaran, Auga, or Kakumo) is a poorly described Niger–Congo language or dialect cluster of uncertain affiliation. Roger Blench suspects, based on wordlists, that it might be closest to the (East) Benue–Congo languages (or, equivalently, the most divergent of the Benue–Congo languages). Blench (2012) states that "noun-classes and concord make it look Benue-Congo, but evidence is weak."Roger Blench, Niger-Congo: an alternative view Speakers refer to their language as Ùkãã or Ìkã.

Yala (Iyala) is an Idomoid language of Ogoja, Nigeria. Blench (2019) lists dialects as Ikom, Obubra, and Ogoja.

This, however has been questioned by ethnomusicologist and linguist Roger Blench who posits an independent origin in Africa.

The Dullay languages belong to the Cushitic subgroup of the Afro-Asiatic language family and are spoken in Ethiopia. Dullay is a dialect continuum consisting of the Gawwada and Tsamai languages. Blench (2006) places most of Bussa in the Konsoid languages, and counts several Gawwada varieties as distinct languages.Roger Blench, 2006.

Blench and Post (2011) believe that Zakhring is an East Bodish language that has been influenced by Midzu or other divergent languages of the region, whereas Kaman may be a language isolate. Blench (2015) suggests that Meyor (Zakhring) and Kman may each be language isolates.Blench, Roger. 2015. The classification of Meyor (Zakhring). m.s.

Chug (also called Chugpa or Duhumbi) is a Kho-Bwa language of West Kameng district, Arunachal Pradesh in India. It is closely related to Lish. Chug is spoken only in Chug village (population 483 in 1971), located a few miles from Dirang (Blench & Post 2011:3).Roger Blench and Mark Post. 2011.

Blench, Roger, 2005. Akpondu, Nigbo, Bəbər and Nisam: Moribund or Extinct Languages of Central Nigeria, manuscript, 16 November 2005. 4pp.

Roger Blench suggests that Proto-Berber speakers spread into North Africa from the Nile River valley around 4000 to 5000 years ago, after splitting off from early Afroasiatic. Blench, Roger. 2018. Reconciling archaeological and linguistic evidence for Berber prehistory. In this model, early Berbers borrowed many words from contact with Carthaginian Punic and Latin.

They are not related to the Southern Mishmi Midzu languages, apart from possibly being Sino-Tibetan. However, Blench and Post (2011) suggests that they may not even be Sino- Tibetan, but rather an independent language family of their own. Blench (2014) classifies the Digaro languages as part of the Greater Siangic group of languages.

One scholar, Roger Blench, writes: "The argument from comparative linguistics which links the highly diverse languages of zone A to a genuine reconstruction is non-existent. Most claimed Proto-Bantu is either confined to particular subgroups, or is widely attested outside Bantu proper."Blench, Roger . Paper circulated before the Niger-Congo conference of September 2012.

Blench (2006) lists Gidicho, Kachama, and Ganjule as separate languages. Ethnologue gives Gatame/Get'eme/Gats'ame as a synonym; however, Blench treats that as a separate languages as well, a synonym with Haruro/Harro. While he moves the others to the northern branch of the Ometo languages, he leaves Gatame/Haruro in the eastern branch.Blench, 2006.

Blench (2011) classifies Eastern and Western Beboid as separate branches of Southern Bantoid. ;Eastern: Cung, Bebe–Kemezung, Naki, Saari–Noni (Ncane-Mungong-Noone), Fio, Mbuk ;Western ?: :Abar :Fang :Koshin :Mundabli: Mundabli, Bu :Mbu’ (the least similar) Bikya (Furu), one of the Furu languages, is perhaps a Beboid language, though this is uncertain (Blench 2011).

He has also written about other language families and endangered languages. Additionally, Blench has published extensively on the relationship between linguistics and archaeology, principally in Africa but more recently also in East Asia. Blench is currently engaged in a long-term project to document the languages of central Nigeria. Blench collaborated extensively with the late Professor Kay Williamson, who died in January 2005, and is now a trustee of the Kay Williamson Educational Fund, which exists both to publish the unpublished material left by Kay Williamson and to promote the study of Nigerian languages.

Blench (2006) leaves it as unclassified within Cushitic, as records are too fragmentary to allow more than that.Classification of Afroasiatic, ms.

According to Blench (2008), Jju—with more speakers—appears to be a form of Tyap (although its speakers are ethnically distinct).

Tarok and the Jukunoid languages. Blench (2008) classifies Eggon and Ake as the Eggonic group of the Southern branch of Plateau.

Blench (2015) suggests that Bangime and Dogon languages may have a substratum from a "missing" branch of Nilo-Saharan that had split off relatively early from Proto-Nilo-Saharan, and tentatively calls that branch "Plateau".Blench, Roger. 2015. Was there a now-vanished branch of Nilo-Saharan on the Dogon Plateau? Evidence from substrate vocabulary in Bangime and Dogon.

Blench (2020) suggests that the East Kainji branch is most closely related to Basa, since both have (C)V-CVCV phonotactic structures.

Are there four additional unrecognised branches of Austroasiatic? Presentation at ICAAL-4, Bangkok, 29–30 October. Summarized in Sidwell and Blench (2011).

Blench (2019) lists Tsupamini as a related variety. McGill (2012) also gives the alternate name Oleran for Lopa.McGill, Stuart. 2012. The Kainji languages.

Dialects of the Adara language include the Adara dialect, Eneje, Ada, Ekhwa, and Ajiya. Blench (2019) lists Eda, Edra, and Enezhe as dialects.

Blench & Walsh, 2009 draft ms, "The vocabularies of Vazimba and Beosi: do they represent the languages of the pre-Austronesian populations of Madagascar?".

The following classification is taken from Blench (2008). The languages are not closely related and are morphologically quite diverse due to different contact situations; given the poor state of their description, their relationship is provisional. Ethnologue scatters these languages throughout Plateau: Hasha and Sambe with Eggon (Southern branch), and Alumu–Tesu and Toro as two independent branches. Blench (2019) also includes Nigbo (extinct).

Good documentation of Nggam has been also published for the Bekpak (Bafia) people by Dugast and for Bamileke people by Pradeles de Latour. The crab form has been studied in north Cameroon by Walter van Beek (2013, 2015). The comparative linguistics of spider divination in Cameroon was surveyed by Blench and Zeitlyn in 1989/1990.Blench, Roger, and David Zeitlyn. 1989/1990.

Notable writers of Latin from Africa during the Imperial period include the novelist Apuleius, and the Church Fathers Tertullian and Augustine. Latin-speaking communities remained in North Africa, particularly around Carthage, during the period of the Vandal Kingdom (435–534), but died out by the late 7th century, with the Arab conquest.Herman, Vulgar Latin, p. 12. Roger Blench (2018)Blench, Roger. 2018.

Animere is an endangered language which is no longer being passed on to children; the speaker count is approximately 30 (Blench 2006).Blench (2006) notes that all 30 speakers are over 35 years old. A 2003 Ethnologue estimate of 700 probably counts all ethnic Benimbere. Bodomo 1996:38 states that "Animere (...) is said to be dying out (only 250 speakers now)".

Boyd (1989) assigned it its own branch within Waja–Jen. Kleinewillinghöfer (1996) removed it from Waja–Jen as an independent branch of Adamawa. When Blench (2008) broke up Adamawa, Kwah became a provisional independent branch of his larger Savannas family. Blench (2019) lists the locations of Baa as Gyakan and Kwa towns (located near Munga) in Numan LGA, Adamawa State, Nigeria.

More recently, Roger Blench (2012)Blench, Roger. 2012. Niger-Congo: an alternative view. has posited that the Adamawa languages are a geographic grouping, not a language family, and has broken up its various branches in his proposal of the Savannas family. He retained Boyd and Kleinewillinghöfer's Leko–Nimbari and Mbum–Day families, but gave them no special connection to each other.

Ana Dogon, or Ana Tiŋa, is a recently discovered Dogon language spoken in Mali. It was first reported online in 2005 by Roger Blench.

Blench, R. (n.d.). Izon Verbal Extensions [Scholarly project] Fardon, R., & Furniss, G. (1994). African Languages, Development and the State. Heine, B., & Nurse, D. (2000).

Blench (2006) reconstructs the tentative Proto-Niger-Congo (i.e., the most recent common ancestor of the Niger-Congo languages) root -ku for D. rotundata.

Roger Blench, Niger- Congo: an alternative view If the Kwa or Savannas branches prove to be invalid, the tree will be even more crowded.

It is now usually left as unclassified within Benue–Congo, however Blench (2011) classifies it as a divergent Mambiloid language potentially related to Ndoola.

Roger Blench argues that the Saharan and Songhay languages form a Songhay-Saharan branch with each other within the wider Nilo-Saharan linguistic phylum.

Suppose we are wrong about the Austronesian settlement of Taiwan? m.s. Blench considers the Austronesians in Taiwan to have been a melting pot of immigrants from various parts of the coast of eastern China that had been migrating to Taiwan by 4,000 BP These immigrants included people from the foxtail millet-cultivating Longshan culture of Shandong (with Longshan-type cultures found in southern Taiwan), the fishing-based Dapenkeng culture of coastal Fujian, and the Yuanshan culture of northernmost Taiwan which Blench suggests may have originated from the coast of Guangdong. Based on geography and cultural vocabulary, Blench believes that the Yuanshan people may have spoken Northeast Formosan languages. Thus, Blench believes that there is in fact no "apical" ancestor of Austronesian in the sense that there was no true single Proto-Austronesian language that gave rise to present-day Austronesian languages.

Sidwell, Paul, and Roger Blench. 2011. "The Austroasiatic Urheimat: the Southeastern Riverine Hypothesis." Enfield, NJ (ed.) Dynamics of Human Diversity, 317–345. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.

According to Blench in 2019, the Cakfem people have thirteen villages, with Tim as the main settlement. Hausa is frequently used by the younger generation.

Mboa, also known as Mbonga, is an apparently extinct language of Cameroon (Blench 2011). Ethnologue reports 1,490 speakers cited to 2000, possibly the ethnic population.

Kulung (Wurkum) is a minor West Chadic language of Karim Lamido LGA, Taraba State, Nigeria that was recently discovered by Roger Blench. The language is not reported in Ethnologue or Glottolog. Blench (2019) gives a rough estimate of about 2,000 speakers. Kulung speakers consider themselves to be ethnically part of the larger Jarawan Bantu-speaking Kulung, although their language is West Chadic and related to Piya.

Roger Blench (2012)Blench, Roger. 2012. Niger-Congo: an alternative view. considers Gur-Adamawa to be a language continuum (linkage) rather than an actual coherent branch. Kleinewillinghöfer (2014) notes that many "Adamawa" languages in fact share more similarities with various (Central) Gur languages than with other Adamawa languages, and proposes that early Gur-Adamawa speakers had cultivated guinea corn and millet in a wooded savanna environment.

In a recent study, Roger Blench (2016)Blench, Roger. 2016. The boiling pot: 4000 years ago in the Luzon straits. has raised doubts that there was actually a single unitary Proto-Malayo-Polynesian language. Rather, Malayo-Polynesian expansion across the Luzon Strait consisted of multi-ethnic crews rapidly settling across various locations in maritime Southeast Asia, as suggested by both archaeological and linguistic evidence.

Greenberg placed Samba Daka (Daka) within his Adamawa proposal, as group G3, but Bennett (1983) demonstrated to general satisfaction that it is a Benue–Congo language, though its placement within Benue–Congo is disputed. Blench (2010) considers it to be Benue–Congo. Boyd (ms), however, considers Daka an isolate branch within Niger–Congo (Blench 2008). Dong (Donga), though clearly Niger–Congo, is difficult to classify.

SIL Ethnologue lists three additional languages, Manta, Balo and Osatu, based on an old, provisional assignment of Blench; Blench (2010) states they are instead in the Southwest Grassfields (Western Momo) family. The Momo languages, traditionally classified as Grassfields, may be closer to Tivoid, though that may be an effect of contact. Menchum, traditionally classified as Grassfields, may also be a Grassfields language or closer to Tivoid.

Sartang is a small language of India. It is one of the Kho-Bwa languages,Post, Mark W. and Roger Blench (2011). "Siangic: A new language phylum in North East India", 6th International Conference of the North East India Linguistics Society, Tezpur University, Assam, India, Jan 31 – Feb 2 closest to Sherdukpen (50–60% lexical similarity). Varieties include Sartang of Jergaon and Sartang of Rahung (Blench 2015).

There was also a Malayo-Polynesian migration to Hainan; Blench (2016) notes that both Hlai and Austronesian peoples use the foot-braced backstrap loom as well.

Mefele is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken in northern Cameroon. Dialects are Mefele, Muhura, Serak, and Shugule. Blench (2006) considers Shugule (Shügule) a separate language.Blench, 2006.

Miship, or Chip, is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Plateau State, Nigeria. Doka is a dialect. Blench lists the two dialects Longmaar and Jiɓaam.Blench, Roger. 2017.

Other villages that Blench considers to be unconfirmed are Yong, Jak, Bil, Bwai, Wopti, Kanchi, and Yuwan.Blench, Roger. 2004. Tarok and related languages of east-central Nigeria.

There is a possibility the early Monic and Nicobarese people had contact with the migrants who moved into the Malay Peninsula from further north. Aslian languages contain a complex palimpsest of loanwords from linguistic communities that no longer exist on the Malay Peninsula. Their former residence can be traced from the etymologies and the archaeological evidence for the succession of cultures in the region. Roger Blench (2006)Blench, Roger. 2006.

Milang, which has been extensively influenced by Padam (a Tani language), is alternatively classified as a divergent Tani language (Post & Blench 2011). Koro has undergone influence from Hruso (Post & Blench 2011). However, Milang and Koro do not belong to either the Tani or Hrusish groups of languages. It is unclear whether the Siangic is a branch of Sino-Tibetan or an independent language family that has undergone extensive Sino-Tibetan influence.

Rubaruba (tuRubaruba) is a Kainji language of Nigeria belonging to the Kamuku language complex. Rubaruba is reported by Blench (2012), but is not covered in Ethnologue or Glottolog.

Roger Blench also cites Temple in his Atlas of Nigerian languages. Nothing is known of this language apart from its name and location, including whether it even exists.

There is no published data on Gaa (Tiba), and Taram (listed as a dialect of Daka by Ethnologue) is only known from data collected in 1931 (Blench 2008).

Banham, Hill, and Woodyard (2005, 88–89).Blench Roger M(2000). Grove Encyclopaedia of Music and Musicians Oxford University Press. "Total theatre" also developed in Nigeria in the 1950s.

Psikye (Kapsiki) is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken in northern Cameroon and eastern Nigeria. Varieties include Psikyɛ and Zləngə. Blench (2006) classifies it as a dialect of Kamwe.Blench, 2006.

Field trip to record the status of some little-known Nigerian languages. Ogmios, 11:11:14. Ethnologue places Cara in Central Plateau. The assignment to Beromic follows Blench (2008).

