Central Nigerian (or Platoid) contains the
Plateau,
Jukunoid and
Kainji families, and Bantoid–Cross combines the
Bantoid and
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), and in speakers, numbering perhaps 350 million. Benue–Congo also includes a few minor
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 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.The branches of the Benue–Congo family are thought to be as follows: •
Bantoid–Cross languages •
Bantoid •
Northern •
Southern •
Cross River •
Central Nigerian languages, also known as Platoid •
Jukunoid •
Kainji •
Plateau 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 and
Tita are also Benue–Congo but are otherwise unclassified. ==Branches and locations (Nigeria)==