Niger–Congo Languages - Major Clades

Major Clades

The traditional branches and major languages of the Niger–Congo family are,

• Kordofanian languages: spoken in southern central Sudan, around the Nuba Mountains (not a single family)
• ? Mande: spoken in West Africa; includes Bambara, the main language spoken in Mali, as well as Soninke, a language spoken mainly in Mali but also in Senegal and Mauritania. The evidence linking Mande to Niger–Congo is thin. Blench regards it as an early branch that diverged before the morphology characteristic of most of Niger–Congo developed, which Dimmendaal (2008) argues that for now it is best considered an independent family.
• Ijoid in Nigeria, including Ijo and Defaka.
• ? Dogon, spoken in Mali. The evidence linking Dogon to Niger–Congo is weak.
• Atlantic: includes Wolof, spoken in Senegal, and Fula, a language spoken across the Sahel. The validity of Atlantic as a genetic grouping is controversial.
• Kru: spoken in West Africa, include Bété, Nyabwa, and Dida.
• Senufo: spoken in Ivory Coast and Mali, with a geographical outlier in Ghana, and including Senari and Supyire.
• Gur languages, such as More in Burkina Faso
• Adamawa languages, such as Chamba in Cameroon
• ? Ubangi languages: such as Sango in the Central African Republic. Olson (2006:165-167) demonstrated that the evidence linking Ubangian to Niger–Congo is weak, and Dimmendal (2008) went so far as to exclude Ubangian from Niger–Congo.
• Kwa: includes Akan, spoken in Ghana.
• Volta–Niger (= West Benue–Congo), including among others:
  • The Gbe languages, spoken in Ghana, Togo, Benin, and Nigeria, of which Ewe is best known.
  • The Yoruba and Igbo languages, spoken in Nigeria.
• (East) Benue–Congo, including:
  • The very large Bantu family, with Swahili, Fang, Kongo, Zulu, and many other languages of central and southern Africa.

Some linguists consider the twenty or so Kordofanian languages to form part of the Niger–Congo family, while others consider them and Niger–Congo to form two separate branches of a Niger–Kordofanian language family, and yet others do not accept Kordofanian as a single group. Senufo has been placed traditionally within Gur, but is now usually considered an early off-shoot from Atlantic–Congo.

However, Roger Blench believes that Adamawa, Ubangian, Kwa, Bantoid, and Bantu are not coherent groups.

The Laal, Mpre, and Jalaa languages are often linked with Niger–Congo, but have yet to be conclusively classified.