Niger-Congo languages

Greenberg labeled this group Niger-Kordofanian. Bendor-Samuel uses the term Niger-Congo for the whole family (p. 19) which reflects current usage among linguists. (see Kordofanian languages)

Some major languages or subgroups belonging to Niger-Congo:

• Westatlantic languages group (this includes Wolof spoken in Senegal and Fulfulde a language spoken across the Sahel)
• Manding a language group spoken in Westafrica (This includes Bambara, the language spoken in Mali)
• Kwa languages (this includes Akan spoken in Ghana)
• Yoruba and Igbo spoken in Nigeria
• Gur languages spoken among others in Côte d'Ivoire, Togo, Burkina Faso and Mali.
• Kru languages
• Adamawa-Ubangi languages (This includes Sango spoken in the Central African Republic)
• A very large subgroup are the Bantu languages which include Swahili or 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:

• Bernd Heine and Derek Nurse, African Languages - An Introduction, Cambridge Universtity press, 2000
• Niger-Congo, John Bendor-Samuel, The Niger-Congo Languages, - A classification and description of Africa's largest language family, University Press of America, 1989.
• http://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=18

Referenced By