The VoltaâÂÂNiger family of languages, also known as West BenueâÂÂCongo, Kwa or East Kwa, is one of the branches of the NigerâÂÂCongo language family, with perhaps 70 million speakers. Among these are the most important languages of southern Nigeria, Benin, Togo, and southeast Ghana: Yoruba, Igbo, Bini, and Gbe.
These languages have variously been placed within the Kwa or BenueâÂÂCongo families or, starting in the 1970s, combined with them altogether. Williamson & Blench (2000) separate the languages here called Volta-Niger from the others. Güldemann (2018) fails to see clear criteria for dividing the languages into two or three families and maintains the broad grouping and name of Benue-Kwa for all them.
The constituent groups of the VoltaâÂÂNiger family, along with the most important languages in terms of number of speakers, are as follows (with number of languages for each branch in parentheses):
The Yoruboid languages and Akoko were once linked as the Defoid branch, but more recently they, Edoid, and Igboid have been suggested to be primary branches of an as-yet unnamed group, often abbreviated . Similarly, Oko, Nupoid, and Idomoid are often grouped together under the acronym . Ukaan is an AtlanticâÂÂCongo language, but it is unclear if it belongs to the VoltaâÂÂNiger family; Blench suspects it is closer to BenueâÂÂCongo.
In an automated computational analysis (ASJP 4) by Müller et al. (2013):
Below is a list of major VoltaâÂÂNiger branches and their primary locations (centres of diversity) in Nigeria based on Blench (2019).
Sample basic vocabulary in different VoltaâÂÂNiger branches:
Comparison of numerals in individual languages: