Cross River languages

Cross River languages
Cross River
Delta–Cross
Geographic
distribution:
SE Nigeria
Linguistic classification: Niger–Congo
  • Atlantic–Congo
    • Benue–Congo
      • Cross River
Subdivisions:
Upper Cross
Lower Cross
Kegboid (Ogoni)
Central Delta

The Cross River or Delta–Cross languages are a branch of the Benue–Congo language family in south-easternmost Nigeria posited by Joseph Greenberg. It is one of the few of his branches of Niger–Congo that has withstood the test of time.

The original name was Cross River. The Bendi languages were soon seen to be aberrant, and the other branches united under the term Delta–Cross. However, the inclusion of Bendi is doubtful, and it has been tentatively reassigned to the Bantoid family, making the two terms Cross River and Delta–Cross synonymous.

Languages

There are four sections of Cross River:

  • Central Delta, 8 languages, the most populous being Ogbia with 100 000 speakers
  • the 5 Ogoni languages, with Ogoni proper (Khana) having 200 000 speakers
  • Upper Cross River, 22 languages, the most populous being Lokaa with 120 000 speakers)
  • Lower Cross River, 23 languages, including Ibibio-Efik (3½ million)

References



Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Cross River — may refer to: In Nigeria Cross River (Nigeria) Cross River State, in southeastern Nigeria, named after the above river Cross River languages, a branch of the Benue Congo languages subgroup of the Niger Congo languages In Canada Cross River… …   Wikipedia

  • Cross River (disambiguation) — Cross River may refer to:In Africa: *Cross River, in Nigeria *Cross River State, in southeastern Nigeria, named after the river above *Cross River languages, a branch of the Benue Congo languages subgroup of the Niger Congo languagesIn the United …   Wikipedia

  • Cross River State —   State   Kwa Falls, a waterfall along the Kwa River Nickname(s) …   Wikipedia

  • Cross-River-Sprachen — West Benue Kongo, Platoid, Cross River Sprachen, Nord Bantoid, Süd Bantoid außer Bantu und die Nordwestecke des Bantu Gebietes Die Cross River Sprachen (oder auch Cross River) bilden eine Untereinheit des Ost Benue Kongo, eines Zweiges der Benue… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Languages of Africa — There are an estimated 2000 languages spoken in Africa. [ [http://www.panafril10n.org/wikidoc/pmwiki.php/PanAfrLoc/MajorLanguages Major Languages of Africa] ] About a hundred of these are widely used for inter ethnic communication. They fall into …   Wikipedia

  • Languages of Nigeria — Linguistic map of Nigeria, Cameroon, and Benin …   Wikipedia

  • Benue-Congo languages — Largest branch of the Niger Congo language family, both in numbers of languages (900) and speakers (at least 500 million). Its major divisions are Defoid, including Yoruba, with more than 20 million speakers; Edoid, including Edo (see kingdom of… …   Universalium

  • Cross Timbers — The outline of the Cross Timbers as defined by the EPA Ecology Ecozone Nearctic …   Wikipedia

  • Languages of Canada — Languages of Canada[1] Official language(s) English (58%) and French (22%) Indigenous language(s) Abenaki, A …   Wikipedia

  • Ogoni languages — Ogoni Kegboid Ethnicity: Ogoni people Geographic distribution: SE Nigeria Linguistic classification: Niger–Congo Atlantic–Congo …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”