Naŋa dama, also known as Naŋa tegu, is a Dogon language spoken in Mali that is only known from one report from 1953. Roger Blench reports that its nearest relative is the recently described Walo–Kumbe Dogon, "with which it shares both lexicon and the feature that many nouns have a final -m." Hochstetler thinks they may be the same language. It may be close to Yanda Dogon (Blench) or Jamsai tegu (Hochstetler).

Since each of the three Utupua and three Vanikoro languages are highly distinct from each other, Blench doubts that these languages had diversified on the islands of Utupua and Vanikoro, but had rather migrated to the islands from elsewhere. According to Blench, historically this was due to the Lapita demographic expansion consisting of both Austronesian and non-Austronesian settlers migrating from the Lapita homeland in the Bismarck Archipelago to various islands further to the east.

In Language Documentation & Conservation, v 4, p 183 Blench (2008) notes that much of the basic vocabulary looks Cushitic, and speculates that Kujarge could even be a conservative language transitional between Chadic and Cushitic.Roger Blench, 2008. 'Links between Cushitic, Omotic, Chadic and the position of Kujarge'. (ms) The language had been classified as a member of the Mubi subgroup of Chadic by Paul Newman; however, Lionel Bender argued that its classification remained uncertain.

Yumu is a minor Kainji language of Nigeria. It is listed as a potential Kambari language by Roger Blench,Roger Blench, 2010. The Kambari languages however it does not have an Ethnologue nor Glottolog entry. The village of Yumu, said to be "of obscure origin", is located on the western side of Kainji Lake in Agwara District, Niger State, adjacent to the areas of the divergent Kainji languages of Reshe, Lopa and Laru.

According to Blench (2016),Blench, Roger. 2016. Weeping over the disappearance of Nigeria’s minority languages: how to get more reliable information and what to do about it Zora (also called Chokobo) is spoken by 19 speakers, in some two hours drive from Jos. The speakers are all over 60 years and rarely talk to one another, since they are spread across 10 settlements. The morphology and phonology have been highly eroded as well.

Zulgo-Gemzek is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken in northern Cameroon. Dialects are Gemzek, Mineo, and Zulgo (Zəlgwa). Blench (2006) considers Zəlgwa-Minew and Gemzek to be distinct languages.Blench, 2006.

Montol is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Plateau State, Nigeria. Dialects are Baltap-Lalin and Montol. Roger Blench (2017) uses the name Tel or Tɛɛl for Montol.Blench, Roger. 2017.

Proto-Kainji is estimated by Blench (2012) to be 3,000 to 4,000 years old. Its broken distribution today is likely due to the historical northward expansion of the Nupoid languages.

Diffloth places Khmer in an eastern branch of the Mon-Khmer languages.Diffloth, Gérard (2005). "The contribution of linguistic palaeontology and Austroasiatic". in Laurent Sagart, Roger Blench and Alicia Sanchez-Mazas, eds.

Roger Blench (2017) estimates that there are 2,000 speakers as of 2017. Although Nteng is most closely related to the Pan cluster of languages, it has also been influenced by Mushere.

It is a member of the Austronesian family of languages, and is one of only two indigenous languages in Micronesia that are not part of the Oceanic branch of that family, the other being Chamorro (see , , , and ). Roger Blench (2015)Blench, Roger. 2015. Early Oceanic contact with Palau: the evidence of fish names. argues that based on evidence from fish names, Palauan had early contact with Oceanic languages either directly or indirectly via the Yapese language.

The term 'narrow Bantu' was coined by the Benue–Congo Working Group to distinguish Bantu as recognized by Guthrie, from the Bantoid languages not recognized as Bantu by Guthrie. In recent times, the distinctiveness of Narrow Bantu as opposed to the other Southern Bantoid languages has been called into doubt (cf. Piron 1995, Williamson & Blench 2000, Blench 2011), but the term is still widely used. There is no true genealogical classification of the (Narrow) Bantu languages.

Musgu is a language of the Biu–Mandara subgroup of the Chadic languages spoken in Cameroon and Chad. The endonym is Mulwi. Blench (2006) classifies the three varieties as separate languages.Blench, 2006.

Because of the small number of cognates with East Bodish languages once loans are identified, Blench and Post provisionally treat ʼOle as a language isolate, not just an isolate within Sino-Tibetan.

However, Blench (2005) argues that Jukunoid is clearly spearate from Plateau.Blench, Roger. 2005. Is there a boundary between Plateau and Jukunoid? Paper for the Vienna Jukunoid workshop, Vienna, 19-20th, November, 2005.

In: Blench, R.M. and MacDonald, K.C. The origins and development of African livestock: Archaeology, genetics, linguistics and enthnography. University College London Press, London, UK; pp. 314–338 . In Cameroon, they are widely distributed.

Language Documentation and Conservation 2, 141-156. as well as in the Bauchi languages of Nigeria.Roger Blench, Recent research in the languages of Northwest Nigeria: new languages, unknown sounds. Jos Linguistic Circle, 2011.

Goemai has four main dialects: Duut, East Ankwe, Dorok, and K'wo, all of which are in common use and are mutually intelligible Blench, Roger. 2017. Current research on the A3 West Chadic languages.

Dakubu and Ford (1988) renamed this cluster the Central Togo languages, a term still used by some (e.g. Blench 2001); since the mid-90s, the term Ghana–Togo Mountain languages has become more common. No comparative study of the languages has appeared in print since Heine (1968); Blench (unpublished) presented a tentative reclassification of the group in 2001, noting the internal diversity of the grouping. It is still unclear whether the grouping forms a branch on its own within Kwa.

It appears to have been taken from an earlier source or sources, perhaps from the colonial era.Roger Blench & Paul Sidwell, 2011. "Is Shom Pen a Distinct Branch?" In Sophana Srichampa and Paul Sidwell, eds.

Blench, Roger. 2013. The Nupoid languages of west-central Nigeria: overview and comparative word list. Nupe Tako (meaning ‘The Nupe Below’; also known as Bassa-Nge) is lexically most closely related to central Nupe.

Dakoid languages have had long-term contact with Adamawa languages, while the Tikar language shares many similarities with the Bafia languages (also known as the A50 Bantu languages).Blench, Roger. The North Bantoid hypothesis.

Ethnologue gives Bbadha as an alternate name of Lendu, but Blench (2000) lists Badha as a distinct language. A draft listing of Nilo- Saharan languages, available from his website and dated 2012, lists Lendu/Badha.

Dallas, TX: SIL International, "Hruso". In October 2010, the National Geographic Daily News published an article corroborating the findings of the Ethnologue based on research conducted in 2008 by a linguistic team of David Harrison, Gregory Anderson, and Ganesh Murmu while documenting two Hruso languages (Aka and Miji) as part of National Geographic's "Enduring Voices" project. It was reported to them as a dialect of Aka, but turned out to be highly divergent. Mark Post and Roger Blench (2011)Post, Mark W. and Roger Blench (2011).

Matisoff (1991) places its origins in the eastern part of the Tibetan plateau around 4000 BC, with the various groups migrating out along the Yellow, Yangtze, Mekong, Salween and Brahmaputra rivers. Blench and Post (2014) have proposed that the Sino-Tibetan homeland was in northeast India, the area of greatest diversity, around 7000 BC. Blench (2009) proposes that the earliest speakers of Sino-Tibetan were not farmers, since agriculture cannot be reconstructed for Proto-Sino-Tibetan. Rather, early Sino-Tibetan speakers were highly diverse foragers.Blench, Roger. 2009.

Kagare (Kwagere) is a Kainji language of Nigeria belonging to the Kamuku language complex. There is partial intelligibility with Cinda, Regi and Səgəmuk (Zubazuba). Kagare is reported by Blench, but is not in Ethnologue or Glottolog.

Cipu is part of the Kambari branch of the Niger–Congo languages. The most recent published classificationWilliamson, Kay and Roger M. Blench. 2000. Niger–Congo in African languages: an introduction, 11-42. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Blench, R. (2012). An atlas of Nigerian languages. Many confuse Mvanip with the Kaka language, which is spoken in the southeastern Nigeria and the adjacent areas in Cameroon. Despite the confusion, these two languages are unrelated.

Dong, or Donga, is a poorly documented language in Nigeria. Though clearly Niger–Congo, it is difficult to classify; British linguist Roger Blench proposes that it is one of the Dakoid languages, the closest to Gaa.

Loo, or Shụŋọ, is an Adamawa language of Nigeria. It is one of the more than 500 native languages spoken in that country. As of 1992, the approximate number of Loo speakers was 8,000.Blench, Roger.

Al-Amin Abu-Manga, L. Gilley & A. Storch eds. 101-127. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe. However, more recently, Blench states that Kadu is almost certainly Nilo-Saharan, with its closest relationship being with Eastern Sudanic.Blench, Roger. 2109.

Roger Blench notes that Daic-speaking and Austronesian-speaking peoples had many customs in common.Blench, Roger. 2008. The Prehistory of the Daic (Tai-Kadai) Speaking Peoples. Presented at the 12th EURASEAA meeting Leiden, 1–5 September 2008.

The Bauchi languages have a set of unusual sounds for the area, called "linguo-labials" by Blench. They are similar to the interdental approximants of the Philippines, where the tongue can protrude slightly over the lower lip.

Adelaar (1995) suggested that the vocabulary of Malagasy, next to its basic stratum inherited from Barito and loanwords from Malay, also contains many words that are of South Sulawesi origin. Further evidence was presented by Blench (2018).

If this would the case, Sidwell & Blench suggest that Khasic may have been an early offshoot of Palaungic that had spread westward. Sidwell & Blench (2011) suggest Shompen as an additional branch, and believe that a Vieto-Katuic connection is worth investigating. In general, however, the family is thought to have diversified too quickly for a deeply nested structure to have developed, since Proto-Austroasiatic speakers are believed by Sidwell to have radiated out from the central Mekong river valley relatively quickly. Subsequently, Sidwell (2015a: 179)Sidwell, Paul. 2015a.

Dompo has numerous parallels with the Gonja language, but according to Blench (1999) does not appear to be directly related to it. Blench suggests three possibilities: #it is a Gonja dialect that has come under heavy external influence; #it is a related Guang language that has been relexified, largely from Gonja; #it is of some other source, and relexified, largely from Gonja. None of the Dompo names for wild plants or animals resemble Gonja, suggesting that the last is the most likely. Some Dompo animal names show resemblances with Mpra.

Ega is possibly a divergent Western Kwa language within the Niger–Congo language family spoken in Ivory Coast. It does not appear to belong to any of the traditional branches of Niger–Congo. Though traditionally assumed to be one of the Kwa languages, Roger Blench (2004) conservatively classified it as a separate branch of the Atlantic–Congo family, pending a demonstration that it is actually related to the Kwa or Volta–Niger languages. However, Blench (2017) classified Ega as a fully Western Kwa language that has borrowed from Kru, Gur, and Mande.

Following Blench (2010), Tivoid languages fall into three branches, though North Tivoid languages are almost unattested. The names in parentheses are dialects per Ethnologue, separate languages per Blench: ;Central Tivoid: A: Tiv–Iyive–Otank, Evant; Ceve (Oliti) : B: Caka (Batanga, Asaka), Ipulo (Olulu), Eman (Amanavil) ;Mesaka (Ugarə) ;North Tivoid: Batu (Afi, Kamino), Abon, Bitare, ? Ambo Esimbi is well attested, but there is not much reason to consider it Tivoid; it has just about as much in common with Grassfields languages. The status of Buru within Tivoid is also uncertain.

Blench, Roger. 2018. Reconciling archaeological and linguistic evidence for Berber prehistory. Hence, although Berber had split off from Afroasiatic several thousand years ago, Proto-Berber itself can only be reconstructed to a period as late as 200 A.D. Blench noted that Berber is considerably different from other Afroasiatic branches, but modern-day Berber languages display low internal diversity. The presence of Punic borrowings in Proto-Berber points to the diversification of modern Berber language varieties subsequent to the fall of Carthage in 146 B.C.; only Zenaga lacks Punic loanwords.

Roger Blench (2013). Wild asses and donkeys in Africa: interdisciplinary evidence for their biogeography, history and current use. Paper presented at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, 9 May 2012 (revised version, 2013). Accessed July 2014.

Blench, Roger. 2015. Was there a now-vanished branch of Nilo-Saharan on the Dogon Plateau? Evidence from substrate vocabulary in Bangime and Dogon. In Mother Tongue, Issue 20, 2015: In Memory of Harold Crane Fleming (1926-2015).

Damlanci (Damlawa, Damla) is a Southern Bantoid Jarawan language of Nigeria. It was reported by Roger Blench (2019), but is not reported in Ethnologue or Glottolog. Speakers are over age 50, located in Maccido village, Alkaleri LGA, Bauchi State.

Zari (Zariwa) is a Chadic dialect cluster of Nigeria. Blench (2019) lists varieties as Zari, Zakshi, and Boto. Although there is an ethnic population of about 20,000, the last speaker had already died by 2000 (Campbell and Belew 2018).

Ogbia (AgBeya or Abaya) is the most spoken Central Delta language of Nigeria. It is spoken by over 200,000 people. Blench (2019) lists varieties as Kolo (Agholo), Oloiḅiri, and Anyama. The Anyama variety remains unattested and has no data.

The hump is pendulous in shape which is the main characteristics that differentiate it from white Fulani. Blench, Robert. Traditional Livestock Breeds: Geographical Distribution and Dynamics in Relations to the Ecology of West Africa, Chapter 3 . Overseas Development Institute.

It was thought that she was the last speaker, but Kiessling (2007) reports that Bikya has the largest number of remaining speakers of the Furu languages. It, and presumably all of Furu, is perhaps a Beboid language (Blench 2011).

University Press of America.Blench, Roger [1987] 'A new classification of Bantoid languages.' Unpublished paper presented at 17th Colloquium on African Languages and Linguistics, Leiden. Blench argues for the unity of North Bantoid by citing phonological, lexical, and morphological evidence.

Nincut (Aboro) is a Plateau language of Kaduna State, Nigeria belonging to the Beromic branch. Blench estimates 5,000 speakers in 2003. It is spoken 7 km north of Fadan Karshe in Kaduna State. Nincut is not recorded in Ethnologue or Glottolog.

Tarok is a regionally important Plateau language in the Langtang area of southeast Plateau State, Nigeria, where it serves as a local lingua franca. Blench (2004) estimates around 150,000 speakers.Blench, Roger. 2004. Tarok and related languages of east-central Nigeria.

Roland Kiessling revisited the remote area in 2007, and was able to show that they are normal Bantoid languages; they may perhaps be Beboid (Blench 2011). Lubu is unattested, only recalled as the language of the grandparents of the village elders.

Gwamhi-Wuri (Wurə-Gwamhyə-Mba), or Lyase, is a Kainji language of Nigeria. There are three varieties, which have only slight differences. "Lyase-Ne" means 'mother tongue'. The Mba people, known locally as Kokanawa, were recently reported by Blench (2012).

Dompo is an endangered language of Ghana. Speakers are shifting to Nafaanra. It is spoken adjacent to the main town of the Nafaanra people, namely Banda, Brong-Ahafo Region, Ghana. Blench (2015) reports that it is spoken by 10 households.

