Southern Bantoid (or South Bantoid ) is a branch of the Bantoid language family . It consists of the Bantu languages along with several small branches and isolates of eastern Nigeria and west-central Cameroon (though the affiliation of some branches is uncertain). Since the Bantu languages are spoken across most of Sub-Saharan Africa , Southern Bantoid comprises 643 languages as counted by Ethnologue , though many of these are mutually intelligible .
4-485: Southern Bantoid was first introduced by Williamson in a proposal that divided Bantoid into North and South branches. The unity of the North Bantoid group was subsequently called into question, and Bantoid itself may be polyphyletic , but the work did establish Southern Bantoid as a valid genetic unit, something that has not happened for (Narrow) Bantu itself. According to Williamson and Blench, Southern Bantoid
8-703: Is a major branch of the Benue–Congo language family . It consists of the Northern Bantoid languages and the Southern Bantoid languages , a division which also includes the Bantu languages that constitute the overwhelming majority and after which Bantoid is named. The term "Bantoid" was first used by Krause in 1895 for languages that showed resemblances in vocabulary to Bantu. Joseph Greenberg , in his 1963 The Languages of Africa , defined Bantoid as
12-720: Is divided into the various Narrow Bantu languages, Jarawan , Tivoid , Beboid , Mamfe (Nyang), Grassfields and Ekoid families. The Bendi languages are of uncertain classification; they have traditionally been classified with Cross River , but they may actually be Southern Bantoid. Blench suggests that Tivoid, Momo (ex-Grassfields) and East Beboid may form a group, perhaps with the uncertain languages Esimbi and Buru–Angwe : Classification of Southern Bantoid by Grollemund (2012): Nyang Ekoid Beboid Tivoid Wide Grassfields A40-60- Jarawan + A31 ( Mbam , Jarawan , Bube ) Bantu Comparison of numerals in individual languages: Bantoid languages Bantoid
16-600: The group to which Bantu belongs together with its closest relatives; this is the sense in which the term is still used today. However, according to Roger Blench , the Bantoid languages probably do not actually form a coherent group. A proposal that divided Bantoid into North Bantoid and South Bantoid was introduced by Williamson. In this proposal, the Mambiloid and Dakoid languages (and later Tikar ) are grouped together as North Bantoid, while everything else Bantoid
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