Niger–Congo languages in the context of Sesotho language

Haitian Creole (/ˈheɪʃən ˈkriːoʊl/; French: Créole haïtien [kʁeɔl ajisjɛ̃] ; Haitian Creole: kreyòl ayisyen, [kɣejɔl ajisjɛ̃]), or simply Creole (Haitian Creole: kreyòl), is a African mixed French-based creole language that is spoken by over 13 million Haitian people worldwide. It is one of the two official languages of Haiti (the other being French), where it is the native language of the vast majority of the population. It is also the most widely spoken creole language in the world.

The three main dialects of Haitian Creole are the Northern, Central, and Southern dialects; the Northern dialect is predominantly spoken in Cap-Haïtien, the Central in Port-au-Prince, and the Southern in the Cayes area.

The Afroasiatic languages (also known as Afro-Asiatic, Afrasian, Hamito-Semitic, or Semito-Hamitic) are a language family (or "phylum") of about 400 languages spoken predominantly in West Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and parts of the Sahara and Sahel. Over 500 million people are native speakers of an Afroasiatic language, constituting the fourth-largest language family after Indo-European, Sino-Tibetan, and Niger–Congo. Most linguists divide the family into six branches: Berber (Amazigh), Chadic, Cushitic, Egyptian, Omotic, and Semitic. The vast majority of Afroasiatic languages are considered indigenous to the African continent, including all those not belonging to the Semitic branch (which originated in West Asia).

The five most spoken languages in the family are: Arabic (of all varieties), which is by far the most widely spoken within the family, with around 411 million native speakers concentrated primarily in West Asia and North Africa; the Chadic Hausa language, with over 58 million speakers in West Africa; the Cushitic Oromo language, with 45 million native speakers; the Semitic Amharic language, with 35 million; and the Cushitic Somali language with 24 million, all the latter three in the Horn of Africa. Other Afroasiatic languages with millions of native speakers include the Semitic Tigrinya, Tigre and Modern Hebrew, the Cushitic Beja, Sidama and Afar languages, the Berber languages (Shilha, Kabyle, Central Atlas Tamazight, Shawiya and Tarifit), and the Omotic Wolaitta language. Most languages of the non-Semitic branches (especially Chadic and Omotic) have far fewer speakers, and many Afroasiatic languages in Africa are vulnerable or endangered.

The number of languages natively spoken in Africa is variously estimated (depending on the delineation of language vs. dialect) at between 1,250 and 2,100, and by some counts at over 3,000. Nigeria alone has over 500 languages (according to SIL Ethnologue), one of the greatest concentrations of linguistic diversity in the world. The languages of Africa belong to many distinct language families, among which the largest are:

• Niger–Congo, which include the large Atlantic-Congo and Bantu branches in West, Central, Southeast and Southern Africa.
• Afroasiatic languages are spread throughout Western Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa and parts of the Sahel.
• Saharan, Nilotic and Central Sudanic languages (grouped under the hypothetical Nilo-Saharan macro-family), are present in East Africa and Sahel.
• Austronesian languages are spoken in Madagascar and parts of the Comoros.
• Khoe–Kwadi languages are spoken mostly in Namibia and Botswana.
• Indo-European languages, while not indigenous to Africa, are spoken in South Africa and Namibia (Afrikaans, English, German) and are used as lingua francas in Liberia and the former colonies of the United Kingdom (English), former colonies of France and of Belgium (French), former colonies of Portugal (Portuguese), former colonies of Italy (Italian), former colonies of Spain (Spanish) and the current Spanish territories of Ceuta, Melilla and the Canary Islands and the current French territories of Mayotte and La Réunion.

There are several other small families and language isolates, as well as creoles and languages that have yet to be classified. In addition, Africa has a wide variety of sign languages, many of which are language isolates.

The Yoruba people (/ˈjɒrʊbə/ YORR-ub-ə; Yoruba: Ìran Yorùbá, Ọmọ Odùduwà, Ọmọ Káàárọ̀-oòjíire) are a West African ethnic group who inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo, a region collectively called Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute more than 50 million people in Africa, and over a million outside the continent, and bear further representation among the African diaspora. The vast majority of Yoruba are in today's Nigeria, where they make up 20.7% of the country's population according to Ethnologue estimates, making them one of the largest ethnic groups in Africa. Most Yoruba people speak the Yoruba language, which is the Niger-Congo language with the largest number of native or L1 speakers.

