West Benue Congo languages

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West Benue Congo (also called Volta-Niger ) is a genetic sub-unit of the Benue-Congo languages , which form a branch of the Niger-Congo . The approximately 70 West Benue Congo languages ​​are spoken by almost 50 million speakers in Togo , Benin and Nigeria . They were originally classified as Eastern Kwa languages by Joseph Greenberg (1963) , but are now generally included in the Benue Congo.

For the development of the name, see the article Benue Congo languages .

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

Main languages ​​and subgroups

The most important languages ​​of West Benue Congo are Yoruba (20–22 million speakers, lingua franca in southwest Nigeria), Igbo (Ibo) (18 million), Edo (Bini) (1 million), Nupe (1 million) .) and Idoma (600k), all spoken in southern Nigeria. The five languages ​​mentioned together with smaller, closely related neighboring languages ​​form the subgroups of the yoruboid , igboid , edoid , nupoid , idomoid languages as well as some smaller groups of the West Benue Congo.

West Benue Congo subgroups: number of languages ​​and speakers;
geographical distribution

Sub-branch Number of
languages 		Number of
speakers 		Main distribution area
Yoruboid 14th 22 million Southwest Nigeria, Benin, Togo
Edoid 26th 2.6 million Central-South Nigeria
Igboid 7th 19 million Southeast Nigeria
Nupoid 11 3 million West-Central Nigeria
Idomoid 9 1.1 million South Nigeria

The term X-oid denotes a main language X with its closely related sister languages, e.g. B. Igboid is the group of languages ​​directly related to Igbo . As a rule, it is a dialect continua . Some researchers also consider such groups to be a single language.

classification

This results in the following internal classification, in which the more important languages ​​of the individual subgroups are listed (according to Williamson-Blench 2000 and the web link given below).

Yoruboid, Akoko and Ayere-Ahan were previously combined to form a genetic unit of the Defoid languages (e.g. Capo in Bendor-Samuel 1989). The newer classifications do not assume that there is a closer relationship, which is why three separate subgroups are formed here. Some researchers consider Ukaan and Akpes to be more closely related and assume a unit of Ukaan-Akpes .

Linguistic characteristics

The nominal class system of the West-Benue-Congo languages ​​shows different stages of development: a full system z. B. in Gade, a reduced one in Edoid, a rudimentary one in Yoruba; prefixes are used for marking . The verbal extensions are usually innovations (neoplasms that do not come from Proto-Niger-Congo). There are independent personal pronouns and dependent subject, object and possessive pronouns . The sentence order is SVO, prepositions are used , not postpositions . The noun phrases have a uniform structure, the specific noun ( N ) is in front, so there are the constructions N + genitive , N + possessive , N + adjective , N + adjective + genitive , N + numerals and N + demonstrative .

Here is an example from the Yoruba :

  • apa òkè Africa "the mountainous ( òkè ) part ( apa ) of Africa"

Almost all western Benue Congo languages ​​are tonal languages with two to four pitches and glides (smooth transitions) between high and low frequencies. The tones are phonemic (i.e., they mark differences in meaning), as the following examples from the Yoruba (three tone levels: é high tone, e middle tone, è low tone) show:

  • dé "arrive", dè "expect"
  • rò "think", ro " till the field"

Adjectives can be formed from verbs of states by a reduplication of the first syllable (in a high tone). Examples from the Yoruba:

  • kéré "to be small"> kékeré "small"
  • dára "to be good"> dídára "good"

See also

literature

African languages

  • Joseph Greenberg: The Languages ​​of Africa. Mouton, The Hague and Indiana University Center, Bloomington 1963.
  • Bernd Heine and others (ed.): The languages ​​of Africa. Buske, Hamburg 1981.
  • 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: Kay Williamson: Benue-Congo Overview.

For classification

  • Diedrich Westermann: The western Sudan languages ​​and their relationship to Bantu. Announcements from the seminar for oriental languages. Berlin 1927.
  • Merritt Ruhlen: A Guide to the World's Languages. Classification. Arnold, Stanford 1987.
  • Joseph Greenberg: Studies in African Linguistic Classification. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 1949-50.
  • Patrick Bennett and Jan Sterk: South Central Niger-Congo: A Reclassification. Studies in African Linguistics. 1977.
  • Chinyere Ohiri-Aniche: Language Diversification in the Akoko Area of ​​Western Nigeria. In: Roger Blench and Matthew Spriggs: Language and Archeology IV. Routledge, London 1999.

Web links