Northern Bantoid (or North Bantoid) is a branch of the

Bantoid languages Bantoid is a major branch of the Benue–Congo language family. It consists of the Northern Bantoid languages and the Southern Bantoid languages, a division which also includes the Bantu languages that constitute the overwhelming majority and to ...

. It consists of the

Mambiloid The twelve Mambiloid languages are languages spoken by the Mambila and related peoples mostly in eastern Nigeria and in Cameroon. In Nigeria the largest group is Mambila (there is also a small Mambila population in Cameroon). In Cameroon the la ...

, Dakoid, and

Tikar The Tikar (also Tikari, Tige, Tigar, Tigre, Tikali) are a central African people who inhabit the Western High Plateau in Cameroon. They are known as great artisans and storytellers. Once a nomadic people, some oral traditions trace the origin of ...

languages of eastern

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

and west-central

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...

History

A proposal that divided Bantoid into North and South Bantoid was introduced by Williamson.Blench, Roger 987'A new classification of Bantoid languages.' Unpublished paper presented at 17th Colloquium on African Languages and Linguistics, Leiden. Blench argues for the unity of North Bantoid by citing phonological, lexical, and morphological evidence.

Internal classification

Blench classifies these languages as North Bantoid. *''

'' (divergent) *

(possibly including the divergent Ndoro–Fam languages) * Dakoid

Language contact

Dakoid languages The Dakoid languages are a branch of the Northern Bantoid languages spoken in Taraba and Adamawa states of eastern Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially ...

have had long-term contact with

Adamawa languages The Adamawa languages are a putative family of 80–90 languages scattered across the Adamawa Plateau in central Africa, in Nigeria, Cameroon, Central African Republic, and Chad, spoken altogether by only one and a half million people (as of 19 ...

, while the

Tikar language Tikar (also called Tigé, Tigré or Tikari) is a Northern Bantoid, semi-Bantu language that is spoken in Cameroon by the Tikar people, as well as by the Bedzan Pygmies, who speak their own dialect of the language''.'' A recent hypothesis by R ...

shares many similarities with the

Bafia languages The Bafia languages are a clade of Bantu languages coded Zone A.50 in Guthrie's classification. According to Nurse & Philippson (2003), the languages form a valid node. They are: : Fa’ (Lefa), Kaalong (Dimbong), Kpa KPA may refer to: * Keele ...

(also known as the A50

Bantu languages The Bantu languages (English: , Proto-Bantu: *bantʊ̀) are a large family of languages spoken by the Bantu people of Central, Southern, Eastern africa and Southeast Africa. They form the largest branch of the Southern Bantoid languages. The t ...

).Blench, Roger
The North Bantoid hypothesis

Maps

File:Map of the Bantoid languages of Nigeria and Cameroon.svg, Map of the

of Nigeria and Cameroon File:Map of the Mambiloid languages.svg, Map of the

Mambiloid languages The twelve Mambiloid languages are languages spoken by the Mambila and related peoples mostly in eastern Nigeria and in Cameroon. In Nigeria the largest group is Mambila (there is also a small Mambila population in Cameroon). In Cameroon the la ...

File:Map of the Dakoid languages.svg, Map of the

File:Map of the Fam language.svg, Map of the

Fam language Fam (''Fám'';Idiatov, Dmitry, Mark Van de Velde, Tope Olagunju and Bitrus Andrew. 2017. Results of the first AdaGram survey in Adamawa and Taraba States, Nigeria'. 47th Colloquium on African Languages and Linguistics (CALL) (Leiden, Netherlands) ...

Numerals

Comparison of numerals in individual languages:

References

*Blench, Roger
The North Bantoid hypothesis
*Blench, Roger. 2011
'The membership and internal structure of Bantoid and the border with Bantu'
''Bantu IV'', Humboldt University, Berlin. {{Niger-Congo branches