Blench (2010) believes that the distribution of Nilo- Saharan reflects the waterways of the wet Sahara 12,000 years ago, and that the protolanguage had noun classifiers, which today are reflected in a diverse range of prefixes, suffixes, and number marking.

Blench, 2006. The Afro-Asiatic Languages: Classification and Reference List (ms) The Grammar of Konso was first described by Hellenthal (2004), and later, in more detail, by Ongaye (2013). The New Testament was published in the Konso language in 2002.

The main settlements of the Shakara are Jije Fyal, Nggwakum, Akayi, Apɔhɔt, Telehwe, Kobo, Koba, Nggwa Dauda, Nggwa Mangoro, Nggwa Igyan, Barib, and formerly Nggwa Yiri (now uninhabited).Blench, Roger. 2014. The Shakara (Tari) language of Central Nigeria and its affinities.

Ale (also known as Gawwada, Gauwada, Gawata, Kawwad'a, Kawwada) is an Afro- Asiatic language spoken in southern Ethiopia. It is a Dullay language. Varieties include Dihina, Gergere, Gollango (= Gaba?), Gorose, Harso; Blench (2006) considers these to be distinct languages.Blench, 2006.

Distribution of Riffian dialects Dialects include West- Riffian (Al Hoceima), Central-Riffian (Nador) and East-Riffian (Berkan). Iznasen (Iznacen, Beni Snassen) is counted as a dialect in Kossman (1999), but Blench (2006) classifies it as one of the closely related Mzab–Wargla languages.

It is most closely related to Gupa and Kupa, although there are also some similarities with Ebira.Blench, Roger. 2013. The Nupoid languages of west-central Nigeria: overview and comparative word list. Blench (2019) lists Kakanda–Budon and Kakanda–Gbanmi/Sokun as dialects.

Blench, Roger M. 2003. Why reconstructing comparative Ron is so problematic. In Wolff, Ekkehard (ed.), Topics in Chadic linguistics: papers from the 1st biennial international colloquium on the Chadic language family (Leipzig, July 5-8, 2001), 21-42. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.

A series of publications supported by the trust is under way with Rüdiger Köppe Verlag in Cologne. Blench has also conducted research and evaluations of international development activities worldwide, as a consultant and formerly as a research fellow of the Overseas Development Institute in London.

Première partie: synthèse regional. 2nd edition (updated from 2013 edition). PASISAT (Projet d’Appui à l’Amélioration du Système d’Information sur la Sécurité Alimentaire au Tchad). Ethnologue lists Jelkung as a synonym; Blench (2006), however, considers it a distinct language, in a different branch of East Chadic.

Fali comprises two languages spoken in northern Cameroon. Included in Greenberg's Adamawa languages (as group G11), it was excluded from that family by Boyd (1989). Roger Blench suspects it may represent one of the earlier lineages to have branched off the Atlantic–Congo stock.

The evidence linking Dogon to the Niger–Congo family is weak, and their place within the family, assuming they do belong, is not clear. Various theories have been proposed, placing them in Gur, Mande, or as an independent branch, the last now being the preferred approach. The Dogon languages show no remnants of the noun class system characteristic of much of Niger–Congo, leading linguists to conclude that they likely diverged from Niger–Congo very early. Roger Blench comments,Dogon Languages Retrieved May 19, 2013 and:Roger Blench, Niger-Congo: an alternative view The Bamana and Fula languages have exerted significant influence on Dogon, due to their close cultural and geographical ties.

Greater Siangic is a language grouping that includes the Siangic languages, Digaro languages (Idu Mishmi and Taraon) and Pre-Tani, the hypothetical substrate language branch of Tani before it became relexified by Sino-Tibetan. The Greater Siangic grouping was proposed by Roger Blench (2014), based on exclusively shared lexical items that had been noted by Modi (2013). Blench (2014) argues that Greater Siangic is an independent language family that has undergone areal influences from Sino-Tibetan languages, and is not a branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family itself. Various lexical items exclusively shared by Milang, Koro, Taraon, and Idu have also been noted by Modi (2013).

Blench, Roger. 1999. "Are the African Pygmies an Ethnographic Fiction?". Pp 41–60 in Biesbrouck, Elders, & Rossel (eds.) Challenging Elusiveness: Central African Hunter-Gatherers in a Multidisciplinary Perspective. Leiden. Kwadi was alternatively known by the varieties of Koroka (Ba-koroka, Curoca, Ma-koroko, Mu-coroca) and Cuanhoca.

Longuda (Nʋngʋra) is a Niger–Congo language of Nigeria. Joseph Greenberg counted it as a distinct branch, G10, of his Adamawa family. Boyd (1989) assigned it a branch within Waja–Jen. When Blench (2008) broke up Adamawa, Longuda was made a branch of the Bambukic languages.

Afrika und Übersee 64: 81-100. However, Kuliak continues to be the most widely used name, and is preferred by Roger Blench, Terrill Schrock, Sam Beer and other linguists, who note that the name "Kuliak" is not perceived as offensive or pejorative by any Kuliak speakers.

Ndunda is a minor Mambiloid language of Nigeria. It was discovered by Roger Blench near the Mvanip-speaking town of Zongo Ajiya. Ndunda village is situated about 5 kilometers from Yerimaru, to the south of Zongo Ajiya. It is closely related to but distinct from Mvanip.

The membership of Senufo was rejected for example by Tony Naden.Naden, Tony. 1989:143 Williamson and BlenchWilliamson and Blench. 2000:18,25-6 place Senufo as a separate branch of Atlantic–Congo and other non-Central Gur languages somewhat closer as separate branches of the Savannas languages.

Geoffrey Sutton, 1-15, p. 4.Blench, Roger. 2014. The Enggano: archaic foragers and their interactions with the Austronesian world. m.s. When first contacted by Europeans, the Enggano people had more cultural commonalities with indigenous peoples of the Nicobar Islands than those of with Austronesian Sumatra.

Dazawa or Daza is listed by Blench (2006) as a Chadic language within the Bole group. It is allegedly spoken in a few villages of Darazo LGA, Bauchi State, Nigeria. Glottolog (2017) lists the language as "unattested". Newman (2019) lists Daza as a possible synonym of Bole.

Blench argues that the lexical similarities between Kman and Zakhring are borrowings, and that Zakhring had borrowed heavily from Kman and Tibetic, and then later borrowed from Naga languages and Jingpho as well. Regardless, they are not closely related to the Northern Mishmi also known as Digaro languages.

By contrast, some linguists have sought to combine Greenberg's four African families into larger units. In particular, Edgar Gregersen (1972) proposed joining Niger–Congo and Nilo-Saharan into a larger family, which he termed Kongo- Saharan. Roger Blench (1995) suggests Niger–Congo is a subfamily of Nilo- Saharan.

Jilic (Koro) and Eggonic are clearly valid groups. Their connection was proposed in Blench (2006, 2008). Two languages or dialects, Koro-Ija and Koro-Zuba (collectively known as Ija-Zuba), are said to be "nearly intelligible" with Jijili, but no language data exists.Blench (2008) Prospecting proto-Plateau. Manuscript.

Blench considers these VC roots to have cognates in other Nilo-Saharan languages, and suggests that the VC roots may have been eroded from earlier Nilo-Saharan roots that had initial consonants. Bernd Heine (1976)Heine, Bernd. 1976. The Kuliak Languages of Eastern Uganda. Nairobi: East African Publishing House.

The linguist Roger Blench replaced Adamawa–Ubangi with a Savannas family, which includes Gur, Ubangian and the various branches of Adamawa as primary nodes. Dimmendaal (2008) doubts that Ubangian is a subfamily of Niger–Congo at all, preferring to classify it as an independent family until proven otherwise.

Post & Blench (2011) note that Siangic has a substratum of unknown origin, and consider Siangic to be an independent language family. Anderson (2014), who refers to Siangic as Koro-Holon instead, considers Siangic (Koro- Holon) to be a branch of Sino-Tibetan rather than an independent language family.

Instead, multiple migrations of various pre-Austronesian peoples and languages from the Chinese mainland that were related but distinct came together to form what we now know as Austronesian in Taiwan. Hence, Blench considers the single- migration model to be inconsistent with both the archaeological and linguistic (lexical) evidence.

Programs included backpacking, rock climbing and mountaineering. Early instructors included James Blench, Barry Blanchard, Dwayne Congdon, Chris Miller, Marni Virtue and Sharon Wood - Barry Blanchard and James Blench are still involved with Yamnuska. The 'Wilderness Program' left the YMCA and 'Yamnuska Mountain School', a non-profit society directed by Bruce Elkin, was formed and based in the back of Bruce's and Barry Blanchard's house in Canmore, Alberta, Canada. The next years saw a steady evolution, as instruction in mountaineering, rock and ice climbing became the core activity with the fall Mountain Skills Semester an annual event (the Mountain Skills Semester was created in 1980 and it is still offered by the company twice a year, spring and fall).

A Karo village A young Karo woman Karo (also Cherre, Kere, Kerre) is an South Omotic language spoken in the Debub (South) Omo Zone of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region in Ethiopia. Karo is described as being closely related to its neighbor, Hamer-Banna, with a lexical similarity of 81%, and is considered a dialect of Hamer by Blench (2006),Blench, 2006. The Afro-Asiatic Languages: Classification and Reference List but as a separate language belonging to the Hamer-Karo subfamily in Glottolog. The Karo people, who live close to the lower Omo River, use colorful bodywork, complex headdresses and body scars to express beauty and importance within the community.

1991), Zhangzhung (Nagano and LaPolla 2001), and maybe Zakhring (Blench & Post 2011). According to Shafer, East Bodish is the most conservative branch of the Bodish languages. As for grammars of the East Bodish languages, there is Das Gupta (1968) and Lu (2002). Some papers on Kurtöp include Hyslop (2008a, 2008b, 2009).

Istituto Orientale di Napoli XIII. 93-126. for El-Fogaha. Both articles report that the language was spoken only by a handful of old people at the time, so it is generally presumed to be extinct. Aikhenvald & Militarev (1984) and Blench (2006) consider Sokna and Fezzan to be separate languages.

Air Tamajeq (Tayiṛt) is a variety of Tamasheq, one of the Tuareg languages. It is spoken by the Tuareg people inhabiting the Aïr Mountains, in the Agadez Region of Niger. Ethnologue lists two dialects: Air (Tayert) and Tanassfarwat (Tamagarast/Tamesgrest). Blench (2006) considers these two varieties to be distinct languages.

Mbre does not appear to belong to any of the traditional branches of the Niger–Congo language family. It doesn't have the verb extensions or noun classes characteristic of the Atlantic–Congo languages. Roger Blench suspects it may form its own branch, though perhaps not far from the Kwa languages.

Nyangatom (also Inyangatom, Donyiro, Dongiro, Idongiro) is a Nilotic language spoken in Ethiopia by the Nyangatom people. It is an oral language only, having no working orthography at present. Related languages include Toposa and Turkana, both of which have a level of mutual intelligibility; Blench (2012) counts it as a dialect of Turkana.

Stratification in the peopling of China: how far does the linguistic evidence match genetics and archaeology? In; Sanchez-Mazas, Blench, Ross, Lin & Pejros eds. Human migrations in continental East Asia and Taiwan: genetic, linguistic and archaeological evidence. 2008. Taylor & Francis The Korean language is agglutinative in its morphology and SOV in its syntax.

Jarawan is a dialect cluster that is closely related to, or perhaps a branch of, the Bantu languages. Blench (2011) says that it almost certainly belongs with Guthrie's A.60 languages, which are part of Mbam. They are spoken mostly in Bauchi State, with some also scattered in Taraba State and Adamawa State.

Siamou is traditionally classed as Kru. However, according to Roger Blench (2013) and Pierre Vogler (2015), the language bears little resemblance to Kru.Blench (2013:50) Güldemann (2018) also leaves out Siamou as unclassified within Niger-Congo. Like the SOV Senufo languages, but unlike the SVO Central Gur languages, Siamou word order is SOV.

The Koma language is a language cluster belonging to the Duru branch of Savanna languages of Cameroon. Blench (2004) includes three varieties separated in Ethnologue, Koma Ndera, Gɨmne, and Gɨmnɨme; within Koma Ndera, speakers of the marginal dialects, Gomnome and Ndera, can scarcely understand one another, though both understand the central dialect, Gomme.

Izere is a dialect continuum of Plateau languages in Nigeria. According to Blench (2008), it is four languages, though Ethnologue does not distinguish NW and NE Izere. The Cen and Ganang varieties are spoken by only 2000 each. Cen has added Berom noun-class prefixes and consonant alternation to an Izere base.

Blench (2006) notes that Kadu languages share similarities with multiple African language phyla, including Niger-Congo and Nilo-Saharan, suggesting a complex history of linguistic convergence and contact.Blench, Roger. 2006. The Kadu languages and their affiliation: between Nilo-Saharan, Niger-Congo and Afro-Asiatic. Insights into Nilo-Saharan Language, History and Culture.

In Roger Blench and Matthew Spriggs (eds.), Archaeology and language IV, Routledge, He argued that the Pygmies do not form the residue of a single ancient stock of Central African hunter-gatherers, but that they are rather descended from several neighboring ethno-linguistic groups, independently adapting to forest subsistence strategies. Blench adduced the lack of clear linguistic and archaeological evidence for the antiquity of the African Pygmies, that the genetic evidence, at the time of his writing, was inconclusive, and that there is no evidence of the Pygmies having a hunting technology distinctive from that of their neighbors. He argued that the short stature of Pygmy populations can arise relatively quickly (in less than a few millennia) under strong selection pressures.Blench, Roger. 1999.

Hyam is a regionally important linguistic cluster of Plateau languages in Nigeria. Hyam of Nok is the prestige dialect (Blench 2008). Writing the sociolinguistics of Hyam, Blench treats Sait, and Dzar as distinct varieties, and notes that Yat and Ankung may be viewed as separate languages, however, Hayab (2016) presents a differing opinion arguing that it is Ankung, a language called Iduya, that is not mutually intelligible to Hyam. Meanwhile, Hyam, which is spoken by the Ham people of Nigeria, popularly known as 'Jaba' in a recent study by Philip Hayab, a native of the area and a linguist who carried out in-depth research into the language, reveals that 'Jaba' has a Hausa etymology and is derogatory and should be discarded (John 2017).

East Kainji languages are less internally diverse than some of the other Plateau branches in the Nigerian Middle Belt (Blench 2007). Historically, the East Kainji branch had been influenced by Chadic languages that no longer exist in the region.Blench, Roger. 2007. Language families of the Nigerian Middle Belt and the historical implications of their distribution.

The Kara languages are Tar Gula and possibly related Central Sudanic languages of the Central African Republic. The name Kara is used for numerous other peoples of the region, and so is often ambiguous. Ethnologue 16 lists three Kara languages, Gula, Furu (Bagero), and Yulu (Yulu–Binga). However, of these, Blench (2012) accepts only Gula.

