Mel languages

Mel has traditionally been classified as the bulk of a southern branch of a West Atlantic branch of Niger–Congo. However, these are geographic and typological rather than genealogical groups; Segerer (2010) shows that there is no exclusive relationship between Mel and the other southern languages, Sua (Mansoanka) and Gola.Guillaume Segerer & Florian Lionnet 2010. [https://web.archive.org/web/20120331180907/http://25images.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr/player/player.php?id=72&id_sequence=431 "'Isolates' in 'Atlantic'"]. Language Isolates in Africa workshop, Lyon, Dec. 4.

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• Mel
• Temne
• Temne
• Baga languages
• Bullom–Kissi
• Bullom languages
• Kissi

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Fields (2004) splits Mel into a Highlands group originating in Guinea, and also a Bullom-Kisi-Gola group.Fields, Edda L. [http://www.jstor.org/stable/4129008 Before "Baga": Settlement Chronologies of the Coastal Rio Nunez Region, Earliest Times to c.1000 CE]. In: The International Journal of African Historical Studies, Vol. 37, No. 2 (2004), pp. 229–253. Boston University African Studies Center.

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• Mel
• Bullom-Kisi-Gola
• Gola
• Bullom-Kisi
• Bullom
• Kisi
• Highlands
• Temne
• Landuma
• Sitem

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Fields (2008:83) proposes that the homeland of Proto-Mel is located in the north-central highlands of Sierra Leone just to the south of the Lesser Scarcies River, rather than on the coast. The homeland of Proto-Highlands is located along the middle stretches of the Konkoure River in Guinea, just to the northeast of Conakry (Fields 2008:85).Fields-Black, Edda L. 2008. Deep Roots: Rice Farmers in West Africa and the African Diaspora. (Blacks in the Diaspora.) Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Comparison of basic vocabulary words in the Mel languages from Fields (2004):

Comparison of basic vocabulary words in the Mel languages, and also Sua and Gola, from Wilson (2007):Wilson, William André Auquier. 2007. Guinea Languages of the Atlantic group: description and internal classification. (Schriften zur Afrikanistik, 12.) Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang. Limba has also been added from Clarke (1922).Clarke, Mary Lane. 1922 [1971]. A Limba-English Dictionary or Tampeṅ Ta Ka Taluṅ Ta Ka Hulimba Ha In Huiṅkilisi Ha. Westmead, Farnborough: Gregg International Publishers Limited. (1971 reprint of 1922 book published by Houghton.)

• Rio Nunez languages

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{{Atlantic languages}}

{{Niger-Congo branches}}

Category:Atlantic languages