Resources - Fact Sheet

Akan languages are those languages belonging to the Kwa language family spoken in Ghana and the Côte d'Ivoire.

Akan languages. (2006, September 21). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 13:25, October 5, 2006, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Akan_languages&oldid=76993477

The Gbe languages (pronounced [g?be])[1] form a cluster of about twenty related languages stretching across the area between eastern Ghana and western Nigeria. The total number of speakers of Gbe languages is between four and eight million. The most widely spoken Gbe language is Ewe (3 million speakers in Ghana and Togo), followed by Fon (1.7 million, mainly in Benin). The Gbe languages belong to the Kwa branch of the Niger-Congo languages, and break up into five major dialect clusters: Ewe, Fon, Aja, Gen, and Phla-Pherá.

Gbe languages. (2006, September 25). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 13:43, October 5, 2006, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gbe_languages&oldid=77670649

Native speakers of Hausa are mostly to be found in the African country of Niger and in the north of Nigeria, but the language is widely used as a lingua franca (similar to Swahili in East Africa) in a much larger swathe of West Africa, particularly amongst Muslims.

Hausa language. (2006, September 23). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 13:49, October 5, 2006, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hausa_language&oldid=77367601

Igbo (also known, less commonly, as Ibo; as?s? Ndi Igbo in Igbo) is a language spoken in Nigeria by around 18 million speakers (the Igbo), especially in the southeastern region once identified as Biafra. The language was used by John Goldsmith as an example to justify going away from the classical linear model of phonology as laid out in The Sound Pattern of English. It is written in the Roman script. Igbo is a tonal language, like Yoruba and Chinese.

Igbo language. (2006, October 5). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 13:53, October 5, 2006, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Igbo_language&oldid=79616994

Yoruba (native name ede Yorùbá, 'the Yoruba language') is a dialect continuum of West Africa with over 22 million speakers. The native tongue of the Yoruba people, it is spoken, among other languages, in Nigeria, Benin, and Togo and traces of it are found among communities in Brazil and Cuba (where it is called Nago). Yoruba is an isolating, tonal language with SVO syntax. Apart from referring to the aggregate of dialects and their speakers, the term Yoruba is used for the standard, written form of the language. Yoruba is classified as a Niger-Congo language of the Yoruboid branch of Defoid, Benue-Congo.

Yoruba language. (2006, September 21). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 14:05, October 5, 2006, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Yoruba_language&oldid=76893755