The Jukunoid languages are a branch of the Benue-Congo languages spoken by the Jukun and related peoples of

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

and

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. They are distributed mostly throughout

Taraba State Taraba is a States of Nigeria, state in north-eastern Nigeria, named after the Taraba River, which traverses the southern part of the state. It is known as "Nature's Gift to the Nation". Its capital is Jalingo. The state's main Demographics ...

, Nigeria and surrounding regions. Their asymmetrical nasal consonants are atypical for

West Africa West Africa, also known as Western Africa, is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations geoscheme for Africa#Western Africa, United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Gha ...

, as can be seen in Wapan.

External relationships

Gerhardt (1983) and Güldemann (2018) suggest that Jukunoid may actually be part of the

Plateau languages The forty or so Plateau languages are a tentative group of Benue–Congo languages spoken by 15 million people on the Jos Plateau, Southern Kaduna, Nasarawa State and in adjacent areas in central Nigeria. Berom and Eggon have the most speaker ...

, as it shares similarities with various Plateau groups, especially Tarokoid. However, Blench (2005) argues that Jukunoid is clearly separate from Plateau.

Classification

The following classification is from Glottolog; the Kororofa branch has been added from ''Ethnologue'' (Glottolog classifies the Kororofa languages as Jukun): *Jukunoid ** Kuteb **Central ***Kpan–Icen **** Etkywan (Icen) **** Kpan ***Jukun–Mbembe–Wurbo ****Jukun ***** Jukun (Jukun Takum) ***** Jibu ***** Hõne ***** Wãpha ***** Jan Awei ****Kororofa ***** Wannu ***** Wapan ***** Jiba **** Mbembe (Tigon) ****Wurbo ***** Como Karim ***** Jiru ***** Shoo-Minda-Nye ''Ethnologue'' adds the Yukubenic branch of the

as part of a Yukubenic-Kuteb group based on Shimizu (1980), and Blench also follows this classification. ''Ethnologue'' also leaves the Wurbo language Shoo-Minda-Nye as unclassified within Jukun–Mbembe–Wurbo, and includes the unclassified Benue–Congo language Tita in its place. Lau was also recently reported by Idiatov (2017).

Names and locations

Below is a list of language names, populations, and locations from Blench (2019).

Numerals

Comparison of numerals in individual languages:

References

External links

ComparaLex
database with Jukunoid word lists {{Niger-Congo branches Benue–Congo languages