Wolof (/ˈwoʊlɒf/ WOH-lof; Wolof làkk, وࣷلࣷفْ لࣵکّ) also known as Senegalese is a Niger–Congo language spoken by the Wolof people in much of the West African subregion of Senegambia that is split between the countries of Senegal, The Gambia and Mauritania. Like the neighbouring languages Serer and Fula, it belongs to the Senegambian branch of the Niger–Congo language family. Unlike most other languages of its family, Wolof is not a tonal language.

Wolof is the most widely spoken language in Senegal, spoken natively by the Wolof people (40% of the population) but also by most other Senegalese as a second language. Wolof dialects vary geographically and between rural and urban areas. The principal dialect of Dakar, for instance, is an urban mixture of Wolof, French, and Arabic.

Yoruba (US: /ˈjɔːrəbə/, UK: /ˈjɒrʊbə/; Yor. Èdè Yorùbá [èdè jōɾùbá]) is a Niger-Congo language that is spoken in West Africa, primarily in South West Nigeria, Benin, and parts of Togo. It is spoken by the Yoruba people. Yoruba speakers number roughly 50 million, including around 2 million second-language or L2 speakers. As a pluricentric language, it is primarily spoken in a dialectal area spanning Nigeria, Benin, and Togo with smaller migrated communities in Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone and Gambia.

Yoruba vocabulary is also used in African diaspora religions such as the Afro-Brazilian religions of Candomblé and Umbanda, the Caribbean religion of Santería in the form of the liturgical Lucumí language, and various Afro-American religions of North America. Among modern practitioners of these religions in the Americas, Yoruba is a liturgical language, as most of them are not fluent in it, yet they still use Yoruba words and phrases for songs or chants, which are rooted in cultural traditions. For such practitioners, the Yoruba lexicon is especially common for ritual purposes, and these modern manifestations have taken new forms that do not depend on vernacular fluency.

The Igbo people (English: /ˈiːboʊ/ EE-boh, US also /ˈɪɡboʊ/ IG-boh; also spelled Ibo and historically also Iboe, Ebo, Eboe, Eboans, Heebo;natively Ńdị́ Ìgbò) are an ethnic group found in Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, and Equatorial Guinea. Their primary origin is found in modern-day Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo States, while others can be found in the Niger Delta and along the Cross River. The Igbo people are one of the largest ethnic groups in Africa.

The Igbo language is part of the Niger-Congo language family. Its regional dialects are mutually intelligible amidst the larger "Igboid" cluster.The Igbo homeland straddles the lower Niger River, east and south of the Edoid and Idomoid groups, and west of the Ibibioid (Cross River) cluster.

Haitian Creole (/ˈheɪʃən ˈkriːoʊl/; French: Créole haïtien [kʁeɔl ajisjɛ̃] ; Haitian Creole: kreyòl ayisyen, [kɣejɔl ajisjɛ̃]), or simply Creole (Haitian Creole: kreyòl), is an African mixed French-based creole language that is spoken by over 13 million Haitian people worldwide. It is one of the two official languages of Haiti (the other being French), where it is the native language of the vast majority of the population. It is also the most widely spoken creole language in the world.

The three main dialects of Haitian Creole are the Northern, Central, and Southern dialects; the Northern dialect is predominantly spoken in Cap-Haïtien, the Central in Port-au-Prince, and the Southern in the Cayes area.

Ewe (Eʋe or Eʋegbe [ɛβɛɡ͡bɛ]) or Togolese is a language spoken by approximately 5 million people in West Africa, mainly in Ghana and Togo. Ewe is part of a group of related languages commonly called the Gbe languages. The other major Gbe language is Fon, which is mainly spoken in Benin. Like many African languages, Ewe is tonal as well as a possible member of the Niger-Congo family.

The German Africanist Diedrich Hermann Westermann published many dictionaries and grammars of Ewe and several other Gbe languages. Other linguists who have worked on Ewe and closely related languages include Gilbert Ansre (tone, syntax), Herbert Stahlke (morphology, tone), Nick Clements (tone, syntax), Roberto Pazzi (anthropology, lexicography), Felix K. Ameka (semantics, cognitive linguistics), Alan Stewart Duthie (semantics, phonetics), Hounkpati B. Capo (phonology, phonetics), Enoch Aboh (syntax), and Chris Collins (syntax).