Pe, also spelled Pai, is a minor Plateau language of Nigeria. It has been classified in various branches of Plateau, but is now seen to be Tarokoid (Blench 2008). Pe villages are located southeast of Pankshin town. They are: Dok (Dokpai) (main village), Tipap Kwi, Tipap Re, Bwer, Kup (=Tiniŋ), Ban, Kwasam, and Kamcik.

The Sheni people have shifted to Hausa. They now call themselves the Shenawa and refer to their language as Shenanci. The loss of their language is taken as a fait accompli and there is no interest in reviving it. Its continued existence is merely a curiosity to most of the Sheno, according to Blench.

Nigbo is an extinct Plateau language of Nigeria. It was spoken near Agameti on the Fadan Karshi-Wamba road near Sanga LGA, Kaduna State. The language, listed in Blench (2012) and (2019), is not reported in Ethnologue or Glottolog. It is presumably an Alumic language based on its proximity to Akpondu, a language closely related to Alumu and Tesu.

In the 16th century, European visitors to India became aware of similarities between Indian and European languages and as early as 1653 Van Boxhorn had published a proposal for a proto-language ("Scythian") for Germanic, Romance, Greek, Baltic, Slavic, Celtic and Iranian.Roger Blench Archaeology and Language: methods and issues. In: A Companion To Archaeology. J. Bintliff ed. 52–74.

The Mangbetu–Asoa or Mangbetu languages of the Central Sudanic language family are a cluster of closely related languages spoken in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The languages are Mangbetu, spoken by perhaps a million people, and the smaller Lombi and Asoa. Blench (2000) considers Lombi to be part of the Mangbetu dialect continuum. Asoa is spoken by Pygmies.

Aláàrìnjó (otherwise known as Apidàn) is a traditional dance-theatre troupe among the Yoruba. According to music historian Roger Blench, Aláàrìnjó dates back to the sixteenth century and probably developed from the Egúngún masquerade. However, it soon became professional and split into competing groups. Improved roads allowed groups to travel further and outdo other groups with special effects.

A substantial number of them are also found in the local government areas of Mubi North, Hong, Gombi, Song and Madagali in Adamawa State. The Kamwe people are also found in Borno State, especially in Askira/Uba and Gwoza local government areas. Blench (2019) lists Mukta of Mukta village, Adamawa State as part of the Kamwe cluster.

There are twenty-four active dialects of the Kamwe language. The active Kamwe language dialects include Nkafa, Dakwa, Krghea (sometimes called Higgi Fali), Fwea, Humsi, Modi, Sina, and Tilyi; Blench (2006) considers Psikye to be another.Blench, 2006. The Afro-Asiatic Languages: Classification and Reference List (ms) Nkafa dialect is well understood by all and are widely spoken.

The Nyingwom or Kam language is a Niger-Congo language spoken in eastern Nigeria. Blench (2019) lists speakers residing in the main villages of Mayo Kam and Kamajim in Bali LGA, Taraba State. Lesage reports that Kam is spoken in 27 villages of Bali LGA. Nyingwom was labeled as branch "G8" in Joseph Greenberg's Adamawa language family proposal.

Christopher Ehret came up with a novel classification of Nilo-Saharan as a preliminary part of his then-ongoing research into the macrofamily. His evidence for the classification was not fully published until much later (see Ehret 2001 below), and so it did not attain the same level of acclaim as competing proposals, namely those of Bender and Blench.

Nelson, Sarah M. ed. 21–64. London and New York: Routledge. Roger Blench(2004), Stratification in the peopling of China: how far does the linguistic evidence match genetics and archaeology? p.9 Whatever the linguistic affinity of the ancient denizens, Hongshan culture is believed to have exerted an influence on the development of early Chinese civilization.

Ga (also known as Ganda, Ga'andu, Mokar, Makwar) is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken by about 500,000 people in the Gombi Local Government Area in Adamawa state of Nigeria. Many speakers live across the length and breath of Nigeria. It has three dialects, Ga'anda, Gabun and Boga; Blench (2006) classifies Gabun is a separate language.Blench, 2006.

The Afro-Asiatic Languages: Classification and Reference List (ms) Its speakers are generally not monolingual in Ga'anda, instead, they use Hausa, Lala, Hona, Kilba, Fulfulde, and Bura. Ga'anda has a rich cultural heritage, its natives are very hospitable people. 70% of its population are Christians, 20% Muslims and 10% Traditionalists. Blench (2019) lists Kaɓәn and Fәrtata as Ga’anda varieties.

According to Blench (2006) there are two sub-dialects: Shingani and Lower Shebelle.Blench, 2006. The Afro-Asiatic Languages: Classification and Reference List (ms) As noted in recent work on the speech variety, Green & Jones (2016)Green, Christopher & Jones, Evan. (2016). A first look at the morphophonology of Marka (Af-Ashraaf) and a comparison to its neighbors.

Jju is the native language of the Bajju people of Kaduna State in central Nigeria. It is also locally known as "Kaje or Kache" (by the Hausas). As of 1988, there were approximately 300,000 speakers. According to Blench (2008), Jju—with more speakers—appears to be a form of Tyap (although its speakers are ethnically distinct).

Comparative linguistic research by John M. Stewart in the sixties and seventies helped establish the genetic unity of Volta–Congo and shed light on its internal structure, but the results remain tentative. Williamson and Blench (2000) note that in many cases it is difficult to draw clear lines between the branches of Volta–Congo and suggest that this might indicate the diversification of a dialect continuum rather than a clear separation of families. This had been suggested before by Bennet (1983 as cited in Williamson and Blench 2000:17) in the case of the Gur and Adamawa–Ubangi languages, which apart from Ubangian are now linked together as Savannas. Other branches are Kru, Senufo, Kwa, and Benue–Congo, which includes the well-known and particularly numerous Bantu group.

The highly diverse Nilo-Saharan languages, first proposed as a family by Joseph Greenberg in 1963 might have originated in the Upper Paleolithic. Given the presence of a tripartite number system in modern Nilo-Saharan languages, linguist N.A. Blench inferred a noun classifier in the proto-language, distributed based on water courses in the Sahara during the "wet period" of the Neolithic Subpluvial.

Glottolog's classification is similar to Blench's, but the Piti–Atsam name is retained. In this classification, all languages except for Piti–Atsam are grouped under "Jos". Amo, while within the "Jos" group, is left out of both Kauru and Jera (or "Northern Jos", following Blench). Only Kurama, Gbiri-Niragu, Jere, Sanga and Lemoro have more than a few thousand speakers.

Roger Blench has proposed Southwestern Ethiopia, in or around the Omo Valley. Compared to Militarev and Ehret he proposed a relatively young time-depth of approximately 7,500 years. Like Ehret he accepts that Omotic is Afroasiatic and sees the split of northern languages from Omotic as an important early development, but he did not group Egyptian or Chadic with any of these.

Day is an Adamawa language of southern Chad, spoken by 50,000 or so people southeast of Sarh. Ethnologue reports that its dialects are mutually intelligible, but Blench (2004) lists Ndanga, Njira, Yani, Takawa as apparently separate languages. Pierre Nougayrol's publications and field notes of Day from the 1970s constitute almost all of the available materials on the Day language.Nougayrol, Pierre. 1979.

According to linguist Roger Blench, as of 2004, all specialists in Niger–Congo languages believe the languages to have a common origin, rather than merely constituting a typological classification, for reasons including their shared noun-class system, their shared verbal extensions and their shared basic lexicon.See also Bendor-Samuel, J. ed. 1989. The Niger–Congo Languages. Lanham: University Press of America.

Blench, Roger. 1999. "Are the African Pygmies an Ethnographic Fiction?" Pp 41–60 in Biesbrouck, Elders, & Rossel (eds.) Challenging Elusiveness: Central African Hunter-Gatherers in a Multidisciplinary Perspective. Leiden. However, recent genetic studies have found that Damara are closely related to neighbouring Himba and Herero people, consistent with an origin from Bantu speakers who shifted to a different language and culture.

Sagart is best known for his proposal of the Sino-Austronesian language family. He considers the Austronesian languages to be related to the Sino-Tibetan languages,Sagart, L. (2005) Sino-Tibetan- Austronesian: an updated and improved argument. In L. Sagart, R. Blench and A. Sanchez-Mazas (eds) The peopling of East Asia: Putting together Archaeology, Linguistics and Genetics 161–176. London: RoutledgeCurzon.

It is spoken by about 500 people in one village, Dokan Tofa, which is located on the Jos-Shendam road in Plateau State. Blench (2017) suggests that Chakato may be related to spurious records of the Jorto language. Chakato speakers claim that their language is closely related to Goemai. Jakato is spoken in Dokan Tofa town and nearby villages in southern Plateau State.

Jorto is a putative Afro-Asiatic language claimed to be spoken in Plateau State, Nigeria, and is currently listed in Ethnologue. It was introduced in an ethnographic study by C. G. Ames in 1934. It has now been retired by Glottolog, based on fieldwork evidence presented by Roger Blench that suggests that there is no independent evidence that Jorto ever existed.Blench, Roger. 2017.

The constituent families of Nilo-Saharan are quite diverse. One characteristic feature is a tripartite singulative–collective–plurative number system, which Blench (2010) believes is a result of a noun-classifier system in the protolanguage. The distribution of the families may reflect ancient water courses in a green Sahara during the Neolithic Subpluvial, when the desert was more habitable than it is today.

Hantgan and List report that Bangime speakers seem unaware that it is not mutually intelligible with any Dogon language.Hantgan, Abbie, and Johann-Mattis List. “Bangime: Secret Language, Language Isolate, or Language Island.” Roger Blench, who discovered the language was not a Dogon language, notes, :This language contains some Niger–Congo roots but is lexically very remote from all other languages in West Africa.

107–131 in Sagart, Laurent, Blench, Roger & Sanchez-Mazas, Alicia (eds.), The Peopling of East Asia: Putting Together Archaeology, Linguistics and Genetics. London/New York: Routledge-Curzon. Outside China, the Kra–Dai languages are now classified as an independent family. In China, they are called Zhuang–Dong languages and are generally included, along with the Hmong–Mien languages, in the Sino-Tibetan family.

According to Ethnologue 16, the two branches of Fali are "different," but it is not clear how distinct they are. Blench apparently treats them as half a dozen languages in two branches. South Fali has 20,000 speakers, with several dialects. North Fali, with 16,000 speakers, also has several dialects; North Fali speakers were "rapidly" shifting to Adamawa Fulfulde by 1982.

The phylogenetic unity of the North Bantoid group is sometimes thought to be questionable, and the Dakoid languages are often now placed outside Bantoid. But the work did establish Southern Bantoid as a valid genetic unit. Southern Bantoid includes the well known and numerous Bantu languages.Williamson, Kay & Blench, Roger (2000) 'Niger–Congo', in Heine, Bernd and Nurse, Derek (eds) African Languages – An Introduction.

The Macro-Somali languages or (in the conception of Bernd Heine, who does not include Baiso) Sam languages are a disputed branch of the Lowland East Cushitic languages in the classification of those who do not accept the unity of Omo–Tana. They are spoken in Somalia, Djibouti, eastern Ethiopia, and northern Kenya. The most important member is Somali.Roger Blench, 2006.

Ayu is a minor and endangered Plateau language of Kaduna State, northern Nigeria. Its subsequent classification is uncertain, but it may be one of the Ninzic languages (Blench 2008). It is not being passed on to many children. Ethnologue (22nd ed.) lists Ayu locations as Agamati, Amantu, Ambel, Anka, Arau, Digel, Gwade, Ikwa, Kongon, and Tayu villages in Sanga, Nigeria.

The Gbaya languages are traditionally classified as part of the Ubangian family. Moñino (2010), followed by Blench (2012), propose that they may instead be most closely related to the Central Gur languages, or perhaps constitute an independent branch of Niger–Congo, but that they do not form a group with Ubangian.Roger Blench, Niger-Congo: an alternative view Connections with Bantu are mostly limited to cultural vocabulary, and several Central Sudanic words suggest that the proto-Gbaya were hunter-gatherers who acquired agriculture from the Sara.Moñino (2010), The position of Gbaya-Manza- Ngbaka group among the Niger-Congo languages Proto-Gbaya vocabulary shared with Adamawa languages includes millet farming vocabulary, as well as terms for the elephant, guineafowl, Parkia biglobosa, Khaya senegalensis, and Ceiba pentandra, which are indicative of a language continuum native to a savanna environment.

Tumak, also known as Toumak, Tumag, Tummok, Sara Toumak, Tumac, and Dije, is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken in the southwestern Chadian prefectures of Moyen-Chari and Koumra. Motun (Mod) and Tumak dialects have a lexical similarity of only 70%; Blench (2006) lists Tumak, Motun, and Mawer as separate languages.Blench, 2006. The Afro-Asiatic Languages: Classification and Reference List (ms) Most Motun speakers use some Sara.

The Omo–Tana languages are a branch of the Cushitic family and are spoken in Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia, and Kenya. The largest member is Somali. There is some debate as to whether the Omo–Tana languages form a single group, or whether they are individual branches of Lowland East Cushitic. Blench (2006) restricts the name to the Western Omo–Tana languages, and calls the others Macro-Somali.

Scattered in Nasarawa and Taraba states are Tarok farming communities. The people have been described to some extent in anthropological and ethnographical works by Fitzpatrick (1910), Roger Blench, Lamle (1995),Lamle, E. N. (1995). Cultural Revival and Church Planting: A Nigerian Case study. Jos: CAPRO Media Famwang and Longtau (1997). The oTárók is an amalgamation of various peoples who now form a more or less ‘homogeneous’ group.

In old Slavic mythology, the linden (lipa, as called in all Slavic languages) was considered a sacred tree.Archaeology and Language: Language change and cultural transformation Roger Blench, Matthew Spriggs, p.199 Particularly in Poland, many villages have the name "Święta Lipka" (or similar), which literally means "Holy Lime". To this day, the tree is a national emblem of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Lusatia.

Later proposals to include the Korean and Japanese languages into a "Macro- Altaic" family have always been controversial. (The original proposal was sometimes called "Micro-Altaic" by retronymy.) Most proponents of Altaic continue to support the inclusion of Korean.Roger Blench and Mallam Dendo (2008): "Stratification in the peopling of China: how far does the linguistic evidence match genetics and archaeology?" In Alicia Sanchez-Mazas et al.

Most internal Mande classifications are based on lexicostatistics, and the results are unreliable (see, for example, Vydrin (2009), based on the Swadesh list). The following classification from Kastenholz (1996) is based on lexical innovations and comparative linguistics; details of East Mande are from Dwyer (1989, 1996), summarized in Williamson & Blench 2000. Paperno describes Beng and extinct Gbin as two primary branches of Southern Mande.

Within Benue–Congo, the place of origin of the Bantu languages as well as time at which it started to expand is known with great specificity. Blench (2004), relying particularly on prior work by Kay Williamson and P. De Wolf, argued that Benue–Congo probably originated at the confluence of the Benue and Niger Rivers in central Nigeria.Williamson, K. 1971. The Benue–Congo languages and Ijo.

