Bak languages

Bak
Bak–Bijago
Geographic distribution:	Senegal, Guinea Bissau
Linguistic classification:	Niger–Congo Atlantic–Congo Atlantic Bak
Subdivisions:	Bak proper Bijago
Glottolog:	cent2230[1]

The Bak languages are a group of typologically Atlantic languages of Senegal and Guinea Bissau linked in 2010 to the erstwhile Atlantic isolate Bijago. Bak languages are non-tonal.

Languages

	Bak proper  Balanta Jola languages (Diola) Papel languages Bijago

Bayot, once assumed to be a Jola language, appears to be more divergent, perhaps even a language isolate.

Bijago

Bijago is highly divergent. Sapir (1971) classified it as an isolate within West Atlantic. However, Segerer (2010) showed that this is primarily due to unrecognized sound changes, and that Bijago is in fact close to the Bak languages. For example, the following cognates in Bijago and Joola Kasa (one of the Jola languages) are completely regular, but had not previously been identified:

Gloss	Bijago	Joola Kasa
head	bu	fu-kow
eye	nɛ	ji-cil

References

1. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Central Atlantic". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

• Guillaume Segerer and Florian Lionnet, 2010. "Isolates" in "Atlantic". Presentation at « Language Isolates in Africa », Lyons, Dec. 3–4.