Pulaar (in Latin: pulaar, in Ajami: ݒُلَارْ‎), often referred to as Pulaar du Nord, is a dialect of the Fula language spoken primarily as a first language by the Fula and Toucouleur peoples in the Senegal River valley area traditionally known as Futa Tooro and further south and east. Pulaar speakers, known as Haalpulaar'en live in Senegal, Mauritania, the Gambia, and western Mali. The two main speakers of Pulaar are the Toucouleur people and the Fulɓe (also known as Fulani or Peul). Fula, considered as a single language, is the second most spoken local language in Senegal, being a first language for around 22% of the population. This correlates with 23.7% of the country in which Fulbe is the population's ethnicity. Pulaar is one of the national languages of Senegal alongside 13 others. It was admitted as an official language of Senegal by Presidential decree in 1971. There are around 28 known dialects of Fula, most of which are mutually intelligible with each other. The Fula dialects, as well as other West African languages, are usually referenced under the umbrella term ‘Fula’. Pulaar as a language, however, is not usually referenced as ‘Fula’.

According to Ethnologue there are several dialectal varieties, but all are mutually intelligible.

The Mande languages are a family of languages spoken in several countries in West Africa by the Mandé peoples. They include Maninka (Malinke), Mandinka, Soninke, Bambara, Kpelle, Jula (Dioula), Bozo, Mende, Susu, and Vai. There are around 60 to 75 languages spoken by around 60 million people, chiefly in Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire) and also in southern Mauritania, northern Ghana, northwestern Nigeria and northern Benin.

The Mande languages show a few lexical similarities with the Atlantic–Congo language family, so together they have been proposed as parts of a larger Niger–Congo language family since the 1950s. However, the Mande languages lack the noun-class morphology that is the primary identifying feature of the Atlantic–Congo languages. Accordingly, linguists increasingly treat Mande and Atlantic–Congo as independent language families.

Fula (/ˈfuːlə/ FOO-lə), also known as Fulani (/fʊˈlɑːniː/ fuu-LAH-nee) or Fulah (Fulfulde, Pulaar, Pular; Adlam: 𞤊𞤵𞤤𞤬𞤵𞤤𞤣𞤫, 𞤆𞤵𞤤𞤢𞥄𞤪, 𞤆𞤵𞤤𞤢𞤪; Ajami: ࢻُلْࢻُلْدٜ‎, ݒُلَارْ‎, بُۛلَر‎), is a Senegambian language spoken by around 36.8 million people as a set of various dialects in a continuum that stretches across some 18 countries in West and Central Africa. Along with other related languages such as Serer and Wolof, it belongs to the Atlantic geographic group within Niger–Congo, and more specifically to the Senegambian branch. Unlike most Niger-Congo languages, Fula does not have tones.

It is spoken as a first language by the Fula people ("Fulani", Fula: Fulɓe) from the Senegambia region and Guinea to Cameroon, Nigeria, and Sudan and by related groups such as the Toucouleur people in the Senegal River Valley. It is also spoken as a second language by various peoples in the region, such as the Kirdi of northern Cameroon and northeastern Nigeria.

The Efik are an ethnic group located primarily in southern Nigeria, and western Cameroon. Within Nigeria, the Efik can be found in the present-day Cross River State. The Efik speak the Efik language which is a member of the Benue–Congo subfamily of the Niger-Congo language group. The Efik refer to themselves as Efik Eburutu, Ifa Ibom, Eburutu and Iboku.

The bulk of the Efiks can be found in Calabar and the southern part of Cross River State. Prior to 1905, Old Calabar was a term used to describe the Efik settlements of Duke Town, Creek Town, Old town, Cobham town, Henshaw town, Adiabo and Mbiabo (consisting of Mbiabo edere, Mbiabo Ikot Offiong and Mbiabo Ikoneto). The Efik have also been referred to as "Calabar people" in historical literature. The term "Calabar people" was particularly popular prior to the nineteenth century and was synonymous with the Efik.

The Volta–Niger family of languages, also known as West Benue–Congo or East Kwa, is one of the branches of the Niger–Congo 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 Benue–Congo 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 West Atlantic languages (also the Atlantic languages or North Atlantic languages) of West Africa are a major subgroup of the Niger–Congo languages.

The Atlantic languages are spoken along the Atlantic coast from Senegal to Liberia, though transhumant Fula speakers have spread eastward and are found in large numbers across the Sahel, from Senegal to Nigeria, Cameroon and Sudan. Wolof of Senegal and several of the Fula languages are the most populous Atlantic languages, with several million speakers each. Other significant members include Serer and the Jola dialect cluster of Senegal. Temne, a major language of Sierra Leone, was included in the Atlantic subgroup in earlier classifications but in modern proposals, it is no longer grouped within Atlantic.