Southern Bantoid languages facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Southern Bantoid |
|
|---|---|
| Wide Bantu | |
| Geographic distribution: |
Subsaharan Africa, but not further west than Nigeria |
| Linguistic classification: | congo
|
| Subdivisions: |
Jarawan
Tivoid
Beboid
Mamfe (Nyang)
Grassfields
Ekoid
? Mbam
(Narrow) Bantu (unity in doubt)
|
The Southern Bantoid languages are a big group of African languages. They are part of the even larger Niger-Congo language family. These languages are mostly spoken in Subsaharan Africa. This area is south of the Sahara Desert.
A person named Kay Williamson first described this group in 1989. She found a way to divide the larger Bantoid languages. She split them into two main parts: North and South. The Southern Bantoid group is one of these parts.
What Are Southern Bantoid Languages?
There are many languages in the Southern Bantoid group. According to a source called Ethnologue, there are 643 of these languages. This makes it a very diverse group.
Many of these languages are "mutually intelligible." This means that if someone speaks one of these languages, a person speaking another related language can often understand them. It's like how people speaking different dialects of the same language can still talk to each other.
Smaller Language Families
The Southern Bantoid group includes several smaller language families. Think of it like a big family tree with many branches. Some of these smaller families are:
- Narrow Bantu languages
- Jarawan languages
- Tivoid languages
- Beboid languages
- Mamfe languages
- Grassfields languages
- Ekoid languages
There are also some languages in the Southern Bantoid group that have not yet been fully classified. This means experts are still studying them. They are trying to figure out exactly where these languages fit into the family tree.
See also
In Spanish: Lenguas bantoides meridionales para niños
