Niger–Congo languages
A proposed language family encompassing most languages of sub-Saharan Africa. Its major branches include Bantu, Atlantic, and Kwa.
Language family: A group of languages descended from a common ancestral language. Niger–Congo is proposed as a family whose member languages share inherited features.
Bantu languages: A large branch of Niger–Congo spoken across much of central, eastern, and southern Africa. Bantu is the family’s most widespread and internally extensive major branch.
Afroasiatic languages: A language family spanning North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and parts of western Asia. Its African members border Niger–Congo-speaking regions but belong to a separate family.
Joseph Greenberg: An American linguist who proposed influential classifications of African languages. His twentieth-century classification consolidated Niger–Congo as a major African family.
Comparative method: A method for reconstructing ancestral languages by comparing systematic similarities among related languages. Its evidence underlies arguments about Niger–Congo’s membership and subgrouping.
Atlantic languages: A proposed branch of Niger–Congo languages spoken mainly in West Africa. Atlantic includes several languages often discussed in relation to the family’s western branches.
Nilo-Saharan languages: A proposed language family of central and eastern Africa whose unity remains debated. Its uncertain status parallels disputes over Niger–Congo’s scope and internal relationships.
Bantu expansion: The spread of Bantu-speaking communities from west-central Africa across much of central, eastern, and southern Africa. This migration helps explain the broad geographic reach of one major Niger–Congo branch.
Proto-language: A reconstructed or historically documented language from which a group of languages descended. Proto-Niger–Congo is a proposed ancestor, though its reconstruction remains disputed.
Kwa languages: A group of languages spoken chiefly in southern Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, and Benin. Kwa is one of the major branches commonly included in Niger–Congo classifications.