Benue–Congo languages
The Benue - Congo languages , together with the Kwa languages of the south branch of the Volta - Congo languages , a primary branch of the Niger - Congo.
The approximately 900 Benue -Congo languages are spoken by over 270 million people in Western, Central and Southern Africa. The Benue - Congo is divided into two unequal large genetic subunits, namely West Benue - Congo ( 70 languages with nearly 50 million speakers in Togo, Benin and Nigeria) and Eastern Benue - Congo (830 languages with 225 million speakers in South East Nigeria and throughout Central and South Africa). East Benue - Congo includes in particular the large family of Bantu languages with a.
Development of the concept
The name of Benue - Congo was coined by Joseph Greenberg in 1963, which divided this group into four units: Platoid, Jukunoid, Cross River and Bantoid. According to Shimizu (1975) and Gerhardt ( in Bendor - Samuel 1989) Platoid and Jukunoid were summarized as central Nigerian. Bennett and Sterk (1977 ) extended Benue - Congo. By the eastern groups of Greenberg's Kwa, namely Yoruboid, Edoid, Igboid, Nupoid and Idomoid These groups were then combined by Blench in 1989 as West Benue - Congo, while the original Greenberg Benue - Congo Benue - Congo to the east was. Ohiri - Aniche suspected in 1999 that the language Ukaan (perhaps along with the Akpes ) a link between West and East Benue - Congo forms, Connell (1998) suggested, however, before the Cross River as such a link. In the present classification according to Williamson Blench ( in Heine Nurse 2000) Cross River is expected to East Benue - Congo, Ukaan and Akpes (which may form a unit ), however, the West Benue - Congo.
Classification of Benue - Congo
Classification of Benue - Congo Williamson Blench 2000
- Benue - Congo West Benue - Congo Yoruboid
- Edoid
- Akokoid
- Igboid
- Nupoid
- Idomoid
- Platoid or central Nigerian Kainji
- Plateau ( multiple units)
- Tarokoid
- Jukunoid
- Cross River
- Bantoid
The linguistic characteristics of the Benue -Congo languages are treated in Articles West Benue - Congo, Platoide languages , Cross River and Bantoide.
The most important Benue - Congo languages
The following table lists the Benue - Congo languages are at least 3 million speakers, with the indication of its number of speakers (including a second language ), given their short classification and their distribution area. There are a total of 26 Benue - Congo languages with at least 3 million speakers, of which are all but Yoruba, Igbo and Efik to the Bantu languages.
Benue - Congo languages with at least 3 million speakers
The numbers of speakers are based on the below web link to classification of Benue - Congo languages . Congo stands for the Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo-Brazzaville for the Republic of Congo.
The class prefix of Bantu language names (eg, ki, chi, lu-, se-, isi ) are today usually not used in the linguistic literature. In this article, the short form is used without a prefix, eg Ganda instead Luganda; the long form with prefix is given as an alternative name. The numbers of Bantu languages (eg G40 ) indicate the division into the Guthrie -zone again (G40 = G Zone, Group of Ten 40; see Bantu languages).