Proposals for the external relationships of Nilo- Saharan typically center on Niger–Congo: Gregersen (1972) grouped the two together as Kongo–Saharan. However, Blench (2011) proposed that the similarities between Niger–Congo and Nilo-Saharan (specifically Atlantic–Congo and Central Sudanic) are due to contact, with the noun-class system of Niger–Congo developed from, or elaborated on the model of, the noun classifiers of Central Sudanic.

The Mararit language is a Taman language spoken in eastern Chad. There are two dialects, Ibiri and Abou Charib, which Blench (2006) counts as distinct languages. The majority speak the Abou Charid. Mararit people live in Argid Mararit, Abid Mararit, Wadah area, Donkey Kuma, Sani Kiro, in North Darfur State; in Silala area in South Darfur State and in Gienena province in West Darfur State.

According to Roger Blench, there are five different tones in Kuteb, these are: low (unmarked), mid (¯), high (´), falling (ˆ), and rising (ˇ). The fifth tone, (rising) is only created through sandhi changes that affect some vocabulary after an "upstep". According to W.E. Welmers, this sandhi change does not occur, and if it did, only the pronunciation would change, not the written diacritic as well.

Paul Sidwell and Roger Blench propose that the Austroasiatic phylum dispersed via the Mekong River drainage basin. Paul Sidwell (2009), in a lexicostatistical comparison of 36 languages which are well known enough to exclude loan words, finds little evidence for internal branching, though he did find an area of increased contact between the Bahnaric and Katuic languages, such that languages of all branches apart from the geographically distant Munda and Nicobarese show greater similarity to Bahnaric and Katuic the closer they are to those branches, without any noticeable innovations common to Bahnaric and Katuic. He therefore takes the conservative view that the thirteen branches of Austroasiatic should be treated as equidistant on current evidence. Sidwell & Blench (2011) discuss this proposal in more detail, and note that there is good evidence for a Khasi–Palaungic node, which could also possibly be closely related to Khmuic.

Blench, Roger. 2014. Suppose we are wrong about the Austronesian settlement of Taiwan? m.s. Taiwan was likely the birthplace of Proto-Austronesian languages that spread across the Pacific, Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia. Proto-Japonic arrived in Japan from nearby Pacific islands or mainland Asia around the 2nd century BC in the Yayoi Period, displacing the languages of the earlier Jōmon inhabitants which was likely a form of Proto-Ainu.

The Language of the Shompen of Great Nicobar: a preliminary appraisal. Kolkata: Anthropological Survey of India. However, Blench and Sidwell (2011) note that the 2003 book is at least partially plagiarized and that the authors show little sign of understanding the material, which is full of anomalies and inconsistencies. For example, is transcribed as short but schwa as long , the opposite of normal conventions in India or elsewhere.

The Elamite language is a language isolateRoger Blench, Matthew Spriggs (eds.)(2003),means "Archaeology and Language I: Theoretical and Methodological Orientationshill", Routledge, p.125Roger D. Woodard (ed.)(2008), "The Ancient Languages of Mesopotamia, Egypt and Aksum", Cambridge University Press, p.3Amalia E. Gnanadesikan (2011), "The Writing Revolution: Cuneiform toin the Internet", John Wiley & Sons Choga Zanbil is typically translated as 'basket mound.'Rohl, D: Legend: The Genesis of Civilisation, page 82.

Paper presented at the Workshop on the Languages of Papua 3. 20–24 January 2014, Manokwari, West Papua, Indonesia. argues that the aberrancy of Utupua and Vanikoro, which he considers to be separate branches that do not group with each other, is due to the fact that they are actually non-Austronesian languages. Blench (2014) doubts that Utupua and Vanikoro are closely related, and thus should not be grouped together.

There is little data on the Ninzic languages, and it is not clear that all of the following languages are related. Blench (2008) lists the following languages, twice as many as Greenberg 1963 ("Plateau IV"). They are not subclassified apart from a few obvious dialect clusters. :Ce (Che, Rukuba), Ninzo (Ninzam), Mada, Ninkyop (Kaninkwom)–Nindem, Kanufi (Anib), Gwantu (Gbantu), Bu-Ninkada (Bu), Ningye, Nungu, Ninka, Gbətsu, Nkɔ and perhaps Ayu.

A small number of Tai–Kadai languages (Ahom, Tai Phake, Khamti, etc.) are also spoken. Sino-Tibetan is represented by a number of languages that differ significantly from each other,Blench, R. & Post, M. W. (2013). Rethinking Sino-Tibetan phylogeny from the perspective of Northeast Indian languages some of which are: Bodo, Rabha, Karbi, Mising, Tiwa, Deori, Biate etc. (Assam); Garo, Hajong, Biate (Meghalaya) Ao, Angami, Sema, Lotha, Konyak etc.

Bata (Gbwata) is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Nigeria in Adamawa State in the Numan, Song, Fufore and Mubi LGAs, and in Cameroon in North Province along the border with Nigeria. Dialects are Demsa, Garoua, Jirai, Kobotachi, Malabu, Ndeewe, Ribaw, Wadi, and Zumu (Jimo). It is often considered the same language as Bacama. Blench (2019) lists Bwatye (endonym: Ɓwaare; exonym: Bachama) as a closely related language variety.

John Wiley & Sons, Inc: New York, p. 154, . Roger Blench (1997, 1999) criticized the hypothesis of an ancestral "Pygmy language", arguing that even if there is evidence for a common ancestral language rather than just borrowing, it will not be sufficient to establish a specifically "Pygmy" origin rather than any of the several potential language isolates of (former) hunter-gatherer populations that ring the rainforest.Blench, Roger (1997) "The languages of Africa".

However, fifteen years later his views had changed, with Blench (2011) proposing instead that the noun-classifier system of Central Sudanic, commonly reflected in a tripartite general–singulative–plurative number system, triggered the development or elaboration of the noun-class system of the Atlantic–Congo languages, with tripartite number marking surviving in the Plateau and Gur languages of Niger–Congo, and the lexical similarities being due to loans.

The extinct Meroitic language of ancient Kush has been accepted by linguists such as Rille, Dimmendaal, and Blench as Nilo-Saharan, though others argue for an Afroasiatic affiliation. It is poorly attested. There is little doubt that the constituent families of Nilo-Saharan—of which only Eastern Sudanic and Central Sudanic show much internal diversity—are valid groups. However, there have been several conflicting classifications in grouping them together.

Konso (Komso, Khonso, also Af Kareti, Afa Karatti, Conso, Gato, Karate, Kareti) is a Lowland East Cushitic language spoken in southwest Ethiopia. Native speakers of Konso number about 200,000 (SIL 2005). Konso is closely related to Dirasha (also known as Gidole), and serves as a "trade language"—or lingua franca—beyond the area of the Konso people. Blench (2006) considers purported dialects Gato and Turo to be separate languages.

The term "Bantoid" was first used by Krause in 1895 for languages that showed resemblances in vocabulary to Bantu. Joseph Greenberg, in his 1963 The Languages of Africa, defined Bantoid as the group to which Bantu belongs together with its closest relatives; this is the sense in which the term is still used today. However, according to Roger Blench, the Bantoid languages probably do not actually form a coherent group.

Hasha, also known as Yashi, is a Plateau language of Nasarawa State Nigeria. It has an idiosyncratic system of reduplicating the first syllable of noun stems, apparently under the influence of the Chadic language Sha. Hasha is spoken by about 3,000 people in Kwààn (Yàshì Sarki; Bwora), which is the main settlement, and also in the two nearby villages of Hàshàsu (Yàshì Pá) and Hùsù (Yàshì Madaki; Kusu).Blench, Roger.

The Katla languages are two to three closely related languages that form a small language family in the Nuba Hills of Sudan. Part of an erstwhile Kordofanian proposal, they are of uncertain position within the Niger–Congo family. They do not share the characteristic morphology of Niger–Congo, such as the noun-class system. Thus Roger Blench classifies them as a divergent branch of Niger–Congo outside the Atlantic–Congo core.

Part of an erstwhile Kordofanian proposal, they are of uncertain position within the Niger–Congo family. It was at first thought that they shared the characteristic morphology of Niger–Congo, such as the noun-class system. However, only the Tagoi branch has noun classes, and Blench remarks that it appears to have been borrowed. Thus, he classifies Rashad as a divergent branch of Niger–Congo outside the Atlantic–Congo core.

Boyd and Moñino (2010) removed the Gbaya and Zande languages.The position of Gbaya-Manza- Ngbaka group among the Niger-Congo languages The half dozen remaining branches are coherent, but their interrelationships are not straightforward. Williamson & Blench (2000) propose the following arrangement: In addition there is the Ngombe language, whose placement is uncertain due to a paucity of data. Note: The ambiguous name Ngbaka is used for various languages in the area.

Songhay is markedly divergent, in part due to massive influence from the Mande languages . Also problematic are the Kuliak languages, which are spoken by hunter-gatherers and appear to retain a non-Nilo-Saharan core; Blench believes they may have been similar to Hadza or Dahalo and shifted incompletely to Nilo-Saharan. Anbessa Tefera and Peter Unseth consider the poorly attested Shabo language to be Nilo-Saharan, though unclassified within the family due to lack of data; Dimmendaal and Blench consider it to be a language isolate on current evidence. Proposals have sometimes been made to add Mande (usually included in Niger–Congo), largely due to its many noteworthy similarities with Songhay rather than with Nilo-Saharan as a whole, however this relationship is more likely due to a close relationship between Songhay and Mande many thousands of years ago in the early days of Nilo- Saharan, so the relationship is probably more one of ancient contact than a genetic link .

Crozier and Blench (1992) give a figure of 20,000 speakers of the language located in and around Bashar town, some 50 km east of Amper on the Muri road. This estimate turned out to be entirely erroneous. The Bashar people seem to have been heavily affected by nineteenth century slave raids, perhaps by the Jukun as well as the Hausa. They were converted to Islam and a relatively powerful centre was established at Bashar.

Lafofa, also Tegem–Amira, is a Niger–Congo dialect cluster spoken in the southern Nuba Mountains in the south of Sudan. Blench (2010) considers the Tegem and Amira varieties to be distinct languages; as Lafofa is poorly attested, there may be others. Greenberg (1950) classified Lafofa as one of the Talodi languages, albeit a divergent one, but without much evidence. More recently this position has been abandoned, and Lafofa is left unclassified within Niger–Congo.

Dimmendaal (2008) notes that Greenberg (1963) based his conclusion on strong evidence and that the proposal as a whole has become more convincing in the decades since. Mikkola (1999) reviewed Greenberg's evidence and found it convincing. Roger Blench notes morphological similarities in all putative branches, which leads him to believe that the family is likely to be valid. Koman and Gumuz are poorly known and have been difficult to evaluate until recently.

Language isolates and independent language families in Arunachal are languages in Arunachal Pradesh, India, traditionally classified in Sino-Tibetan languages but recently possibly being language isolates and independent language families. Blench (2011) proposed four language isolates (Hruso, Miji, Miju, and Puroik) and three independent families (Mishmic, Kamengic, and Siangic).(De)classifying Arunachal languages: Reconsidering the evidence However, this is disputed by Anderson (2014)Anderson, Gregory D.S. 2014. On the classification of the Hruso (Aka) language.

Bankan Tey Dogon, at first called Walo-Kumbe Dogon after the two main villages it is spoken in, also known as Walo and Walonkore, is a divergent, recently described Dogon language spoken in Mali. It was first reported online by Roger Blench, who reports that it is "clearly related to Nanga", which is only known from one report from 1953. A third village investigated at the time, Been, speaks a related but lexically distinct form, Ben Tey Dogon.

Libido (also known as Mareqo, Mareko) is an Afroasiatic language of Ethiopia, which is spoken in the Mareko district Gurage Zone of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region, directly south-east of Butajira. It has about 64,000 native speakers (2007 census). It is closely related to Hadiyya (a dialect per Blench 2006) within the Highland East Cushitic languages. Its syntax is SOV; its verb has passive, reflexive and causative constructions, as well as a middle voice.

Roger Marsh Blench (born 1953) is a British linguist, ethnomusicologist and development anthropologist. He has an M.A. and a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and remains based in Cambridge, England. He actively researches and publishes, although he works as a private consultant rather than in academia. A noted expert in African linguistics, Blench's main area of linguistic interest is the Niger–Congo language family, although he has also researched the Nilo-Saharan and Afroasiatic families.

Abebe 2002 A variety called Laha is said to be 'close' to Wolaytta in Hayward (1990) but listed as a distinct language by Blench; however, it is not included in Ethnologue. Wolaytta has existed in written form since the 1940s, when the Sudan Interior Mission first devised a system for writing it. The writing system was later revised by a team led by Dr. Bruce Adams. They finished the New Testament in 1981 and the entire Bible in 2002.

One of the few supporters of McAlpin's proposal is Franklin Southworth. Southworth stated that although this proposed language family is not universally accepted, there is more evidence from some publications and research that adds viability to a linguistic relationship between Dravidian languages and Elamite. Elamite is generally accepted by scholars to be a language isolate, unrelated to any other known language.Roger Blench, Matthew Spriggs (eds.)(2003), "Archaeology and Language I: Theoretical and Methodological Orientations", Routledge, p.

The next year, William, Earl of Ross, granted the lands of Gairloch to Paul and his heirs by "Mary of Grahame", with remainder to the lawful heirs of Paul, for the annual payment of a silver penny in name of blench ferme, in lieu of all services, except forinsee service to the king if required. In 1372, the grant was confirmed by Robert II.Origines parochiales Scotiae: p. 406.Collectanea de Rebus Albanicis: p. 62 footnote 10.

Long known to be highly divergent from (other) Dogon languages, it was first proposed as a possible isolate by Blench (2005). Research since then has confirmed that it appears to be unrelated to neighbouring languages. Heath and Hantgan have hypothesized that the cliffs surrounding the Bangande valley provided isolation of the language as well as safety for Bangande people. Even though Bangime is not related to Dogon languages, the Bangande still consider their language to be Dogon.

Bussa, or Mossiya, is a Cushitic language spoken in the Dirashe special woreda of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region located in southern Ethiopia. The people themselves, numbering 18,000 according to the 2007 census, call their language Mossittaata. Blench (2006) reclassified Bussa from the Dullay to Konsoid branch of Cushitic, but left the Mashole, Lohu, and Dobase (D'oopace, D'opaasunte) dialects in Dullay as the Dobase language. He considers Mashile (Mashelle) to be a distinct language within Konsoid.

Blench, 2006. The Afro-Asiatic Languages: Classification and Reference List (ms) Bussa is highly influenced by surrounding Cushitic and Omotic languages and should be considered endangered according to Gurmu (2005). Speakers of the North Bussa variety are shifting to Oromo, Dirasha or Amharic, whereas speakers of the West Bussa variety are shifting to the Omotic languages Zargulla, Zayse and Gamo. Important factors for the ongoing language shift include intermarriage with other ethnic groups and heavy contact with neighbouring people.

