Niger - Congo Languages

The Niger-Congo language family, considered hypothetical by some scholars, is believed to be spoken across the majority of sub-Saharan Africa. It is thought to encompass the Mande languages, the Atlantic-Congo languages (which share a distinctive noun class system), and possibly other smaller groups that are challenging to classify. If confirmed, Niger-Congo would be the world's largest language family in terms of member languages and the third-largest in terms of speakers, covering Africa's largest geographical area. It is widely regarded as the world's largest language family in terms of the number of distinct languages, with Ethnologue listing 1,540 named Niger-Congo languages.

The most widely spoken native Niger-Congo languages in terms of number of speakers are Yoruba, Igbo, Fula, Ga-Adamgbe, Shona, Sesotho, Zulu, Akan, and Mooré. However, the most widely spoken Niger-Congo language overall, in terms of total number of speakers, is Swahili, which serves as a lingua franca in parts of eastern and southeastern Africa.

Linguists believe that the Niger-Congo language family likely originated in or near the region where these languages are currently spoken, prior to the Bantu expansion, possibly in West Africa or Central Africa. The expansion of Niger-Congo languages may have been associated with the spread of Sahel agriculture during the African Neolithic period, following the desiccation of the Sahara around 3500 BCE. There is evidence of a common origin for Niger-Congo languages, based on shared features such as noun-class systems, verbal extensions, and basic lexicon, rather than just typological classification.

The core of the Niger-Congo group is formed by the Atlantic-Congo languages, which make up more than 80% of the Niger-Congo speaking population, accounting for close to 600 million people as of 2015. The non-Atlantic-Congo languages within Niger-Congo are grouped as Dogon, Mande, Ijo, Katla, and Rashad. The putative Niger-Congo languages outside of the Atlantic-Congo family are mainly found in the upper Senegal and Niger river basins, south and west of Timbuktu (Mande, Dogon), the Niger Delta (Ijoid), and south-central Sudan, around the Nuba Mountains (the Kordofanian families), accounting for a total population of about 100 million as of 2015, mostly consisting of Mandé and Ijaw speakers.

Niger-Congo languages typically prefer open syllables of the CV (Consonant Vowel) type. The reconstructed word structure of Proto-Niger-Congo is believed to have been CVCV, a structure that is still evident in Bantu, Mande, and Ijoid languages, while in many other branches this structure has undergone phonological changes. Verbs in Niger-Congo languages are typically composed of a root followed by one or more extensional suffixes, while nouns consist of a root originally preceded by a noun class prefix of (C)V- shape, which may have eroded through phonological changes.

Several branches of Niger-Congo languages exhibit a regular phonological contrast between two classes of consonants, commonly characterized as fortis and lenis consonants, although further research is needed for a clearer understanding of this contrast. Many Niger-Congo languages also exhibit vowel harmony based on the [ATR] (advanced tongue root) feature, where the position of the root of the tongue in regards to backness serves as the phonetic basis for the distinction between two harmonizing sets of vowels.