History of African Languages

Africa has a long history of languages that shaped their lives and cultures. This resource explores the history of languages in Africa, how some evolved, and languages in Africa today.

This resource was inspired in a few ways. First, I completed the History of the English Language. I did this as background for a different resource but decided to package the research for classroom use. It made me think about other languages. Second, as a historian, I've seen too many sources that degrade the history of Africa and perpetuate the myth that Africa wasn't sophisticated or cultured because they didn't have languages. Absolutely untrue. I wanted to create a resource that proves that to be false.

The first nine pages of this resource concentrate on the language families found in Africa: what they are, when they developed, and where they are found. The last ten pages delve into the history of some particular languages in African history. Some are extinct languages, some are living languages.

The languages concentrated on are Egyptian, Meroitic, Old Nubian, Ge'ez, Punic, Songhay, Manding, Swahili, and one page of notable languages I researched along the way.

Pages are organized as infographics for understanding. Present the information to the class or print and display in your classroom for reference.

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What's Included:

• one PDF

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Add more African history to your classroom with my African Queens series. Click here to see the full bundle. From there you can see each individual resource if you like.