Duli (Gewe, Gueve, Gey) is an extinct Adamawa language of northern Cameroon. Blench (2004) links Duli to the extinct Gey (Gewe) language; Glottolog states that Gey is undemonstrated as a distinct language. Duli and Gewe (Gey) were closely related language varieties, and were probably dialects of the same language according to Kleinewillinghöfer (2015). They were spoken around the confluence of the Benue and Mayo-Kebbi Rivers, and are documented by a word list in Strümpell (1922/23).

In addition to the traditional classification, two recent proposals are given, neither of which accepts traditional "Mon–Khmer" as a valid unit. However, little of the data used for competing classifications has ever been published, and therefore cannot be evaluated by peer review. In addition, there are suggestions that additional branches of Austroasiatic might be preserved in substrata of Acehnese in Sumatra (Diffloth), the Chamic languages of Vietnam, and the Land Dayak languages of Borneo (Adelaar 1995).Roger Blench, 2009.

Dimmendaal (2008) kept them together, though expressed doubts over whether they belonged in Nilo-Saharan, later referring to Gumuz as an isolate (2011). Ahland (2010, 2012), on the basis of new Gumuz data, resurrected the hypothesis. Blench (2010) independently came to the same conclusion and suggested that the Shabo language might be a third, outlying branch. The classification of Shabo is difficult because of a strong Koman influence on the language that is independent of any genealogical relationship between them.

Tuwat (Touat, Tuat) is a Zenati Berber language. It is spoken by Zenata Berbers in a number of villages in the Tuat region of southern Algeria; notably Tamentit (where it was already practically extinct by 1985Anonymous, "Le dernier document en berbère de Tamentit", Awal 1 (1985)) and Tittaf, located south of the Gurara Berber speech area. Ethnologue considers them a single language, "Zenati", but Blench (2006) classifies Gurara as a dialect of Mzab–Wargla and Tuwat as a dialect of the Riff cluster.

Université de Genève. The time of Proto-Hmong-Mien has been estimated to be about 2500 BP (500 BC) by Sagart, Blench, and Sanchez-Mazas using traditional methods employing many lines of evidence, and about 4243 BP by the Automated Similarity Judgment Program (ASJP), an experimental algorithm for automatic generation of phonologically based phylogenies. Paul K. Benedict, an American scholar, extended the Austric theory to include the Hmong–Mien languages. The hypothesis never received much acceptance for Hmong–Mien, however.

Proto-Hmong–Mien () is the reconstructed ancestor of the Hmong–Mien languages. The date of proto-Hmong-Mien has been estimated to be about 2500 BP by Sagart, Blench, and Sanchez-Mazas. It has been estimated to about 4243 BP by the Automated Similarity Judgment Program (ASJP), however, ASJP is not widely accepted among historical linguists as an adequate method to establish or evaluate relationships between language families.Cf. comments by Adelaar, Blust and Campbell in Holman, Eric W., et al.

Later migrating further westwards to Hainan, Mainland Southeast Asia and Northeast India. They propose that the distinctiveness of Kra-Dai (it is tonal and monosyllabic) was the result of linguistic restructuring due to contact with Hmong-Mien and Sinitic cultures. Aside from linguistic evidence, Roger Blench has also noted cultural similarities between the two groups, like facial tattooing, tooth removal or ablation, teeth blackening, snake (or dragon) cults, and the multiple-tongued jaw harps shared by the Indigenous Taiwanese and Kra-Dai-speakers.

15–31 ISSN 1341-7207 Early waves of migration to Taiwan proposed by Roger Blench (2014) The Sino- Austronesian hypothesis, on the other hand, is a relatively new hypothesis by Laurent Sagart, first proposed in 1990. It argues for a north–south linguistic genetic relationship between Chinese and Austronesian. This is based on sound correspondences in the basic vocabulary and morphological parallels. Sagart places special significance in shared vocabulary on cereal crops, citing them as evidence of shared linguistic origin.

He removed Waja from the Waja–Jen branch and reassigned it with Kam isolate; the placement of Baa is not clear. Fali is excluded from Savannas altogether. Blench also suggests that some of the western Adamawa languages are in fact closer to the Gur languages. Geographically, the Adamawa languages lie near the location of the postulated Niger–Congo – Central Sudanic contact that may have given rise to the Atlantic–Congo family, and so may represent the central radiation of that family.

The Tebul language, also known as Tebul Ure, is a Dogon language spoken in Mali by the Tebul U (Tebul people). It was first reported under this name online by Roger Blench, who erroneously reported that it appears to be the same as a language called Oru Yille in the literature. This mistaken name instead means 'two words' in the Tebul language. The language is divergent within Dogon and may constitute its own branch of that family, though it shows some affinities with the western languages.

Leiden: Brill. In Central Asia, records in Old Persian indicate that the Sogdian language had emerged by the time of the Achaemid Empire, although no records of Old Sogdian exist. Reconstructions, textual records and archaeological evidence increasingly shed light on the origins of languages in East Asia. According to archaeological and linguistic evidence published in 2014 by Roger Blench, Taiwan was populated with people arriving from the coastal-fishing Fujian Dapenkeng culture the millet cultivating Longshan culture in Shandong and possibly coastal areas of Guangdong.

The Karbi language (), is spoken by the Karbi (also known as Mikir or Arleng) people of Northeastern India. It belongs to the Sino-Tibetan language family, but its position is unclear. Grierson (1903)Linguistic survey of India vol III Part II classified it under Naga languages, Shafer (1974) and Bradley (1997) classify the Mikir languages as an aberrant Kuki-Chin branch, but Thurgood (2003) leaves them unclassified within Sino-Tibetan. Blench and Post (2013) classify it as one of the most basal languages of the entire family.

The earliest known inhabitants of Assam were late neolithic Austroasiatic peoples who came from Southeast Asia."The peopling of Assam was first started with a wave of migration of the Australoids or Austro-Asiatic speaking people from south-east Asia..." Linguistic studies indicate that the Austroasiatic peoples likely moved upstream along the Mekong river to reach the region bringing with it an aquatic culture.Sidwell, Paul, and Roger Blench. 2011. "The Austroasiatic Urheimat: the Southeastern Riverine Hypothesis." Enfield, NJ (ed.) Dynamics of Human Diversity, 317–345.

The Fer language, also Dam Fer or Fertit, one of several languages called Kara ("Kara of Birao"), is a Central Sudanic language spoken by some five thousand people in the northern Central African Republic near the Sudanese and Chadian borders, in the region known as Dar Runga. While the Ethnologue leaves it unclassified, it appears to be a Bongo–Bagirmi language within the Central Sudanic family (Lionel Bender, Pascal Boyeldieu); Roger Blench classifies "Fer" as Bagirmi, but "Kara of Birao" as one of the related Kara languages.

The internal classification of Oti–Volta, as worked out by Gabriel Manessy 1975–79 and Naden 1989 (Williamson & Blench 2000) is as follows: Native Dagbani speakers assert that Dagbani is mutually intelligible with Dagaare, Frafra, Mamprusi, and Wali, but in the case of Dagaare, Frara and Wali it is rather the case that many people can understand some of a language which is not their mother tongue. These languages are not mutually intelligible with Mõõré or Kusaal (a language spoken in Bawku West District and adjacent areas).

These include fish names for the sea eel, yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares), left-eye flounder (Bothus mancus), triggerfish, sailfish, barracuda (Sphyraena barracuda), damsel fish (Abudefduf sp.), squirrelfish (Holocentrus spp.), unicorn fish (Naso spp.), trevally, land crab (Cardisoma rotundus), and wrasse. This suggests that Oceanic speakers had influenced the fishing culture of Palau, and had been fishing and trading in the vicinity of Palau for quite some time. Blench (2015) also suggests that the Palauan language displays influence from Central Philippine languages and Samalic languages.

Lepcha is difficult to classify, but George van Driem (2001) suggests that it may be closest to the Mahakiranti languages, a subfamily of the Himalayish languages. Lepcha is internally diverse, showing lexical influences from different majority language groups across the four main Lepcha communities. According to Plaisier (2007), these Nepali and Sikkimese Tibetan influences do not amount to a dialectical difference. Roger Blench (2013) suggests that Lepcha has an Austroasiatic substratum, which originated from a now-extinct branch of Austroasiatic that he calls "Rongic".

He assumes early Indo-Aryan presence in the Late Harappan horizon from about 1900 BCE, and "Proto-Rigvedic" (Proto-Dardic) intrusion to the Punjab as corresponding to the Gandhara grave culture from about 1700 BCE. According to this model, Rigvedic within the larger Indo-Aryan group is the direct ancestor of the Dardic languages.Parpola, Asko (1999), "The formation of the Aryan branch of Indo-European", in Blench, Roger & Spriggs, Matthew, Archaeology and Language, vol. III: Artefacts, languages and texts, London and New York: Routledge.

Jukun (Njikum), or more precisely Jukun Takum, is a Jukunoid language of Cameroon used as a trade language in Nigeria. Though there are only a few thousand native speakers, and only a dozen in Nigeria (as of 2000), it is spoken as a second language in Nigeria by tens of thousands (40,000 reported in 1979). The name Jukun is a cover term for several related Jukunoid languages, such as the much more numerous Jukun Wapan. Wase Tofa is listed by Blench (2019) as a dialect.

The Yangkam (Yaŋkam) people have been called ‘Bashar’ or ‘Basherawa’ (the Hausaised name for the people) in almost all the literature (Greenberg 1963; Williamson 1971; Benue-Congo Comparative Wordlist; Hansford et al. 1976; Gerhardt 1989; Crozier & Blench 1992). The correct name of the Bashar language and people is Yàŋkàm, plural aYaŋkam+. Although Yangkam has nearly disappeared as a language, the populations who formerly spoke it are likely to retain Basherawa and Basheranci as their name for the people and language as long as they retain a separate identity.

The Igboid languages form a cluster within the Volta–Niger phylum, most likely grouped with Yoruboid and Edoid.Williamson & Blench (2000) 'Niger–Congo', in Heine & Nurse, African Languages. The greatest differentiation within the Igboid group is between the Ekpeye and the rest. Williamson (2002) argues that based on this pattern, proto-Igboid migration would have moved down the Niger from a more northern area in the savannah and first settled close to the delta, with a secondary center of Igbo proper more to the north, in the Awka area.

The most likely homeland of the Hmong–Mien languages (aka Miao–Yao languages) is in Southern China between the Yangtze and Mekong rivers, but speakers of these languages may have migrated from Central China either as part of the Han Chinese expansion or as a result of exile from an original homeland by Han Chinese.Roger Blench, "Stratification in the peopling of China: how far does the linguistic evidence match genetics and archaeology?," Paper for the Symposium "Human migrations in continental East Asia and Taiwan: genetic, linguistic and archaeological evidence". Geneva June 10–13, 2004.

Diedrich Hermann Westermann, a missionary and linguist, hesitated between assigning it to Gur or considering it an isolate, and Maurice Delafosse grouped it with Mande. At present, Songhay is normally considered to be Nilo-Saharan, following Joseph Greenberg's 1963 reclassification of African languages; Greenberg's argument is based on about 70 claimed cognates, including pronouns. This proposal has been developed further by, in particular, Lionel Bender, who sees it as an independent subfamily of Nilo-Saharan. Roger Blench notes that Songhay shares the defining singulative–plurative morphology typical of Nilo-Saharan languages.

The Ikwerre language is classified as an Igbo dialect. The classification of Ikwerre as an Igbo dialect however is a subject of controversy among some in the Ikwerre community due to political reasons. Based on lexicostatistical analysis, Kay Williamson originally asserted that the Ikwerre, Ekpeye, Ogba, Etche and Igbo languages belonged to the same language cluster, but were not dialects. Subsequent studies by both Williamson and Roger Blench concluded that Igbo, Ikwerre, Ogba and their sister languages apart from Ekpeye form a "language cluster" and that they are somewhat mutually intelligible.

Settled cultivation is relatively recent and thus words associated with this are usually borrowed from neighbouring languages or from languages introduced by, or as a result of, colonialism – English, Luganda, Swahili. Modern technical words come from these latter also. Closely related languages and dialects are spoken by many more peoples, including the Jie, Dodoth, Teso (in Uganda), Turkana, Tesyo (in Kenya), Jiye, Toposa in South Sudan (?), and also by at least one tribe in Ethiopia, the Nyangatom. Jie and Dodoth (Dodos) are counted as dialects by Ethnologue 16, but as separate languages by Blench (2012).

The Bendi languages are a small group of Benue–Congo languages of uncertain affiliation spoken in Cross River State, southeastern Nigeria, with one (Bokyi) having some speakers in Cameroon. Once counted among the Cross River languages, Blench (2011) suggests that they may actually be a branch of Southern Bantoid, and observes similarities especially with the Ekoid languages. Very little research has been conducted on the Bendi languages, and the modern work that does exist often remains either unpublished or inaccessible. The group is notable for having one language (Ubang) that has male and female forms.

Roger Blench, Niger-Congo: an alternative view The Atlantic branch is defined in the narrow sense, while the former Atlantic branches Mel and the isolates Sua, Gola and Limba, are split out as primary branches; they are mentioned next to each other because there is no published evidence to move them; Volta–Congo is intact apart from Senufo and Kru. In addition, Güldemann (2018) lists Nalu and Rio Nunez as unclassified languages within Niger-Congo. There are a few poorly attested languages, such as Bayot and Bung, which may prove to be additional branches.

Dated at Jedburgh 14 January 1512-13, David Routlege witnessed a charter by "William Douglas of Drumlanrig knight and lord of the barony of Hawick, granting and selling to Alexander Lord Home great chamberlain of Scotland, the lands of Braidlie in the barony of Hawick and sheriffdom of Roxburgh. To be held of the granter and his heirs for a blench duty of a red rose at Midsummer. Witnesses, Andrew Ker of Fairneyhirst, Andrew Macdowall of Mackerstouon, William Maitland, William Scot, David Routlege and James Blair." AD 1512.

Cambridge linguist and anthropologist Roger Blench sees the Solubba as the last survivors of Palaeolithic hunters and salt-traders who once dominated Arabia. Those were assimilated in the next wave of humans consisted of cattle herders in the 6th millennium BCE who introduced cows, wild donkeys, sheep and dogs, wild camels and goats. Those peoples may have engaged in trade across the Red Sea with speakers of Cushitic or Nilo-Saharan. In the 3rd and 2nd millennium BCE speakers of Semitic languages arrived from the Near East and marginalised and absorbed the rest.

The East Zenati languages (Blench, 2006) or Tunisian and Zuwara (Kossmann, 2013) are a group of the Zenati Berber dialects spoken in Tunisia and Libya. Maarten Kossmann considers the easternmost varieties of Zenati dialects as transitional to Eastern Berber, but they are quite different from the neighboring Nafusi. According to Kossmann, the dialect cluster of Tunisian Berber and Zuwara is consisting of the varieties spoken in mainland Tunisia (Sened (extinct), Matmata and Tataouine), Jerba and Zuwara, but not Nafusi which is considered a dialect of Eastern Berber.M. Kossmann, The Arabic Influence on Northern Berber, p.

