Cross-river languages

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West Benue Congo, Platoid, Cross River Languages, North Bantoid, South Bantoid except Bantu and the northwest corner of the Bantu area

The Cross-River languages (or Cross-River ) form a sub-unit of the East Benue-Congo , a branch of the Benue-Congo languages , which in turn belong to the Niger-Congo .

The approximately 70 Cross River languages ​​are spoken by around 6 million people in southeast Nigeria and northwest Cameroon . The center is the state of Cross River State in Nigeria. Cross-River is divided into the sub-units Bendi and Delta Cross .

overview

The East Benue-Congo ( Joseph Greenberg's Benue-Congo ) is divided into the main groups of platoiden languages and bantoiden cross languages , turn the latter into the Cross River languages and bantoiden languages (see diagram).

  • Niger-Congo
    • Volta Congo
      • South Volta Congo
        • Benue Congo
          • East Benue Congo
            • Platoid
            • Bantoid Cross
              • Cross river
              • Bantoid

classification

The approximately 70 Cross River languages ​​are divided into Bendi (ten languages, 400,000 speakers) and Delta Cross (about 60 languages ​​with 5.5 million speakers). By far the most important cross-river languages ​​are the closely related languages Efik (500,000 native speakers, 2 to 3 million speak as a lingua franca ), Ibibio (2 million) and Anaang (1 million), all three of which are Lower Delta Cross include.

The name "Cross-River" and the associated languages ​​were taken over unchanged by Greenberg in 1963, the internal classification changed in several steps, the classification of all Cross-River languages ​​presented here is based on Connell 1998 (which, however, does not belong to the Bendi group considers secure) and the web link given below.

Classification of Cross-River Languages

  • Cross River
    • Bendi
      • Bokyi (150 thousand), Bekwarra (100 thousand), Bete-Bendi (40 thousand), Obanliku (65 thousand), Putukwam (12 thousand),
        Ukpe-Bayobiri (12 thousand), Alege , Bumaji, Ubang
    • Delta Cross
      • Upper Delta Cross
        • Central
          • Mbembe-Legbo: Mbembe (100 thousand); Legbo (60 thousand), Leyigha (10 thousand), Lenyima
          • Olulumo-Ikon (30k)
          • Lokaa: Lokaa (120 thousand), Nkukoli, Lubila
          • Koring-Kukele: Kukele (100 thousand), Uzekwe (5 thousand); Koring (75 thousand)
          • Kohumono: Kohumono (30 thousand), Agwagwune (20 thousand), Umon (20 thousand); Ubagara (30 thousand)
        • Agoi-Doko: Agoi (12 thousand), Bakpinka, Doko-Uyanga
        • Kiong-Korop: Korop (12 thousand), Kiong, Odu †
        • Ukpet-Ehom
      • Lower Delta Cross
        • Efik-Ibibio: Efik (500 thousand, with second speakers 2-3 million), Ibibio (2 million), Anaang (1 million), Ukwa
        • Ekit: Ekit (200 thousand), Etebi (15 thousand)
        • Ibuoro: Ibuoro, Ito Mbon, Ito, Nkari (5 thousand each)
        • Enwan-Uda: Enwan (15 thousand), Uda (10 thousand)
        • Obolo (Andoni) (100k)
        • Okobo (50k)
        • Oro (75 thousand)
        • Others : Ibino (10 thousand), Usaghade (10 thousand), Iko, Eki, Idere, Ebughu , Efai (around 5 thousand each)
      • Ogoni
        • East: Koana (Ogoni) (200k), Gokana (100k)
        • West: Eleme (60k), Baan (5k)
      • Central delta
        • Kugbo: Ogbia (Oloibiri-Kolo-Anyama) (200 thousand), Ogbogolo (10 thousand)
        • Abua-Odual: Abua (25 thousand), Odual (20 thousand)
      • Akum (<1 thousand) ( assignment unclear )

Linguistic characteristics

Some languages ​​of the Upper Delta Cross and the Bendi still have a fully developed nominal class system , others only have reduced systems with limited concordance (Lower Delta Cross) up to the complete elimination of the class system in the Ogoni group. There are numerous verbal derivations and the usual pronouns : independent personal pronoun , dependent subject, object and possessive pronouns. The sentence order is SVO, only prepositions are used. The noun phrase has the basic sequence definite noun + determiner , but the adjective often comes before its noun. An example from the Oro:

  • usim aba "the tail ( usim ) of the dog"
  • otido usim "the long tail"

The verbal inflection is usually done by a system of prefixes , rarely by suffixes . Reduplication of the verb root enables the verb to be focused (accentuated), while the normal sentence sequence (SVO → OSV) is changed to focus the object. Here is an example from the obolo (without a tone, n- is the subject prefix of the 1st person singular):

  • n-fuk ikpa "I read the book ( ikpa )" (neutral)
  • n-fo-fuk ikpa "I read the book (and didn't write it)"
  • ikpa n-fuk "the book was what I read (not the newspaper)"
  • n-ba-fuk ikpa "I'll read the book" (future tense prefix ba- )

See also

literature

  • Bernd Heine and Derek Nurse (eds.): African Languages. An Introduction. Cambridge University Press 2000.
    In it: Kay Williamson and Roger Blench: Niger-Congo.
  • John Bendor-Samuel (Ed.): The Niger-Congo Languages: A Classification and Description of Africa's Largest Language Family. University Press of America, Lanham, New York, London 1989.
    Therein: Nicholas G. Faraclas: Cross River.
  • Bruce Connell: Classifying Cross River. In: Ian Maddieson and Thomas Hinnebusch (Eds.): Language, History and Linguistic Description in Africa. Trends in African Linguistics. Africa World Press, Lawrenceville (NJ) 1998.

Web links