Benue–Congo (sometimes called East Benue–Congo ) is a major branch of the Volta-Congo languages which covers most of Sub-Saharan Africa .
5-624: The Defoid languages are a proposed branch of the Benue–Congo language family . The name of the group derives from the fact that nearly all of the ethnic groups who speak member languages refer to the city of Ilé Ifè as their place of origin: "Defoid" comes from èdè ('language') + ifè (Ife) + -oid . It was first proposed by Capo (1989), but evidence for it is still regarded as insufficient by Güldemann (2018). The Defoid language group consists of three branches, Yoruboid , Akoko and Ayere-Ahan . This Volta–Niger language -related article
10-543: A few minor isolates in the Nigeria–Cameroon region, but their exact relationship is uncertain. The neighbouring Volta–Niger branch of Nigeria and Benin is sometimes called "West Benue–Congo", but it does not form a united branch with Benue–Congo. When Benue–Congo was first proposed by Joseph Greenberg (1963), it included Volta–Niger (as West Benue–Congo); the boundary between Volta–Niger and Kwa has been repeatedly debated. Blench (2012) states that if Benue–Congo
15-526: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Benue%E2%80%93Congo language family Central Nigerian (or Platoid) contains the Plateau , Jukunoid and Kainji families, and Bantoid–Cross combines the Bantoid and Cross River groups. Bantoid is only a collective term for every subfamily of Bantoid–Cross except Cross River, and this is no longer seen as forming a valid branch, however one of
20-599: Is taken to be "the noun-class languages east and north of the Niger", it is likely to be a valid group, though no demonstration of this has been made in print. The branches of the Benue–Congo family are thought to be as follows: Ukaan is also related to Benue–Congo; Roger Blench suspects it might be either the most divergent (East) Benue–Congo language or the closest relative to Benue–Congo. Fali of Baissa and Tita are also Benue–Congo but are otherwise unclassified. Below
25-515: The subfamilies, Southern Bantoid, is still considered valid. It is Southern Bantoid which contains the Bantu languages, which are spoken across most of Sub-Saharan Africa. 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. Benue–Congo also includes
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