Benue–Congo languages

Benue–Congo
Benue–Congo
East Benue–Congo
Geographic; distribution	Africa, from Nigeria eastwards and southwards
Linguistic classification	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta–Congo Benue–Congo; ; ;
Subdivisions	Bantoid; Cross River; Defoid; Jukunoid; Kainji; Plateau; Ukaan; Fali of Baissa; Tita;
Language codes
Glottolog	benu1247
	The Benue–Congo languages shown within the Niger–Congo language family. Non-Benue–Congo languages are greyscale.

Benue–Congo (sometimes called East Benue–Congo) is a major branch of the Volta-Congo languages which covers most of Sub-Saharan Africa.

Subdivisions

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 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 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 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.^[1]

The branches of the Benue–Congo family are thought to be as follows:

Bantoid–Cross languages
Central Nigerian languages, also known as Platoid
- Jukunoid
- Kainji
- Plateau

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.

Branches and locations (Nigeria)

Below is a list of major Benue–Congo branches and their primary locations (centres of diversity) within Nigeria based on Blench (2019).^[3]

**Distributions of Benue–Congo branches in Nigeria**^[3]
Branch	Primary locations
Cross River	Cross River, Akwa Ibom, and Rivers States; Cameroon
Bendi	Obudu and Ogoja LGAs, Cross River State
Mambiloid	Sardauna LGA, Taraba State; Cameroon
Dakoid	Mayo Belwa LGA, Taraba State and adjacent areas
Jukunoid	Taraba, Benue, Nasarawa, Gombe, Adamawa, Bauchi, and Plateau States of Nigeria; Cameroon
Yukubenic	Takum LGA, Taraba State; Cameroon
Kainji	Kauru and Lere LGAs, Kaduna State; and Bassa LGA, Plateau State; Kano State; Kainji Lake area of Niger and Kebbi States
Plateau	Plateau, Kaduna, Nasarawa, Niger and Bauchi States and the FCT
Tivoid	Benue State; Obudu LGA, Cross River State and Sardauna LGA, Taraba State; Nasarawa State; Cameroon
Beboid	Takum LGA, Taraba State; Cameroon
Ekoid	Ikom and Ogoja LGAs, Cross River State; Cameroon
Grassfields	Sardauna LGA, Taraba State; Cameroon
Jarawan	Bauchi, Plateau, Adamawa, and Taraba States

Comparative vocabulary

Sample basic vocabulary for reconstructed proto-languages of different Benue-Congo branches:

Branch	Language	eye	ear	nose	tooth	tongue	mouth	blood	bone	tree	water	eat	name
Benue-Congo	Proto-Benue-Congo^[4]	*-lito	*-tuŋi	*-zua	-nini, -nino; -sana; -gaŋgo	-lemi; -lake		-zi; -luŋ	*-kupe	-titi; -kwon	-izi; -ni		*-zina
Kainji	Proto-Northern Jos^[5]	**iji (lì-/à-)	*toŋ (ù-/tì-)	*nyimu (bì-/ì-)	*ʔini (lì-/à-)	*lelem (lì-/à-)	*nua (ù-/tì-)	*nyì(aw) (mà-)		*ti (with reduplication) (ù-/tì-)	*nyi (mà-)	*lia	*ji(a) (lì-/sì-)
Plateau	Proto-Jukunoid^[6]	*giP (ri-/a-)	*tóŋ (ku-/a-)	*wíǹ (ri-/a-)	baŋ (ku-/a-); gyín (ri-/a-)	*déma (ri-/a-)	*ndut (u-/i-)	*yíŋ (ma-)	*kup (ku-/a-)	*kun (ku-/i-)	*mbyed	*dyi	*gyin (ri-/a-)
Plateau	Proto-Kagoro^[7]	*-gi	*-two		*nii[ŋ]	*-dyam	*-nu[ŋ]	*-suok	*-kup	*-kwan	*-sii
Plateau	Proto-Jaba^[7]	*gu-su	*gu-to[ŋ]		*-gi[ŋ]	*ga-lem	*ga-nyu	*ba-zi	*gu-kup
Plateau	Proto-Beromic^[7]	*-gis	*-toŋ		*-ɣiŋ	*-lyam	*-nu	*nì-ji	*-kup	*-kon	*-sii
Plateau	Proto-Ninzic^[7]	*ki-sị́	*ku-tóŋ		ki-Nyin / -Nyir	*ì-rem	-nuŋ / -n[y]uŋ	*ma-ɣì	*kù-kụp	*ù-kon	*a-ma-sit
Cross	Proto-Upper Cross^[8]	*dyèná	*-ttóŋ(ì)	*dyòná	*-ttân	*-dák	*-mà	-dè; -yìŋ	*-kúpà	*-tté	*-nì	*dyá	*-dínà
Cross	Proto-Lower Cross^[9]	ɛ́-ɲɛ̀n / a-	ú-tɔ́ŋ / a-	*í-búkó	é-dɛ̀t / a-	ɛ́-lɛ́mɛ̀ / a-	*í-núà	*-ɟìːp	*ɔ́-kpɔ́	*é-tíé	*ˊ-mɔ́ːŋ	*líá	*ɛ́-ɟɛ́n
Cross	Proto-Ogoni^[10]	*adɛ́ɛ̃	*ɔ̀tɔ́̃	*m̀ bĩɔ́̃	*àdáNa	*àdídɛ́Nɛ́		m̀ miNi, m̀ muNu	*ákpogó	*èté	m̀ mṹṹ	*dè	*àbée
Grassfields	Proto-Grassfields^[11]	*Ít`	*túŋ-li	*L(u)Í`	*sòŋ´	*lím`	*cùl`	lém`; cÌ´	gÚp; kúi(n)´	*tí´	LÍb; kÌ´; *mò´	*lÍa	lÍn`; kúm
Grassfields	Proto-Ring^[12]	*túɛ̀	*túndé	dúì, tɔ́ŋ	túŋɔ̀, góìk	dɔ́mì, dídè	*dúɔ̀	dúŋá, káŋù	*gúpɛ́	kák`, tíɛ́	*múɔ̀	*dúɛ̀	dítɔ́, gíd'
Bantu	Proto-Bantu^[13]	*i=jíco	*kʊ=tʊ́i	*i=jʊ́lʊ	i=jíno; i=gego	*lʊ=lɪ́mi	ka=nʊa; mʊ=lomo	ma=gilá; =gil-a; ma=gadí; =gadí; mʊ=lopa; ma=ɲínga	*i=kúpa	*mʊ=tɪ́	ma=jíjɪ; i=diba (HH?)	*=lɪ́ -a	*i=jína
Bantu	Swahili	jicho	sikio	pua	jino	ulimi	kinywa	damu (Ar.)	mfupa	mti	maji	la	jina

