Cross River languages
| Cross River | |
|---|---|
| Delta–Cross | |
| Geographic distribution | Southeastern Nigeria (Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Bayelsa States); southwestern Cameroon |
| Linguistic classification | Niger–Congo?
|
| Subdivisions |
|
| Glottolog | delt1251 |
 The Cross River languages shown within Nigeria and Cameroon:
| |
The Cross River or Delta–Cross languages are a branch of the Benue–Congo language family spoken in south-easternmost Nigeria, with some speakers in south-westernmost Cameroon. The branch was first formulated by Joseph Greenberg; it is one of the few of his branches of Niger–Congo that has withstood the test of time.
Greenberg's Cross River family originally included the Bendi languages. The Bendi languages were soon seen to be very different and thus were made a separate branch of Cross River, while the other languages were united under the branch Delta–Cross. However, the inclusion of Bendi in Cross River at all is doubtful, and it has been tentatively reassigned to the Southern Bantoid family, making the terms Cross River and Delta–Cross now synonymous.
Languages[]
There are four primary branches of Cross River:
- Central Delta, 8 languages, the most populous being Ogbia with 100,000 speakers
- Ogoni, 5 languages, with Ogoni proper (Khana) having 200,000 speakers
- Upper Cross River, 22 languages, the most populous being Lokaa with 120,000 speakers
- Lower Cross River, 23 languages, the most populous being Ibibio language (3.5 million speakers)
Branches and locations[]
Below is a list of major Cross River branches and their primary locations (centres of diversity) in southeast Nigeria based on Blench (2019).[1]
| Branch | Primary locations |
|---|---|
| Upper Cross River | Obubra and Akamkpa LGAs, Rivers State |
| Lower Cross River | Akwa Ibom State |
| Ogoni | Gokana, Tai, and Eleme LGAs, Rivers State |
| Central Delta | Ahoada LGA, Rivers State and Brass LGA, Bayelsa State |
Internal classification[]
Roger Blench (2008: 4)[2] classifies the Cross River languages as follows.
- Cross River
- ? Bendi (Yakoro, Bendi, Alege, Bumaji, Bokyi, etc.)
- Delta-Cross
- Upper Cross
- Core
- North-South (Koring, Kukele, Kohumono, Agwagwune, etc.)
- East-West (Ikom, Mbembe, Legbo, etc.)
- Ukpet-Ehom
- Agoi, Doko, Iyongiyong
- Kiong, Korop
- Core
- Lower Cross
- East (Efik, Ibibio, Anaang, Efiat, etc.)
- Central (Enwang, Uda)
- West (Ebughu, Oro, Usakade, Obolo, etc.)
- Ogoni
- Eleme; Baan (Ogoi)
- Gokana; Tẹẹ (Tai); Kana
- Central Delta
- Abuan, Odual
- Kugbo, Ogbia, etc.
- Upper Cross
Although Blench (2004) tentatively included the Bendi languages as possibly being a Cross River outlier branch, the Bendi languages are generally classified as Southern Bantoid.
See also[]
- Cross River (Nigeria), the namesake of the language group
References[]
- ^ a b Blench, Roger (2019). An Atlas of Nigerian Languages (4th ed.). Cambridge: Kay Williamson Educational Foundation.
- ^ Blench, Roger. 2008. The Ogoni languages: comparative word list and historical reconstructions.
Bibliography[]
- Faraclas, Nicholas (1986). "Cross river as a model for the evolution of Benue-Congo nominal class/concord systems" (PDF). Studies in African Linguistics. 17 (1): 39–54.
- Connell, Bruce (1994). "The lower Cross river languages: A prolegomena to the classification of the Cross river languages". 17 (1): 3–46.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - Greenberg, Joseph H. (1963), The Languages of Africa, Bloomingtom, Indiana University
- Blench, Roger (2019). An Atlas of Nigerian Languages (4th ed.). Cambridge: Kay Williamson Educational Foundation.
External links[]
- ComparaLex, database with Cross River word lists
- Journal of West African Languages: Cross River Languages
- Cross River languages
- Benue–Congo languages