NigerCongo

Niger-Congo is a major language family of Africa, covering a large region of sub-Saharan Africa from West Africa across the Congo Basin to Southern Africa. It is one of the world’s largest language families by the number of languages and by total speakers, with estimates ranging from about 1,500 to 2,000 languages and hundreds of millions of speakers.

The internal classification identifies several large subgroups, notably Benue-Congo—the largest branch—whose descendants include the Bantu languages spoken across central, eastern, and southern Africa (for example Swahili, Zulu, Xhosa, Shona, Kikuyu). Other major branches include Volta-Congo and Kwa, with Atlantic-Congo used in some classifications. The exact internal relationships are still debated among linguists.

Proto-Niger-Congo is the reconstructed ancestor of these languages, believed to have been spoken in West Africa several thousand years ago. Later migrations and expansions, including the Bantu expansion beginning roughly two to three thousand years ago, helped shape the current geographic spread of Niger-Congo languages.

Linguistic features common to many Niger-Congo languages include noun class systems and rich nominal morphology, with many languages also being tonal. Writing today often uses the Latin script, though some languages have traditional or alternative writing systems. Larger languages such as Yoruba, Igbo, and Swahili serve as linguae francae or official languages in various settings, while numerous smaller languages remain vital for their communities and many face endangerment.