References

^ Roger Blench, Niger-Congo: an alternative view Archived 2012-12-03 at the Wayback Machine
^ Watters JR (2018). Watters, John R (eds.). East Benue-Congo: Nouns, pronouns, and verbs (pdf). Berlin: Language Science Press. doi:10.5281/zenodo.1314306. ISBN 978-3-96110-100-9. Archived from the original on 2018-11-16. Retrieved 2018-11-15.
^ ^a ^b Blench, Roger (2019). An Atlas of Nigerian Languages (4th ed.). Cambridge: Kay Williamson Educational Foundation.
^ de wolf, Paul. 1971. The Noun-Class System of Proto-Benue-Congo Archived 2023-11-11 at the Wayback Machine. Janua Linguarum. Series Practica 167. The Hague: Mouton.
^ Shimizu, Kiyoshi (1982). "Die Nord-Jos-Grüppe der Plateau-Sprachen Nigerias". Afrika und Übersee (in German). 65 (2): 161–210. ISSN 0002-0427.
^ Shimizu, Kiyoshi. 1980. Comparative Jukunoid, 3 vols. (Veröffentlichungen der Institute für Afrikanistik und Ägyptologie der Universität Wien 7–9. Beiträge zur Afrikanistik 5–7). Vienna: Afro-Pub.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Gerhardt, Ludwig (1983). Beiträge zur Kenntnis der Sprachen des Nigerianischen Plateaus. Afrikanistische Forschungen (in German). Vol. 9. Glückstadt: J. J. Augustin. ISBN 3-87030-062-0.
^ Dimmendaal, Gerrit J. (1978). The Consonants of Proto-Upper Cross and their Implications for the Classification of the Upper Cross Languages (PhD). Leiden University. OCLC 37049861.
^ Connell, Bruce. n.d. Comparative Lower Cross wordlist Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine. Unpublished manuscript.
^ Blench, Roger and Kay Williamson. 2008. The Ogoni languages: comparative word list and historical reconstructions Archived 2020-08-05 at the Wayback Machine.
^ Hyman, L.M. 1979. Index of Proto-Grassfields Bantu roots Archived 2019-09-04 at the Wayback Machine. Ms. U.S.C.; CBOLD Archived 2011-09-15 at the Wayback Machine; accessed from Comparalex Archived 2020-08-15 at the Wayback Machine.
^ Paulin, Pascale. 1995. Etude comparative des langues du groupe Ring: langues Grassfields de l'ouest, Cameroun. MA thesis, Université Lumière Lyon 2.
^ Schadeberg, Thilo C. 2003. Historical linguistics. In Derek Nurse and Gérard Philippson (eds.), The Bantu languages. (Routledge language family series 4. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-700-71134-5

Wolf, Paul Polydoor de (1971) The Noun Class System of Proto-Benue–Congo (Thesis, Leiden University). The Hague/Paris: Mouton.
Williamson, Kay (1989) 'Benue–Congo Overview', pp. 248–274 in Bendor-Samuel, John & Rhonda L. Hartell (eds.) The Niger–Congo Languages – A classification and description of Africa's largest language family. Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America.