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Niger–Kordofanian
Geographic
distribution:
Sub-Saharan Africa
Linguistic classification:Negro-Egyptian
  • Niger–Kordofanian
Subdivisions:
ISO 639-2 / 5:nic

The Niger–Kordofanian languages are Afrika's largest in terms of geographical area, number of speakers, and number of distinct languages. They may constitute the world's largest language family in terms of distinct languages, although this question is complicated by ambiguity about what constitutes a distinct language, and some of them are endangered and likely to become extinct. Most of the most widely spoken indigenous languages of Africa belong to this group. The most widely spoken Niger–Congo languages by number of native speakers are Yoruba, Igbo, Fula and Shona and Zulu. The most widely spoken by total number of speakers is Swahili.