Editing Benue–Congo languages (section)

==Subdivisions==
Central Nigerian (or Platoid) contains the [[Plateau languages|Plateau]], [[Jukunoid languages|Jukunoid]] and [[Kainji languages|Kainji]] families, and Bantoid–Cross combines the [[Bantoid languages|Bantoid]] and [[Cross River languages|Cross River]] groups.

Bantoid is only a collective term for every subfamily of Bantoid–Cross except Cross River, and this is no longer seen as forming a valid branch, however one of the subfamilies, Southern Bantoid, is still considered valid. It is Southern Bantoid which contains the Bantu languages, which are spoken across most of Sub-Saharan Africa. This makes Benue–Congo one of the largest subdivisions of the Niger–Congo language family, both in number of languages, of which ''[[Ethnologue]]'' counts 976 (2017)<!--995 if branches not counted here are included-->, and in speakers, numbering perhaps 350 million. Benue–Congo also includes a few minor [[Language isolate|isolates]] in the Nigeria–Cameroon region, but their exact relationship is uncertain.

The neighbouring [[Volta–Niger]] branch of [[Nigeria]] and [[Benin]] is sometimes called "West Benue–Congo", but it does not form a united branch with Benue–Congo. When Benue–Congo was first proposed by [[Joseph Greenberg]] (1963), it included Volta–Niger (as West Benue–Congo); the boundary between Volta–Niger and [[Kwa languages|Kwa]] has been repeatedly debated. Blench (2012) states that if Benue–Congo is taken to be "the noun-class languages east and north of the Niger", it is likely to be a valid group, though no demonstration of this has been made in print.<ref>Roger Blench, [http://www.rogerblench.info/Language/Niger-Congo/General/Niger-Congo%20an%20alternative%20view.pdf Niger-Congo: an alternative view] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121203022520/http://www.rogerblench.info/Language/Niger-Congo/General/Niger-Congo%20an%20alternative%20view.pdf |date=2012-12-03 }}</ref>{{Stack|[[File:Map of the Benue–Congo languages of Nigeria and Cameroon.svg|thumb|300x300px|The Benue–Congo branches of Nigeria and Cameroon]]}}The branches of the Benue–Congo family are thought to be as follows:
*[[Bantoid–Cross languages]]
** [[Cross River languages|Cross River]]
**[[Northern Bantoid languages|Northern Bantoid]]
**[[Southern Bantoid languages|Southern Bantoid]]
* [[Central Nigerian languages]], also known as Platoid
** [[Jukunoid languages|Jukunoid]]
** [[Kainji languages|Kainji]]
** [[Plateau languages|Plateau]]

[[Ukaan language|Ukaan]] is also related to Benue–Congo; Roger Blench suspects it might be either the most divergent (East) Benue–Congo language or the closest relative to Benue–Congo.

[[Fali of Baissa]] and [[Tita language|Tita]] are also Benue–Congo but are otherwise unclassified.

[[File:Dispersal of the Benue-Congo languages.png|thumb|The Benue-Congo homeland and dispersal of the sub-branches<ref name="watters">{{Cite book
| veditors = Watters, John R
| title = East Benue-Congo: Nouns, pronouns, and verbs
| place = Berlin
| publisher = Language Science Press
| date = 2018
| format = pdf
| url = http://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/190
| doi = 10.5281/zenodo.1314306
| doi-access = free
| isbn = 978-3-96110-100-9
| last1 = Watters
| first1 = John R.
| access-date = 2018-11-15
| archive-date = 2018-11-16
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20181116000742/http://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/190
| url-status = live
}}</ref>]]