Sudanian en · ADJ
Etymology
Etymology tree English Sudan Proto-Indo-European *-(i)yós Proto-Italic *-ijos Proto-Italic *-ios Old Latin -ios Latin -ius Proto-Indo-European *-nós Proto-Italic *-nos Proto-Italic *-ānos Latin -ānus Latin -iānusbor. English -ian English Sudanian From Sudan + -ian.
Meanings
- (not-comparable) Of, from, or pertaining to the climatic region of the Sudan region, which lies just south of the Sahel in Africa.
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(not-comparable, obsolete) Pertaining to the Sudanic languages.
It is present in the majority of the north-western Bantu languages, and in some of the adjoining forms of Sudanian speech, as well as in the westernmost Nilotic.
1910, Harry Johnston, George Grenfell and the Congo, volume 2, page 880:The Sudanian speech-group thus reaches in an irregular band right across Africa, from Cape Verd on the west to the confines of Abyssinia on the east […]
1915, Alice Werner, The Language-families of Africa, page 36:The language of Yarriba has no affinity to either of the Sudanian idioms.
1837, James Cowles Prichard, Researches Into the Physical History of Mankind, Vol. 2, p. 116