The Niger–Congo languages is the world's largest language family and Africa's largest in terms of geographical area, number of speakers, and number of distinct languages. It is generally considered to be the world's largest language family in terms of distinct languages, ahead of Austronesian, although this is complicated by the ambiguity about what constitutes a distinct language; the number of named Niger–Congo languages listed by Ethnologue is 1,540.
Benue–Congo is a major subdivision of the Niger–Congo language family which covers most of Sub-Saharan Africa. It consists of two main branches:
Bikya is a potentially extinct Southern Bantoid language spoken in Cameroon. It is one of the three, or four, Furu languages. In 1986 four surviving speakers were identified, although only one spoke the language fluently.
Kumba is a metropolitan city found in the Meme division in the Southwest Region, Western Cameroon popularly referred to as K town. Being the most developed, and largest city in the Meme division Kumba has attracted people from the neighbouring villages like Mbonge, Ekondo Titi amongst others. Kumba has an estimated population of about 400.000 inhabitants with about ¾ of this population falling within the youthful age group. The increase in population is as a result of increase in birth rate and a fall in infant mortality rate as a result of improvement in Infant health care and migrations. The N8 and N16 highways meet at Kumba.
Mamfe or Mamfé is a city in and the capital of Manyu, a division of the Southwest Region in Cameroon. It is 74 km (46 mi) from the border of Nigeria, on the Manyu River. It has a population of 36,500.
Bantoid is a putative major division of the Benue–Congo branch of the Niger–Congo language family. It consists of the Mambiloid languages, the Dakoid languages and the Tikar language, all in Nigeria and Cameroon, and the Southern Bantoid languages, a major division which also includes the Bantu languages spoken across most of Sub-Saharan Africa.
The Ekoid languages are a dialect cluster of Southern Bantoid languages spoken principally in southeastern Nigeria and in adjacent regions of Cameroon. They have long been associated with the Bantu languages, without their status being precisely defined. Crabb (1969) remains the major monograph on these languages, although regrettably, Part II, which was to contain grammatical analyses, was never published. Crabb also reviews the literature on Ekoid up to the date of publication.
Nyang'i (Nyangia) is the nearly extinct Kuliak language of the Nyangea hunter-gatherers of northeastern Uganda. The 15,000 Nyangia have shifted to speaking Karamojong.
Buru is a Southern Bantoid language of uncertain classification spoken in a single village in Nigeria. It is spoken in Sardauna LGA, Taraba State, in a village near Batu.
Daka is one of two languages spoken by the Chamba people in Nigeria, the other being Chamba Leko.
Kenyang is the principal Southern Bantoid language of the Mamfe family. It is spoken in the Manyu and Meme departments of the Southwest Region of Cameroon.
The Gunu language is a Southern Bantoid language of Cameroon.
The Nen language, Tunen (Banen), is a Southern Bantoid language of Cameroon. Maho (2009) considers Aling'a to be a distinct language.
Denya is a Southern Bantoid language of Cameroon in the Mamfe family. It has four dialects: Bajwo (Bajwa), Basho, Bitieku and Takamanda; they are divergent enough to perhaps be considered separate languages.
Fam is a Bantoid language of Nigeria. It is now usually left as unclassified within Benue–Congo, however Blench (2011) classifies it as a divergent Mambiloid language potentially related to Ndoola.
Kendem, or Bokwa-Kendem, is a minor Southern Bantoid language of the Mamfe family. It is spoken in three villages in Cameroon, Kendem, Kekpoti and Bokwa.
Yambeta is a Southern Bantoid language of Cameroon.
The Baca language, Nubaca, is a Southern Bantoid language of Cameroon.
Northern Bantoid is a branch of the Bantoid languages of the Niger–Congo language family. It consists of the Mambiloid, Dakoid, and Tikar languages of eastern Nigeria and west-central Cameroon.
