Benue-Congo is a major branch of the Volta-Congo languages which covers most of Sub-Saharan Africa.
Facts
RegionMost of Sub-Saharan Africa, including the Nigeria-Cameroon region. 1 Proto-Language StatusNo single Proto-Benue-Congo has been securely reconstructed as its own unified node. Comparative work instead targets individual Benue-Congo branches and their own proto-languages (Proto-Bantu among them); Paul de Wolf's 1971 thesis reconstructed the noun-class system of a putative Proto-Benue-Congo without settling whether Benue-Congo itself is a valid branch distinct from the rest of Volta-Congo, and related subfamilies such as Bantoid are themselves no longer seen as forming a clean single branch. 1 Partially Attested
Speaker CountThe source states this as an estimate only, numbering perhaps 350 million, not a precise count. Connections
Ancestor Of
Bantoid is a branch of Benue-Congo containing the Bantu languages along with their closest relatives in Nigeria and Cameroon.
Cross River is a primary branch of Benue-Congo spoken in southeastern Nigeria.
Why this is disputed. Defoid (Yoruboid, including Yoruba) is classified within Benue-Congo in current schemes, though the precise placement of the intermediate Volta-Niger grouping is not yet represented as its own entity in this atlas.
Edoid is a branch of Benue-Congo spoken in southern Nigeria, named for Edo.
Descends From
Benue-Congo is a major branch of Volta-Congo, containing Bantoid (and within it Bantu) along with the Cross River, Edoid and other West African groups.
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Benue-Congo Languages
WikipediaWikipedia, lead section: Benue-Congo languages
Benue-Congo (sometimes called East Benue-Congo) is a major branch of the Volta-Congo languages which covers most of Sub-Saharan Africa.
Wikipedia, Subdivisions section: Benue-Congo languages
This makes Benue-Congo one of the largest subdivisions of the Niger-Congo language family, both in number of languages, of which Ethnologue counts 976 (2017), and in speakers, numbering perhaps 350 million.
Wikipedia, Comparative vocabulary section: Benue-Congo languages
Sample basic vocabulary for reconstructed proto-languages of different Benue-Congo branches
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