Volta–Niger languages

Common card · No. 485607

The Volta–Niger family of languages, also known as West Benue–Congo, Kwa or East Kwa, is one of the branches of the Niger–Congo language family, with perhaps 70 million speakers. Among these are the most spoken languages of southern Nigeria, Benin, Togo, and southeast Ghana: Yoruba, Igbo, Bini, and Gbe. These languages have variously been placed within the Kwa or Benue–Congo families or, starting in the 1970s, combined with them altogether. Williamson & Blench (2000) separate the languages here called Volta-Niger from the others. Güldemann (2018) fails to see clear criteria for dividing the languages into two or three families and maintains the broad grouping and name of Benue-Kwa for all of them.

Read on Wikipedia · Image Talisman-white, CC BY-SA 4.0