Editing Niger–Congo languages (section)

=== Early classifications ===
Niger–Congo as it is known today was only gradually recognized as a linguistic unit. In early classifications of the [[languages of Africa]], one of the principal criteria used to distinguish different groupings was the languages' use of prefixes to classify nouns, or the lack thereof. A major advance came with the work of [[Sigismund Wilhelm Koelle]], who in his 1854 ''[[Polyglotta Africana]]'' attempted a careful classification, the groupings of which in quite a number of cases correspond to modern groupings. An early sketch of the extent of Niger–Congo as one language family can be found in Koelle's observation, echoed in [[Wilhelm Bleek|Bleek]] (1856), that the Atlantic languages used prefixes just like many Southern African languages. Subsequent work of Bleek, and some decades later the comparative work of [[Carl Meinhof|Meinhof]], solidly established [[Bantu languages|Bantu]] as a linguistic unit.

In many cases, wider classifications employed a blend of typological and racial criteria. Thus, [[Friedrich Müller (linguist)|Friedrich Müller]], in his ambitious classification (1876–88), separated the 'Negro' and Bantu languages. Likewise, the Africanist [[Karl Richard Lepsius]] considered Bantu to be of African origin, and many 'Mixed Negro languages' as products of an encounter between Bantu and intruding Asiatic languages.

In this period a relation between Bantu and languages with Bantu-like (but less complete) noun class systems began to emerge. Some authors saw the latter as languages which had not yet completely evolved to full Bantu status, whereas others regarded them as languages which had partly lost original features still found in Bantu. The Bantuist Meinhof made a major distinction between Bantu and a 'Semi-Bantu' group which according to him was originally of the unrelated Sudanic stock.