尼日-刚果诸语言(Niger-Congo languages)

非洲大语系，拥有语言900～1,300余种，撒哈拉沙漠以南的大多数人口都使用尼日-刚果诸语言，其使用范围北起塞内加尔北部和肯亚，南抵那米比亚和南非开普省东部。尼日-刚果这个名称是格林伯格在1955年所提出。以今日所了解的，尼日-刚果诸语言共分为九个语族，曼德诸语言、科尔多凡诸语言、大西洋诸语言（旧称西大西洋诸语言）、库鲁诸语言、古尔诸语言、克瓦诸语言、伊卓德诸语言、阿达马瓦-乌班吉诸语言（旧称阿达马瓦-东部诸语言）和贝努埃-刚果诸语言。科尔多凡语族由超过二十种的语言组成，操此语言的民族（不超过200,000人）居住於苏丹科尔多凡省南部的努巴山中。库鲁诸语言由超过十种的语言组成，操此语言的民族（1,000,000～2,000,000人）主要居住於象牙海岸西南部和赖比瑞亚南部。伊卓德则是由八种密切相关的方言组成，操此语言的民族（近乎2,000,000人）为居住於奈及利亚尼日河三角洲的伊乔人和德法卡族。

English version：

Niger-Congo languages

Superfamily of 900-1,300 languages spoken by most of the population of sub-Saharan Africa, from northern Senegal and Kenya in the north to Namibia and Eastern Cape province (South Africa) in the south. The name Niger-Congo was introduced in 1955 by Joseph H. Greenberg. As understood today, Niger-Congo has nine branches: Mande, Kordofanian, Atlantic (formerly West Atlantic), Kru, Gur, Kwa, Ijoid, Adamawa-Ubangi (formerly Adamawa-Eastern), and Benue-Congo. Kordofanian is a family of more than 20 languages whose speakers (numbering under 200,000) live in the Nuba Mountains of southern Kordofan province in Sudan. Kru comprises more than 10 languages and language complexes whose 1-2 million speakers live primarily in southwestern C?te d'Ivoire and southern Liberia. Ijoid is a group of eight closely related groups of dialects spoken by close to 2 million members of the Ijo (Ijaw) and Defaka peoples of the Niger River delta in Nigeria.