Benue-Congo languages

Largest branch of the Niger-Congo language family, both in numbers of languages (900) and speakers (at least 500 million).

Its major divisions are Defoid, including Yoruba, with more than 20 million speakers; Edoid, including Edo (see kingdom of Benin); Nupoid, including Nupe, Ebira, and Gbagyi; Idomoid, including Idoma; Igboid, including the many dialects of the approximately 19 million Igbo people; Kainji, with 40 languages; Platoid, a congeries of 50 languages; Cross River, a group of more than 55 languages; and Bantoid. The largest branch, Bantoid, comprises a Northern and a Southern group and includes more than 500 languages, 47 of which are spoken by more than 1 million people. The Bantu languages make up the largest subgroup of Southern Bantoid.

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Introduction

      the largest branch of the Niger-Congo language family (Niger-Congo languages), in terms of the number of speakers, the number of languages, and the wide geographic spread, stretching from the Benin-Nigeria border across Nigeria and Cameroon through central Africa to eastern Africa. It includes all the countries in central and southern Africa. This huge area covers more than half the habitable terrain of the continent and represents a similar percentage of the population, totaling at least 500 million. The 900 languages of the Benue-Congo branch are further subdivided into 11 unequal groups. Languages in the first 10 of these 11 groups are spoken almost entirely within Nigeria.

Oko and Ukaan-Akpes

      These two groups together consist of three languages spoken by relatively small numbers of people living near the confluence of the Niger (Niger River) and Benue (Benue River) rivers.

Defoid

      The Defoid languages comprise two groups: the Akokoid cluster of four languages and the very much larger Yoruboid cluster whose principal members are Yoruba (Yoruba language) (20,000,000 speakers), Igala (1,000,000), and Itsekiri (Itsεkiri; 600,000). Yoruba is the Niger-Congo language with the largest number of mother-tongue speakers. Though Swahili (Swahili language) has a greater total number of speakers—some 35,000,000—most of them are second-language speakers. One of the principal languages of Nigeria, Yoruba is spoken throughout southwestern Nigeria and also by substantial numbers in Benin and Togo. It may best be regarded as a dialect cluster that has developed a standard written form. Yoruba has developed an extensive literature and has the earliest published dictionary (1843) and grammar (1852) written by a native speaker, Bishop Samuel Crowther (Crowther, Samuel), who in 1884 also translated the Bible into Yoruba.

Edoid

      The 21 Edoid languages are spoken in southern Nigeria, primarily in Bendel state but in neighbouring states as well. The Edoid family can be divided into four main groups of languages. Delta-Edoid consists of three languages; southwestern Edoid, five languages, the largest of which is Urhobo (400,000); north-central Edoid, six languages, of which the principal one is Edo (1,000,000 speakers); and northwestern Edoid, seven languages.

Nupoid

      The largest of the approximately 17 Nupoid languages are Nupe (1,000,000), Gbagyi (700,000), and Ebira (1,000,000). They are spoken in the area north and west of the confluence of the Niger and Benue rivers.

Idomoid

      The eight Idomoid languages are found in central Nigeria mostly south of the Benue River southwest of Makurdi, but three languages are north of the river. The principal language is Idoma (700,000).

Igboid (Igboid languages)

      The Igboid languages are found in southeastern Nigeria and number some 20 million speakers, with at least another million second-language speakers. The more than 50 Igboid dialects have been variously grouped into seven main dialect clusters. Because of considerable diversity, a standard written form has been slow to develop but is now emerging based on the Owerri and Umuahia dialects.

Kainji

      The 40 Kainji languages are scattered over a wide area from Lake Kainji in the northwest across to the northern part of the Jos Plateau. These languages are spoken by small groups having fewer than 100,000 speakers, many of them being very much smaller.

Platoid

      The 50 Platoid languages are spoken in the area of the Jos Plateau southward to the Benue River valley and across the river to the southeast. These languages also are spoken mostly by small groups, though a few groups are larger—e.g., Jju, or Kaje (300,000), Birom (200,000), and Tarok (150,000).

Cross River

      The 60 Cross River languages are situated around the Cross River in southeastern Nigeria and westward toward the Niger Delta. The largest of these languages is Ibibio, which together with its written cousin, Efik, has some 3,500,000 speakers. Other languages with more than 100,000 speakers are Anang, Khana, Ogbia, Loko, Mbembe, Obolo, and Gokana.

Bantoid

      The 11th group within Benue-Congo, Bantoid, is far and away the largest not only in Benue-Congo but in Niger-Congo as a whole. Its 700 languages are spoken from eastern Nigeria across the rest of central, eastern, and southern Africa.

      The Bantoid languages are divided into a northern group and a southern group. Northern Bantoid consists of 15 small languages spoken in eastern Nigeria and central Cameroon. Southern Bantoid comprises 11 subgroups, of which Bantu (Bantu languages) is the largest. The 10 other subgroups consist of more than 100 languages spoken in eastern Nigeria and Cameroon. This is an area of great linguistic fragmentation with scores of languages spoken in a comparatively small area. The largest subgroup in terms of population is Tivoid, with 19 languages; the Tiv language has some 2,500,000 speakers. More typical is another subgroup, the Wide Grassfields in Cameroon, with some 40 languages, only two of which have more than 250,000 speakers and most of which have fewer than 50,000.

      Of the more than 500 Bantu languages, 47 are spoken by more than 1,000,000 people, and, of these, 21 have more than 3,000,000 speakers. Zulu (Zulu language) speakers number 9,000,000; Rwanda (Rwanda language) 8,000,000; Shona, Kongo, and Xhosa (Xhosa language) each 7,000,000; Luba 6,300,000; Rundi 6,000,000; and Kikuyu, Makua, Nyanja, Swahili, and Sukuma each more than 5,000,000. Mention should also be made of Ganda, which with 3,000,000 speakers is the largest language in Uganda; Umbundu speakers (4,000,000) and Mbundu speakers (3,000,000), who together constitute more than 60 percent of the population of Angola; Sotho, which has two dialects generally treated as separate languages, northern Sotho (3,800,000) and southern Sotho (4,000,000); and Kituba (Kikongo-Kituba), a creole based mostly on Kongo (Kongo language), with some 4,000,000 first-language speakers and more than another 1,000,000 second-language speakers.

      Of special significance is Swahili (Swahili language), a lingua franca that has 5,000,000 native speakers but some 30,000,000 second-language speakers. It is used over a wide area of Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, and eastern Congo (Kinshasa) (Congo). Another language that has developed as a lingua franca is Lingala (Lingala language), widely used in Congo (Brazzaville) (Congo) and Congo (Kinshasa), having some 9,000,000 speakers (including second-language speakers).

John T. Bendor-Samuel

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