Benue-Congo languages

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Benue-Congo
Geographic distribution:	Subsaharan Africa, but not further west than Togo
Genetic classification:	Niger-Congo Atlantic-Congo Volta-Congo Benue-Congo
Subdivisions:	Akpes Ayere-Ahan Bantoid Cross River Dakoid Defoid Edoid Idomoid Igboid Jukunoid Kainji Nupoid Oko Plateau Ukaan

The Benue-Congo group of languages constitutes the largest branch of the Niger-Congo language family, both in terms of sheer number of languages, of which 938 are known (not counting mere dialects), and in terms of speakers, numbering perhaps 550 million. Within Niger-Congo, Benue-Congo is a branch of Volta-Congo. As a grouping it was first proposed by Joseph Greenberg (1963). Subsequent research has shown the boundary between Benue-Congo and some other Volta-Congo branches (e.g., Kwa), to be rather vague, indicating diversification of a dialect continuum rather than a clear split of families.

The main subgroupings of the Benue-Congo family, along with the most important languages in terms of number of speakers, are as follows (with number of constituent languages for each sub-branch in parenthesis):

Akpes (1)
Bantoid (668)
- Southern Bantoid (643)
  - (Narrow) Bantu
  - Tivoid (17)
    - Tiv
Cross River (68)
Defoid (16)
- Yoruboid (13)
  - Igala
  - Yoruboid (15)
    - Yorùbá
    - Itsekiri
Edoid (27)
- Edo
Idomoid (9)
- Idoma
Igboid (7)
- Igbo
Kainji (57)
Nupoid (12)
- Nupe
Oko (1)
Plateau (46)
- Berom
- Eggon
Ukaan (1)

[edit] References

Wolf, Paul Polydoor de (1971) The Noun Class System of Proto-Benue-Congo (Thesis, Leiden University). The Hague/Paris: Mouton.
Williamson, Kay (1989) 'Benue-Congo Overview', pp. 248—274 in Bendor-Samuel, John & Rhonda L. Hartell (eds.) The Niger-Congo Languages — A classification and description of Africa's largest language family. Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America.