Mande does not share the morphology characteristic of most of the Niger–Congo family, such as the noun-class system. Blench regards it as an early branch that, like Ijoid and perhaps Dogon, diverged before this morphology developed. Dwyer (1998) compared it with other branches of Niger–Congo and finds that they form a coherent family, with Mande being the most divergent of the branches he considered. However, Dimmendaal (2008) argues that the evidence for inclusion is slim, with no new evidence for decades, and for now Mande is best considered an independent family.

Ubangian was grouped with Niger–Congo by Greenberg (1963), and later authorities concurred,Williamson, Kay & Blench, Roger (2000) 'Niger–Congo', in Heine, Bernd & Nurse, Derek (eds.) African languages: an introduction, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. but it was questioned by Dimmendaal (2008).Gerrit Dimmendaal (2008) "Language Ecology and Linguistic Diversity on the African Continent", Language and Linguistics Compass 2/5:841. The Bantu expansion, beginning around 1000 BC, swept across much of Central and Southern Africa, leading to the extinction of much of the indigenous Pygmy and Bushmen (Khoisan) populations there.

In relation to Sino-Austronesian models and the Longshan interaction sphere, Roger Blench (2014) suggests that the single migration model for the spread of the Neolithic into Taiwan is problematic, pointing out the genetic and linguistic inconsistencies between different Taiwanese Austronesian groups. The surviving Austronesian populations on Taiwan should rather be considered as the result of various Neolithic migration waves from the mainland and back migration from the Philippines. These incoming migrants almost certainly spoke languages related to Austronesian or pre-Austronesian, although their phonology and grammar would have been quite diverse.Blench, Roger. 2014.

In 1963, Joseph Greenberg added them to the Niger–Congo family, creating his Niger–Kordofanian proposal. The Kordofanian languages have not been shown to be more distantly related than other branches of Niger–Congo, however, and they have not been shown to constitute a valid group. Today, the Kadu languages are excluded, and the others are usually included in Niger–Congo proper. Roger Blench notes that the Talodi and Heiban families have the noun class systems characteristic of the Atlantic–Congo core of Niger–Congo but that the two Katla languages have no trace of ever having had such a system.

Based on the 1997 data, however, van Driem concluded that Shompen was a Nicobarese language. Blench and Sidwell note many cognates with both Nicobarese and with Jahaic in the 2003 data, including many words found only in Nicobarese or only in Jahaic (or sometimes also in Senoic), and they also note that Shompen shares historical phonological developments with Jahaic. Given the likelihood of borrowing from Nicobarese, that suggests that Shompen might be a Jahaic or at least Aslian language, or perhaps a third branch of a Southern Austroasiatic family alongside Aslian and Nicobarese. However, Paul Sidwell (2017)Sidwell, Paul. 2017.

The Momo languages are a branch of the Southern Bantoid languages spoken in the Western grassfields of Cameroon. The languages are: :Meta' (Moghamo)–Ngamambo, Mundani, Ngie (Mengum), Ngoshie, Ngwo (Basa, Konda), Njen, Amasi Ethnologue 16 adds Menka, but that is a Southwest Grassfields (West Momo) language. Blench (2010) notes there is little evidence that Momo belongs among the Grassfields languages as it has been traditionally classified. (The erstwhile West Momo languages are clearly in the Grassfields family.) Momo may actually be closer to the poorly established Tivoid group, though that may be an effect of contact.

Diakonoff sees Semitic originating between the Nile Delta and Canaan as the northernmost branch of Afroasiatic. Blench even wonders whether the highly divergent Gurage languages indicate an origin in Ethiopia (with the rest of Ethiopic Semitic a later back migration). Identification of the hypothetical proto-Semitic region of origin is therefore dependent on the larger geographic distributions of the other language families within Afroasiatic, whose origins are also hotly debated. According to Christy G. Turner II, there is an archaeological and physical anthropological reason for a relation between the modern Semitic- speaking populations of the Levant and the Natufian culture.

The Benue-Congo homeland Roger Blench, relying particularly on prior work by Professor Kay Williamson of the University of Port Harcourt, and the linguist P. De Wolf, who each took the same position, has argued that a Benue–Congo linguistic subfamily of the Niger–Congo language family, which includes the Bantu languages and other related languages and would be the largest branch of Niger–Congo, is an empirically supported grouping which probably originated at the confluence of the Benue and Niger Rivers in Central Nigeria.Williamson, K. 1971. The Benue–Congo languages and Ijo. Current Trends in Linguistics, 7. ed.

Pre-Indo- European Writing in Old Europe as a Challenge to the Indo-European Intruders Indogermanische Forschungen; Strassburg Vol. 96, (Jan 1, 1991): 1Roger Blench, Matthew Spriggs (eds.) Archaeology and Language III: Artefacts, Languages and Texts, (2012, Routledge) A handful of the pre-Indo-European languages still survive; in Europe, Basque retains a localised strength, with fewer than a million native speakers, and the Dravidian languages of South Asia remain very widespread there, with over 200 million native speakers. Some of the pre-Indo- European languages are attested only as linguistic substrates in Indo-European languages.

Bench (Bencnon, Shenon or Mernon, formerly called Gimira Rapold 2006) is a Northern Omotic language of the "Gimojan" subgroup, spoken by about 174,000 people (in 1998) in the Bench Maji Zone of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region, in southern Ethiopia, around the towns of Mizan Teferi and Shewa Gimira. In a 2006 dissertation, Christian Rapold described three varieties of Bench (Benchnon, Shenon, and Mernon) as "...mutually intelligible...varieties of one and the same language", whereas Blench (2006) considers the three to be distinct languages. In unusual variance from most of the other languages in Africa, Bench has retroflex consonant phonemes.Breeze 1988.

Bernd Heine, who surveyed the area less than ten years after Wilson and found no trace of the language, expressed skepticism that it existed at all.2004, Mostafa Lameen Souag, Oropom Etymological Lexicon: Exploring an extinct, unclassified Ugandan language Both Lionel Bender and Roger Blench have opined that the language was made up as a joke. Souag (2004) lists several motives Wilson's informants might have had to fabricate the language, and observes that even in his article, Wilson notes that he had to deal with "charlatans" once word got out that he was looking for anyone with knowledge of the language.

Some Jarawan Bantu languages are listed in the Benue–Congo Comparative wordlist (henceforth BCCW) (Williamson & Shimizu 1968; Williamson 1973) and a student questionnaire at the University of Ibadan in the early 1970s provided additional sketchy data on others." According to Blench (2006): "Maddieson & Williamson (1975) represents the first attempt to synthesise this data on the position of these languages. Since that period, publications have been limited. . . . Lukas and Gerhardt (1981) analyse some rather hastily collected data on Mbula, while Gerhardt (1982) published an analysis of some of this new data and memorably named the Jarawan Bantu "the Bantu who turned back".

Internet-based applications of tele-epidemiology include sourcing of epidemiological data in generating internet reports and real-time disease mapping. This entails gathering and structuring epidemiological data from news and social media outlets, and mapping or reporting this data for application with research or public health organizations. Examples of such applications include HealthMap and ProMED- mail, two web-based services that map and e-mail global cases of disease outbreak, respectively.Keller, M., Blench, M., Tolentino, H., Freifeld, C.C., Mandl, K.D., Mawudeku, A., Eysenbach, G., Brownstein, J.S. (2009) Use of unstructured event-based reports for global infectious disease.

It is presumably the last remaining representative of the languages spoken prior to the expansion of the Dogon proper, which he dates to 3,000–4,000 years ago. Bangime has been characterised as an anti-language, i.e., a language that serves to prevent its speakers from being understood by outsiders, possibly associated with the Bangande villages having been a refuge for escapees from slave caravans. Blench (2015) suggests that Bangime and Dogon languages have a substratum from a "missing" branch of Nilo-Saharan that had split off relatively early from Proto-Nilo-Saharan, and tentatively calls that branch "Plateau".

Genetically, Goemai has been consistently classified as a member of the Afro-Asiatic language family in the West Chadic A language sub- family. There have been attempts to apply more specific genetic classifications to Goemai beyond its membership in the West Chadic A language family, but these attempts have not reached consensus. Hellwig posits that Goemai is further included in the Angas-Gerka, Angas-Goemai, and Southern Angas-Goemai subfamilies, whereas Blench instead classifies Goemai as a member of the Bole-Angas and Angas subfamilies. Glottolog categorizes Goemai as a member of the West Chadic A.3, Goemaic, and Goemai-Chakato subfamilies.

In 1475, when King James III was trying to subjugate John of Islay, Earl of Ross, Campbell was given a commission of lieutenancy to execute the forfeiture of the Earl of Ross' lands. In 1479, he was confirmed in the offices of Lieutenant and Commissary of Argyll, which had been held by his ancestors, Gillespic and Colin Campbell, since 1382. Further favors came to the Earl of Argyll in 1480, when the King granted him 160 marklands of the lordship of Knapdale, including the keeping of Castle Sween, for one silver penny in blench farm, i.e., nominal rent.

Other geographic names for various subregions include Malay Peninsula, Greater Sunda Islands, Lesser Sunda Islands, Island Melanesia, Island Southeast Asia (ISEA), Malay Archipelago, Maritime Southeast Asia (MSEA), Melanesia, Micronesia, Near Oceania, Oceania, Pacific Islands, Remote Oceania, Polynesia, and Wallacea. In Indonesia and Malaysia, the nationalistic term Nusantara is also popularly used for their islands. Extent of contemporary Austronesia and possible further migrations and contact (Blench, 2009) Historically, Austronesians uniquely live in an "island world". Austronesian regions are almost exclusively islands in the Pacific and Indian oceans, with predominantly tropical or subtropical climates with considerable seasonal rainfall.

Additionally, modern-era migration brought Austronesian-speaking people to the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, mainland Europe, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Hainan, Hong Kong, Macau, and West Asian countries. Some authors also propose further settlements and contacts in the past in areas that are not inhabited by Austronesian speakers today. These range from likely hypotheses to very controversial claims with minimal evidence. In 2009, Roger Blench compiled an expanded map of Austronesia that encompass these claims based on various evidence like historical accounts, loanwords, introduced plants and animals, genetics, archeological sites, and material culture.

The Boesi speak a dialect of the Malagasy language, which originated in southern Borneo. Speculation that there may be remnants of a Vazimba language in Beosi speech was investigated by Blench & Walsh (2009). Beosi speech was found to have a relatively high proportion of vocabulary that cannot be identified with words in other varieties of Malagasy, substantially more than the Mikea dialect, and is more likely than Mikea to retain a Vazimba substrate, if such a thing even exists. The possibility is complicated by the extensive use of evasive language and cant by the Beosi, which is designed to hinder understanding by outsiders.

Songs, mythological stories, and star charts were used to help people remember important navigational information. Meanwhile, Austronesians in Island Southeast Asia began the first true maritime trade networks by about 1000 BC, linking China, southern India, the Middle East, and coastal eastern Africa. Settlers from Borneo reached Madagascar by the early 1st millennium AD and colonized it by AD 500.The precise time of Austronesians reaching Madagascar is unknown, at the earliest is the earliest centuries BCE (Blench, “The Ethnographic Evidence for Long-distance Contacts”, p. 432.), the latest is no earlier than 7th century CE (Adelaar, “The Indonesian Migrations to Madagascar”, p. 15.).

Elamite is regarded by the vast majority of linguists as a language isolate,Roger Blench, Matthew Spriggs (eds.)(2003), "Archaeology and Language I: Theoretical and Methodological Orientations", Routledge, p.125Roger D. Woodard (ed.)(2008), "The Ancient Languages of Mesopotamia, Egypt and Aksum", Cambridge University Press, p.3Amalia E. Gnanadesikan (2011), "The Writing Revolution: Cuneiform to the Internet", John Wiley & Sons as it has no demonstrable relationship to the neighbouring Semitic languages, Indo-European languages, or to Sumerian, despite having adopted the Sumerian-Akkadian cuneiform script. An Elamo- Dravidian family connecting Elamite with the Dravidian languages of India was suggested by Igor M. Diakonoff and later, in 1974, defended by David McAlpin.

There may have been a mix-up with Birgit, a nearby Mubi language which is also called Kujarge; when Newman was shown the 200-word list in 2006, he would not commit to it being Chadic. In addition, there appears to be a large amount of vocabulary that has not been identified as Afro-Asiatic; there is a possibility that it is a language isolate that has been largely relexified by Chadic and Cushitic.Roger Blench and Mauro Tosco, 2010. 'Cushitic, Omotic, Chadic and the position of Kujarge' , Workshop « Language Isolates in Africa », Lyons Blažek (2013) purports to show that Kujarge is an East Chadic language.

Linguist Gerrit Dimmendaal (2008) believes that for now it is best considered an independent language family. Roger Blench argues that the Songhay and Saharan languages form a Songhay-Saharan branch with each other within the wider Nilo- Saharan linguistic phylum. Historically, the name Songhay was neither an ethnic nor a linguistic designation, but a name for the ruling caste of the Songhai Empire. Under the influence of French language usage, speakers in Mali have increasingly been adopting it as an ethnic self-designation;Heath 1999:2 however, other Songhay-speaking groups identify themselves with other ethnic terms, such as Zarma (Djerma) or Isawaghen (Sawaq).

Ijoid is a proposed but undemonstrated group of languages linking the Ijaw languages (Ịjọ) with the endangered Defaka language. The similarities, however, may be due to Ijaw influence on Defaka.Roger Blench, Niger-Congo: an alternative view The Ijoid, or perhaps just Ijaw, languages form a divergent branch of the Niger–Congo family and are noted for their subject–object–verb basic word order, which is otherwise an unusual feature in Niger–Congo, shared only by such distant branches as Mande and Dogon. Like Mande and Dogon, Ijoid lacks even traces of the noun class system considered characteristic of Niger–Congo, and so might have split early from that family.

Omotic is generally considered the most divergent branch of the Afroasiatic languages. Greenberg (1963) had classified it as the Western branch of Cushitic. Fleming (1969) argued that it should instead be classified as an independent branch of Afroasiatic, a view which Bender (1971) established to most linguists' satisfaction,Hayward (2000:85) though a few linguists maintain the West Cushitic positionLamberti (1991), Zaborksi (1986) or that only South Omotic forms a separate branch, with North Omotic remaining part of Cushitic. Blench (2006) notes that Omotic shares honey-related vocabulary with the rest of Afroasiatic but not cattle-related vocabulary, suggesting that the split occurred before the advent of pastoralism.

Bura Sign Language is a village sign language used by the Bura people around the village of Kukurpu, 40 km (25 miles) south-east of Biu, Nigeria, an area with a high degree of congenital deafness. What little is known about it is due to a brief visit and a videotape by Robert Blench in 2003. It is "likely ... quite independent" from other, better-known sign languages such as Nigerian Sign Language, since none of the signers have been to school and the area where it is used is rather remote. Bura SL has the lax hand shapes and large sign space characteristic of indigenous West African sign languages.

