Benue-Congo Languages
The Benue-Congo languages are a significant branch of the Niger-Congo language family, one of the largest in the world, encompassing over nine hundred distinct languages spoken by approximately five hundred million people across central and southern Africa. This diverse group is primarily divided into eleven categories, including Oko, Ukaan-Akpes, Defoid, Edoid, Nupoid, Idomoid, Igboid, Kainji, Platoid, Cross River, and Bantoid, the latter of which includes a substantial number of languages across various regions. Most of these languages are concentrated in Nigeria, with the Bantoid group extending into several countries throughout central and southern Africa.
Among the Benue-Congo languages, Swahili is the most widely spoken, serving as both a native language for around five million people and a lingua franca for approximately thirty million others. It is known for its unique phonetic structure, which includes five vowel sounds and a variety of consonants, and has influenced numerous languages, including English. Each subgroup within the Benue-Congo languages, such as Yoruba and Igbo, has its own rich history and cultural significance, contributing to the linguistic tapestry of the region. The complexity and diversity of these languages reflect the intricate social and historical contexts in which they have developed.
Benue-Congo Languages
The Benue-Congo languages are spoken across much of Africa, including all of central and southern Africa. This group of languages is a branch of the Niger-Congo family. The more than nine hundred languages in this family are spoken by about five hundred million people. Because the Niger-Congo family contains so many diverse languages, few generalities can be made about them. Within Niger-Congo, the branch Atlantic-Congo and its branch Volta-Congo further define Benue-Congo languages.
History and Classification
The Benue-Congo languages are a branch of the Niger-Congo family, one of the world's largest language families. Scholars disagree about the origins of the Niger-Congo languages, which were first noted in records during the sixteenth century. They have evolved and split over thousands of years and now number more than nine hundred. The lack of early documentation makes it difficult for historians to accurately assess similarities between these languages in history.
The Benue-Congo languages are divided into eleven groups: Oko, Ukaan-Akpes, Defoid, Edoid, Nupoid, Idomoid, Igboid, Kainji, Platoid, Cross River, and Bantoid. Ten of these groups are almost exclusive to Nigeria. The eleventh group, the Bantoid group, includes seven hundred languages, including Bantu, which are spoken across central, eastern, and southern Africa as well as in eastern Nigeria.
The most commonly spoken of the Benue-Congo languages is Swahili, which shares much of the vocabulary of Bantu. Swahili uses five vowel and thirty-six consonant phonemes, which are sounds that distinguish word meaning, and a simple syllable structure. Syllables generally end in vowels. Words adopted from other languages are often adapted with the addition of a vowel when they end in consonants; for example, bank becomes benki.
Like many other Bantu languages, Swahili nouns belong to fifteen classes, including singular, plural, abstract, verbal infinitives used as nouns, and location nouns. Prefixes indicate numbers; for example, mtoto means "child," while watoto means "children."
Verbs in Swahili are formed from a root and prefixes that indicate person, tense, and other information.
The first surviving written examples of Swahili date to the early eighteenth century and use an Arabic script. The language was later developed using a Roman-based alphabet, which was standardized early in the twentieth century. Some Swahili words have been adopted by the English language. Safari, for example, comes from the Arabic word safar, meaning "journey."
Geographic Distribution and Modern Usage
Languages of the Bantoid group are spoken in several countries, while the languages of the other ten groups are primarily limited to Nigeria.
The three languages of the Oko and Ukaan-Akpes groups are spoken by small populations living near the Benue and Niger Rivers' convergence. The Defoid group comprises four languages of the Akokoid cluster and the many languages of the Yoruboid cluster. The Yoruboid languages include Yoruba, which is spoken by twenty million people, and Igala, which is spoken by one million people. Yoruba is the largest mother-tongue language, though others may be spoken by many more as a second language. Yoruba is widely used, and its dictionary dates back to 1843. The Defoid languages are principally spoken in southwestern Nigeria but also in Benin and Togo.
The Edoid group comprises twenty-one languages primarily spoken in the Bendel state, southern Nigeria. The group includes the Delta-Edoid group of three languages, the southwestern Edoid of five languages, the six languages of the north-central Edoid, and northwestern Edoid's seven languages.
The Nupoid cluster includes seventeen languages, including Nupe, Gbagyi, and Ebira. These are mostly spoken north and west of the Benue and Niger Rivers' confluence. The eight Idomoid languages include Idoma and are mostly found in central Nigeria.
The Igboid cluster of languages is spoken by about twenty million people, primarily in southeastern Nigeria. It comprises seven main dialect clusters of fifty dialects.
The Kainji languages are spread across a wide range of the north, from Lake Kainji to the Jos Plateau. The forty languages are spoken by many small groups.
Platoid languages are spoken by mostly small groups from the Jos Plateau south to the Benue River Valley, and southeast across the river. The fifty languages include Kaje, spoken by about three hundred thousand people, and others such as Birom and Tarok.
The Cross River languages are spoken by many people in southeastern Nigeria around the Cross River and west to the Niger Delta. Ibio is the largest, and is spoken by about 3.5 million people, who also use a related written form, Efik. Anang, Khana, Ogbia, and Mbembe are some of the other Cross River languages.
The seven hundred Bantoid languages are spoken across a wide swath of central, southern, and eastern Africa. This group includes fifteen Northern Bantoid languages, which are spoken in central Cameroon and eastern Nigeria, and eleven Southern Bantoid subgroups. Bantu is the largest of the Southern Bantoid subgroups, including more than five hundred languages. These include Zulu, which is spoken by nine million people, and Rwanda, which is spoken by eight million people.
A lingua franca is a common language used by people who speak different languages as a way to communicate. About five million people speak Swahili as a first language, while it serves as a lingua franca for about thirty million others. Swahili, a Bantu language, is spoken across eastern Congo (Kinshasa) and in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda.
Bibliography
Lafleur, Gwenyth J. "Exploring the Niger-Congo Languages." Department of Linguistics. Brigham Young University. 6 Sept. 1999. Web. 21 Sept. 2015. ERLINK "http://linguistics.byu.edu/classes/ling450ch/reports/niger-congo.html" http://linguistics.byu.edu/classes/ling450ch/reports/niger-congo.html
Thompson, Irene. "Niger-Congo Language Family." About World Languages. The Technology Development Group. 27 Mar. 2013. Web. 21 Sept. 2015. http://aboutworldlanguages.com/niger-congo-language-family
Thompson, Irene. "Swahili." About World Languages. The Technology Development Group. 12 Sept. 2015. Web. 21 Sept. 2015. http://aboutworldlanguages.com/swahili" http://aboutworldlanguages.com/swahili
"Subfamily: Benue-Congo." Glottolog. Glottolog. Web. 21 Sept. 2015. HYPERLINK "http://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/benu1247" http://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/benu1247
also
http://www.britannica.com/topic/Benue-Congo-languages