Chadic

Chadic refers to a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. It comprises roughly 150 languages spoken by communities across the Sahel and sub-Saharan regions of West and Central Africa, centered in Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon. The name Chadic is derived from Lake Chad, a historic center of many Chadic-speaking populations.

Chadic is traditionally divided into three main groups: East Chadic, Central Chadic, and West Chadic, with numerous subgroups and languages within each. Hausa, the best-known Chadic language, is spoken by tens of millions and serves as a lingua franca in parts of West Africa. Kanuri, another major language in the Chadic family, is spoken in parts of Niger, Nigeria, and Chad.

Chadic languages are generally tonal, employing a system of lexical tones. They possess fairly large consonant inventories, including implosives and ejectives in some branches, and a variety of vowel systems. Many Chadic languages use Latin-based orthographies today, while others employ Ajami (Arabic-script) writing for historical and cultural reasons, particularly among Hausa speakers.

Speaker populations vary widely; some languages have only a few thousand speakers and are endangered due to language shift toward Hausa or national languages. Efforts in linguistic documentation and education aim to preserve diverse Chadic languages, though resource availability is uneven.