The constituent groups of the Volta–Niger family, along with the most important languages in terms of number of speakers, are as follows (with number of languages for each branch in parentheses): The Yoruboid languages and Akoko were once linked as the Defoid branch, but more recently they, Edoid, and Igboid have been suggested to be primary branches of an as-yet unnamed group, often abbreviated . Similarly, Oko, Nupoid, and Idomoid are often grouped together under the acronym . Ukaan is an Atlantic–Congo language, but it is unclear if it belongs to the Volta–Niger family; Blench suspects it is closer to Benue–Congo.

The idea that Neolithic expansion in Island Southeast Asia did not involve farming practices was described by Matthew Spriggs, an active voice in this archaeological topic. Material culture of this epoch such as the red-slipped pottery marks the fusion of different social groups including migrants from outside of these islands as well as individuals already situated in the area. Spriggs describes that “subsistence changes were not needed to change identities” showing that although changes did occur in this region it did not necessarily include farming practices. Roger Blench, supports the idea of the agriculture failure of Austronesian migrants and suggests that migration expansion and cultural assimilation by religious practices was more prevalent rather than agricultural practices.

Alaba-Kʼabeena (Alaaba, Alaba, Allaaba, Halaba), also known as Wanbasana, is a Highland East Cushitic language spoken in Ethiopia by the Alaba and Kebena peoples in the Great Rift Valley southwest of Lake Shala, specifically in Alaba special district, the Kebena district of Gurage Zone, and the Goro district of Oromia Region. The literacy rate of native speakers in their language is below 1%, while their literacy rate in second languages is 8.6%; Alaba-Kʼabeena is taught in primary schools. It has an 81% lexical similarity with Kambaata. However, Fleming (1976) classifies Kʼabeena (also transliterated "Qebena" or "Kebena") as a dialect of Kambaata, and Blench (2006) classifies both as dialects of Kambaata.

The Dogon languages show few remnants of a noun class system (one example is that human nouns take a distinct plural suffix), leading linguists to conclude that Dogon is likely to have diverged from Niger–Congo very early. Another indication of this is the subject–object–verb basic word order, which Dogon shares with such early Niger–Congo branches as Ijoid and Mande. About 1,500 ethnic Dogon in seven villages in southern Mali speak the Bangime language, which is unrelated to the other Dogon languages and presumed by linguists to be an ancient, pre- Dogon language isolate, although a minority of linguists (most notably Roger Blench) hypothesise that it may be related to Proto-Nilo-Saharan.Blench, Roger. 2015.

Over the years, several linguists have suggested a link between Niger–Congo and Nilo-Saharan, probably starting with Westermann's comparative work on the "Sudanic" family in which 'Eastern Sudanic' (now classified as Nilo-Saharan) and 'Western Sudanic' (now classified as Niger–Congo) were united. Gregersen (1972) proposed that Niger–Congo and Nilo-Saharan be united into a larger phylum, which he termed Kongo–Saharan. His evidence was mainly based on the uncertainty in the classification of Songhay, morphological resemblances, and lexical similarities. A more recent proponent was Roger Blench (1995), who puts forward phonological, morphological and lexical evidence for uniting Niger–Congo and Nilo-Saharan in a Niger–Saharan phylum, with special affinity between Niger–Congo and Central Sudanic.

Genetic studies of Nilo-Saharan-speaking populations are in general agreement with archaeological evidence and linguistic studies that argue for a Nilo-Saharan homeland in eastern Sudan before 6000 BCE, with subsequent migration events northward to the eastern Sahara, westward to the Chad Basin, and southeastward into Kenya and Tanzania.Michael C. Campbell and Sarah A. Tishkoff, "The Evolution of Human Genetic and Phenotypic Variation in Africa," Current Biology, Volume 20, Issue 4, R166–R173, 23 February 2010 Linguist Roger Blench has suggested that the Nilo-Saharan languages and the Niger–Congo languages may be branches of the same macro–language family.Blench, R.M. 1995, 'Is Niger–Congo simply a branch of Nilo-Saharan?' In: Proceedings of the Fifth Nilo-Saharan Linguistics Colloquium, Nice, 1992. ed.

Blench (2017) finds widespread Austroasiatic roots for 'river, valley', 'boat', 'fish', 'catfish sp.', 'eel', 'prawn', 'shrimp' (Central Austroasiatic), 'crab', 'tortoise', 'turtle', 'otter', 'crocodile', 'heron, fishing bird', and 'fish trap'. Archaeological evidence for the presence of agriculture in northern Indochina (northern Vietnam, Laos, and other nearby areas) dates back to only about 4,000 years B.P. (2,000 BC), with agriculture ultimately being introduced from further up to the north in the Yangtze valley where it has been dated to 6,000 B.P. Hence, this points to a relatively late riverine dispersal of Austroasiatic as compared to Sino-Tibetan, whose speakers had a distinct non-riverine culture. In addition to living an aquatic-based lifestyle, early Austroasiatic speakers would have also had access to livestock, crops, and newer types of watercraft.

Siwu has traditionally been grouped with some twelve other geographically isolated languages in the area under the heading Ghana–Togo Mountain languages (formerly Togorestsprachen or 'Togo Remnant languages'), although it has been noted that this grouping is based on a few broad typological and demographic considerations more than on thorough comparative research (Blench 2001). It has never been disputed however that the language is part of the Kwa branch of Niger–Congo, Africa’s largest language family. Within the Ghana–Togo Mountain Languages, the closest relatives of Siwu are Lεlεmi (Buem), Sεlε (Santrokofi), and Sεkpεlε (Likpe); with Siwu, these languages form a group that has been called the Buem group (Heine 1969). Ikpana (Logba) is somewhat further removed both geographically and linguistically.

Daic languages and their relation with Austronesian languages (Blench, 2018) Several scholars have presented suggestive evidence that Kra–Dai is related to or a branch of the Austronesian language family. There are a number of possible cognates in the core vocabulary displaying regular sound correspondences. Among proponents, there is yet no agreement as to whether they are a sister group to Austronesian in a family called Austro-Tai, a back- migration from Taiwan to the mainland, or a later migration from the Philippines to Hainan during the Austronesian expansion. The inclusion of Japanese in the Austro-Tai family, as proposed by Paul K. Benedict in the late 20th century, is not supported by the current proponents of the Austro-Tai hypothesis.

The homeland of the Turkic peoples and their language is suggested to be somewhere between the Transcaspian steppe and Northeastern Asia (Manchuria), with genetic evidence pointing to the region near South Siberia and Mongolia as the "Inner Asian Homeland" of the Turkic ethnicity. Similarly several linguists, including Juha Janhunen, Roger Blench and Matthew Spriggs, suggest that modern-day Mongolia is the homeland of the early Turkic language. Extensive contact took place between Proto-Turks and Proto-Mongols approximately during the first millennium BC; the shared cultural tradition between the two Eurasian nomadic groups is called the "Turco-Mongol" tradition. The two groups shared a similar religion-system, Tengrism, and there exists a multitude of evident loanwords between Turkic languages and Mongolic languages.

Genetic studies of Nilo-Saharan-speaking populations are in general agreement with archaeological evidence and linguistic studies that argue for a Nilo-Saharan homeland in eastern Sudan before 6000 BCE, with subsequent migration events northward to the eastern Sahara, westward to the Chad Basin, and southeastward into Kenya and Tanzania.Michael C. Campbell and Sarah A. Tishkoff, "The Evolution of Human Genetic and Phenotypic Variation in Africa," Current Biology, Volume 20, Issue 4, R166–R173, 23 February 2010 Linguist Roger Blench has suggested that the Nilo-Saharan languages and the Niger–Congo languages may be branches of the same macro–language family.Blench, R.M. 1995, 'Is Niger–Congo simply a branch of Nilo-Saharan?' In: Proceedings of the Fifth Nilo-Saharan Linguistics Colloquium, Nice, 1992. ed.

The classification of Enggano is controversial, ranging from proposals that negate its inclusion in the Austronesian family all the way to classifications that place Enggano in the Northwest Sumatra–Barrier Islands subgroup together with other Austronesian languages of the area (e.g. Nias). Based on the low number of apparent Austronesian cognates, Capell (1982) concludes that Enggano is a language isolate rather than Austronesian as previously assumed. Blench (2014) considers Enggano to be a language isolate that has picked up Austronesian loanwords, and notes many basic vocabulary items in Enggano are of non- Austronesian origin. Based on lexical evidence from the Enggano language, he considers the Enggano people to be descendants of Pleistocene (pre-Neolithic) hunter-gatherers that had preceded the Austronesians.

According to Peter Behrens and Marianne Bechaus-Gerst, linguistic evidence suggests that the peoples of the C-Group culture in present-day southern Egypt and northern Sudan spoke Berber languages. The Nilo-Saharan Nobiin language today contains a number of key pastoralism related loanwords that are of Berber origin, including the terms for sheep and water/Nile. This in turn suggests that the C-Group population—which, along with the Kerma culture, inhabited the Nile valley immediately before the arrival of the first Nubian speakers—spoke Afro-Asiatic languages. Roger Blench has suggested that Proto-Berber speakers had spread from the Nile River valley to North Africa 4,000-5,000 years ago due to the spread of pastoralism, and experienced intense language leveling about 2,000 years ago.

He avers in conclusion: "Même les chercheurs s'opposant à cette reconstruction disposeront, en tous cas, d'une somme de matériaux, clairement présentés dans l'ensemble, sur lesquels ils pourront s'appuyer pour mettre en cause ou rebâtir l'ensemble proposé. Il s'agit de toutes façons d'un travail qui ne saurait être ignoré." ("Even the researchers who are opposed to this reconstruction will have, in any case, an amount of material, clearly presented throughout, which they can rely on to either challenge or rebuild what is proposed. As a whole, it constitutes a work which cannot be ignored".) Roger Blench, a development anthropologist, published a critical comparison of Ehret's and M. L. Bender's comparative work on the Nilo-Saharan family in Africa und Übersee in 2000—from its date, seemingly written before the book came out.

The Solluba have been identified with the Selappayu in Akkadian records, and a clue to their origin is their use of desert kites and game traps, first attested to in around 7000 BC. Cambridge linguist and anthropologist Roger Blench sees the Solluba as the last survivors of Palaeolithic hunters and salt-traders who once dominated Arabia. Those were assimilated in the next wave of humans consisted of cattle herders in the 6th millennium BC who introduced cows, wild donkeys, sheep and dogs, wild camels and goats. Those peoples may have engaged in trade across the Red Sea with speakers of Cushitic languages or Nilo-Saharan languages. In the 3rd and 2nd millennium BC speakers of Semitic languages arrived from the Near East and marginalised and absorbed the rest.

The matter was completed by a charter from King Charles I, dated 28 June 1632, upon the resignation of William Livingston, erecting in favour of Archibald Edmonstone, the parts of the Barony of Duntreath which were redeemed and the lands of the Lettre (sic) into a free Barony for ever, as in the charter of King James II, 1452, to be held in free blench farm. Previous to this, in 1599, the "ten pound lands of Lettre" had been bought by Archibald's father, William, 7th of Duntreath, from the Stirlings of Cadder. This land then became the farms of the Westerton, Easterton, Baptiston (or Baptist Town of Lettre) and Middletown. By the beginning of this century however, Middleton had ceased to be a farm and the house was rebuilt and enlarged by Sir Archibald Edmonstone, 5th Bt., for his sister Lady Dunedin.

"The languages of Africa". In Blench & Spriggs (eds.), Archaeology and language IV A common hypothesis is that African Pygmies are the direct descendants of the Late Stone Age hunter-gatherer peoples of the central African rainforest who were partially absorbed or displaced by later immigration of agricultural peoples and adopted their Central Sudanic, Ubangian and Bantu languages. While there is a scarcity of excavated archaeological sites in Central Africa that could support this hypothesis, genetic studies have shown that Pygmy populations possess ancient divergent Y-DNA lineages (especially haplogroups A and B) in high frequencies in contrast to their neighbours (who possess mostly haplogroup E). Some 30% of the Aka language is not Bantu, and a similar percentage of the Baka language is not Ubangian. Much of this vocabulary is botanical, and deals with honey collecting or is otherwise specialized for the forest and is shared between the two western Pygmy groups.

African Pygmies are often assumed to be the direct descendants of the Middle Stone Age hunter-gatherer peoples of the central African rainforest. Genetic evidence for the deep separation of Congo Pygmies from the lineage of West Africans and East Africans, as well as admixture from archaic humans, was found in the 2010s. Older (pre-2010) studies with inconclusive results: R. Blench and M. Dendo. Genetics and linguistics in sub- Saharan Africa, Cambridge-Bergen, June 24, 2004. The lineage of African Pygmies is strongly associated with mitochondrial (maternal line) haplogroup L1, with a divergence time between 170,000 and 100,000 years ago. They were partially absorbed or displaced by later immigration of agricultural peoples of the Central Sudanic and Ubangian phyla beginning after about 5,500 years ago,Igor Kopytoff, The African Frontier: The Reproduction of Traditional African Societies (1989), 9-10 (cited afer Igbo Language Roots and (Pre)-History, A Mighty Tree, 2011).

Under that view, there was an east–west genetic alignment, resulting from a rice-based population expansion, in the southern part of East Asia: Austroasiatic-Kra-Dai-Austronesian, with unrelated Sino-Tibetan occupying a more northerly tier. Depending on the author, other hypotheses have also included other language families like Hmong-Mien and even Japanese-Ryukyuan into the larger Austric hypothesis. Austroasiatic and Austronesian migrations into Indonesia (Simanjuntak, 2017) While the Austric hypothesis remains contentious, there is genetic evidence that at least in western Island Southeast Asia there had been earlier Neolithic overland migrations (pre-4,000 BP) by Austroasiatic-speaking peoples into what is now the Greater Sunda Islands when the sea levels were lower in the early Holocene. These peoples were assimilated linguistically and culturally by incoming Austronesian peoples in what is now modern-day Indonesia and Malaysia. Daic languages and their relation with Austronesians (Blench, 2018) Several authors have also proposed that Kra-Dai speakers may actually be an ancient daughter subgroup of Austronesians that migrated back to the Pearl River delta from Taiwan and/or Luzon shortly after the Austronesian expansion.

If the consensus view regarding the origins of the Nilo-Saharan languages which came to East Africa is adopted, and a North African or Southwest Asian origin for Afro-Asiatic languages is assumed, the linguistic affiliation of East Africa prior to the arrival of Nilo-Saharan and Afro-Asiatic languages is left open. The overlap between the potential areas of origin for these languages in East Africa is particularly notable because includes the regions from which the Proto- Eurasians who brought anatomically modern humans Out of Africa, and presumably their original proto-language or languages originated. However, there is more agreement regarding the place of origin of the Benue–Congo subfamily of languages, which is the largest subfamily of the group, and the place of origin of the Bantu languages and the time at which it started to expand is known with great specificity. The classification of the relatively divergent family of Ubangian languages which are centered in the Central African Republic, as part of the Niger–Congo language family where Greenberg classified them in 1963 and subsequently scholars concurred,Williamson, Kay & Blench, Roger (2000) 'Niger–Congo', in Heine, Bernd & Nurse, Derek (eds.) African languages: an introduction, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.