NigerCongospråken

The Niger-Congo languages constitute one of the world's largest language families, spoken across sub-Saharan Africa. Estimates place the number of distinct languages in the family at roughly 1,500 to 2,000, with hundreds of millions of speakers. The geographic distribution extends from the western edge of Africa (Senegal and Guinea-Bissau) across the Sahel into southern Africa, making it the most widespread African language family.

Classification and major branches: The family is subdivided into many branches. A widely used scheme places Atlantic-Congo as a major branch, with Benue-Congo beneath it; Benue-Congo contains the large Bantu subgroup, which in turn includes languages such as Swahili, Zulu, Xhosa, Shona, and many others. Other branches commonly recognized include Kwa, Gur, and Mande in some classifications; internal relationships among branches remain subject to research and debate.

Linguistic features: Niger-Congo languages are typically tonal, with pitch used to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning. Noun class systems, often marked by noun prefixes and concord throughout noun phrases and verbs, are especially characteristic of Bantu languages. Verbal morphology frequently includes subject and object agreement prefixes, with rich serial verb constructions in some languages. Word order tends to be subject-verb-object in many branches, but considerable variation exists.

Writing and sociolinguistic status: Most Niger-Congo languages use a Latin-based script, sometimes with diacritics; some have local scripts. Several languages function as linguae francae or official languages in their regions, notably Swahili in East Africa and Yoruba and Igbo in Nigeria, with Zulu and Tswana among official languages in parts of Southern Africa. Many languages face endangerment pressures, particularly smaller communities and rural dialects amid population growth and language shift.