Маъсул муҳаррир: Филология фанлари доктори, профессор: Г. Х. Боқиева Тақризчилар

Elamite, a language known from inscriptions in Western Iran is now thought to have been Dravidian. These languages are distinguished by retroflex constants, which have been borrowed by the Indic Branch of the Indo-European Languages. These constants give Indian languages their distinctive sound and are formed with the tongue rolled up to the top of the mouth. The languages are agglutinating with up to 8 noun cases. The languages once covered all of the Indian sub-continent and originated in the Indus Valley (modern Pakistan).
The Austro-Asiatic Family of Languages
The Austro-Asiatic Family is a scattered group of languages in Asia. They are found from eastern India to Vietnam. The family once covered a larger area until Tai language speakers migrated south from southern China.
The Viet-Muong Branch includes Vietnamese and Muong (both languages of Vietnam). The former is written in a form of the Latin script.
The Mon-Khmer Branch includes Khmer (the language of Cambodia written in a derivative of South Indian scripts), Mon (once a major language of a Thai empire; now spoken in parts of Burma, Thailand, China and Vietnam), Palaung (a tribal language in the hills of Burma and Thailand), So (Laos and Thailand), Nicobarese and Nancowry (both from the Nicobar Islands of the Indian Ocean).
The so-called Aslian languages are found in the hills of peninsular Malaysia and include Sengoi and Temiar.
The languages of the Munda Branch are found scattered in pockets of north India (Mundari, Santali in the state of Bihar and Khasi in Assam).
These languages are not tonal apart from Vietnamese where tones developed recently under Chinese influence. Vietnamese was once thought not to be related to other languages. The branches of this family were originally considered to be separate families.
The Niger-Congo Family of Languages
The Niger-Congo Family features the many languages of Africa south of the Sahara. The family originated in West Africa. Migrations took the languages to eastern and southern Africa. There are over 900 languages in this family in nine branches.
Africa's borders reflect colonial history rather than linguistic boundaries. For this reason, many of these languages are spoken across national frontiers.
The languages of this family include the west African languages of Fulani (Nigeria, Cameroon, Mali, Guinea, Gambia, Senegal, Mauritania, Niger, Burkina Faso), Malinke (Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Ivory Coast), Mende (Sierra Leone), Twi (Ghana), Ewe (Ghana, Togo), Mossi (Burkina Faso), Yoruba (Nigeria), Ibo (Nigeria), Kpelle (Liberia), Wolof (Senegal, Gambia) and Fang (Cameroon, Gabon, Guinea).
In east and southern Africa the languages include Swahili (Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Berundi, Zaire - the most spoken language in this family), Kikuyu (Kenya), Ganda (Uganda), Ruanda (Rwanda), Rundi (Berundi), Luba (Zaire), Lingala (Zaire, Congo), Kongo (Zaire, Congo, Angola), Bemba (Zaire, Zambia), Nyanja (Malawi, Zambia), Shona (Zimbabwe), Ndebele (the Matebele in Zimbabwe and South Africa), Tswana (Botswana) and its close relative Sotho (South Africa, Lesotho), Swazi (Swaziland, South Africa), Xhosa (South Africa) and its close relative Zulu (South Africa).
The southern languages have tones which are used partially for meaning but mostly for grammar. Banda (Congo) has three tones. Its speakers use three-tone drums to send formulaic messages. Efik has four tones and uses m and n as vowels. Most of the Niger-Congo languages have prefixes and suffixes to qualify nouns and verbs as well as words that agree with them. Nouns and verbs never exist on their own. Fulani has 18 suffixed noun qualifiers.