Niger-Congo languages
The
Niger-Congo languages are probably the largest group of the world in terms of different
languages. Some of the
African Languages with the largest number of speakers belong to it.
Joseph H. Greenberg was the first to identify the boundaries of this family, which he called
Niger-Kordofanian, in his book
Languages of Africa. John Bendor-Samuel introducted the name Niger-Congo for the whole family, which is in current use among linguists. (see
Kordofanian languages)
The major languages or subgroups belonging to Niger-Congo are
- Westatlantic: includes Wolof, spoken in Senegal, and Fulfulde, a language spoken across the Sahel.\n* Manding: spoken in West Africa; includes Bambara, the language spoken in Mali.\n* Kwa: includes Akan, spoken in Ghana.\n* The Yoruba and Igbo languages, spoken in Nigeria.\n* Gur: spoken among others in Côte d'Ivoire, Togo, Burkina Faso and Mali.\n* Kru: spoken in West Africa, include Bété, Nyabwa, and Dida.\n* Adamawa-Ubangi: includes Sango, spoken in the Central African Republic)\n* Bantu: a very large group, includes Swahili (Kiswahili).
Some linguists link the thirty or so
Kordofanian languages to the Niger-Congo family, forming a
Niger-Kordofanian language family. While a plausible hypothesis, this idea is still generally regarded as not proven.
References
- Joseph H. Greenberg, The Languages of Africa. Indiana Univ. Press (1966).\n* Bernd Heine and Derek Nurse, African Languages - An Introduction. Cambridge Univ. press (2000)\n* John Bendor-Samuel (ed.), The Niger-Congo Languages — A classification and description of Africa's largest language family, University Press of America (1989).
- Ethnologue: Niger-Congo Family Tree
