instance_of grassfields bantu languages
Southern Africa is the southernmost ___MASK48___ of the African ___MASK38___ , variably defined by geography or geopolitics , and including several countries . The term " southern Africa " or " Southern Africa ", generally includes Angola , Botswana , Lesotho , Malawi , Mozambique , Namibia , South Africa , Swaziland , Zambia , and Zimbabwe . From a political perspective the ___MASK48___ is said to be unipolar with South Africa as a first regional power . The Bantu languages , technically the Narrow Bantu languages ( as opposed to " Wide Bantu ", a loosely defined ___MASK52___ which includes other Bantoid languages ), constitute a traditional branch of the Niger  Congo languages . There are about 250 Bantu languages by the ___MASK47___ of mutual intelligibility , though the distinction between language and dialect is often unclear , and " Ethnologue " counts 535 languages . Bantu languages are spoken largely east and south of present - ___MASK70___ Cameroon , that is , in the regions commonly known as Central Africa , Southeast Africa , and Southern Africa . Parts of the Bantu area include languages from other language families ( see map ). Ethnologue : Languages of the World is a web - based ___MASK46___ that contains statistics for 7 , 457 languages in its 19th edition , which was released in 2016 . Of these , 7 , 097 are listed as living and 360 are listed as extinct . " Ethnologue " provides information on the ___MASK83___ of speakers , location , dialects , linguistic affiliations , availability of the Bible in each language and dialect described , and an estimate of language viability using the Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale ( EGIDS ). The ___MASK46___ is well respected and widely used by linguists . The ___MASK16___ of Guinea is the northeasternmost part of the tropical Atlantic ___MASK71___ between Cape Lopez in Gabon , north and west to Cape Three Points in Western region Ghana . The intersection of the Equator and Prime Meridian ( zero degrees latitude and longitude ) is in the gulf . The Atlantic ___MASK71___ is the second largest of the world ' s oceans with a total area of about . It covers approximately 20 percent of the Earth ' s surface and about 29 percent of its water surface area . It separates the " Old World " from the " New World ". Cameroon , officially the ___MASK26___ of Cameroon , is a country in Central Africa . It is bordered by Nigeria to the west ; Chad to the northeast ; the Central African ___MASK26___ to the east ; and Equatorial Guinea , Gabon , and the ___MASK26___ of the Congo to the south . Cameroon ' s coastline lies on the ___MASK2___ of Bonny , part of the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic ___MASK71___ . The Grassfields or Grassfields Bantu languages , spoken in the Western grassfields of Cameroon , are a ___MASK19___ of Benue -- Congo and a sister group to the Bantu languages . Better - known Grassfields languages include the Eastern Grassfields languages Bamun , Yamba , and Bamileke , and the Ring language Kom . The languages are closely related , sharing approximately half of their vocabulary . The Grassfields languages were previously known as Grassfields Bantu and Semi - Bantu . They are sometimes classified on two levels , Wide Grassfields , which includes all the languages , and Narrow Grassfields , which excludes Menchum , Ambele , and sometimes the Southwestern Grassfields languages . These ___MASK84___ form a group of their own , which Nurse ( 2003 ) calls Peripheral Grassfields but rejects . Blench ( 2010 ) notes there is little evidence for the traditional assumption that non - Western Momo belongs in Grassfields , and that it ___MASK84___ actually be closer to the poorly established Tivoid group ; Western Momo is therefore renamed Southwest Grassfields to avoid confusion , and only Menchum and Ambele are left out of Narrow Grassfields . The classification of Amebele is unclear , though it is clearly divergent , and Menchum ___MASK84___ be closer to the Tivoid languages ( Blench 2011 ) . Blench ( 2012 ) suggests that Western Beboid ___MASK84___ belong here . Narrow Grassfields Ring ( Ring Road ) Eastern Grassfields ( Mbam -- Nkam ) ? Ndemli Southwest Grassfields ( previously Western Momo ) ? Ambele ? Menchum ( Befang ) ? Western Beboid Viti ( Vötö ) is unclassified Narrow Grasslands . The ___MASK26___ of the Congo , also known as the Congo ___MASK26___ , West Congo , Congo - Brazzaville or simply Congo , is a country located in Central Africa . It is bordered by ___MASK94___ countries : Gabon and the Atlantic ___MASK71___ to the west ; Cameroon to the northwest ; the Central African ___MASK26___ to the northeast ; the Democratic ___MASK26___ of the Congo to the east and south ; and the Angolan exclave of Cabinda to the southwest . Equatorial Guinea , officially the ___MASK26___ of Equatorial Guinea , is a country located in Central Africa , with an area of . Formerly the colony of Spanish Guinea , its post - independence name evokes its location near both the Equator and the Gulf of Guinea . Equatorial Guinea is the only sovereign African ___MASK62___ in which Spanish is an official language . , the country has an estimated population of over ___MASK56___ . 2 million . In the ___MASK32___ of African languages , Bantoid is a putative branch of the Benue  Congo branch of the Niger  Congo family . The ___MASK90___ ' Bantoid ' was first used by Krause in 1895 for languages that showed resemblances in vocabulary to Bantu . Greenberg in his 1963 " The Languages of Africa " defined Bantoid as the group to which ( Narrow ) Bantu belongs together with its closest relatives ; this is the sense in which the ___MASK90___ is still used today . The Bantoid languages probably do not actually form a coherent group . The Central African ___MASK26___ ( CAR ; Sango : " Ködörösêse tî Bêafrîka "; , or "" ) is a landlocked country in Central Africa . It is bordered by Chad to the north , Sudan to the northeast , South Sudan to the east , the Democratic ___MASK26___ of the Congo and the ___MASK26___ of the Congo to the southwest and Cameroon to the west . The CAR covers a land area of about and had an estimated population of around 4 . 7 million . The Niger  Congo languages constitute one of the world ' s major ___MASK74___ families , and Africa ' s largest in terms of ___MASK57___ ___MASK55___ , ___MASK83___ of speakers , and ___MASK83___ of distinct languages . They ___MASK84___ constitute the world ' s largest ___MASK75___ in terms of distinct languages , although this question is complicated by ambiguity about what constitutes a distinct ___MASK74___ . Central Africa is a core ___MASK48___ of the African ___MASK38___ which includes Burundi , the Central African Republic , Chad , the Democratic Republic of the Congo , and Rwanda . Middle Africa ( as used by the United Nations when categorising geographic subregions ) is an analogous term that includes Angola , Cameroon , the Central African Republic , Chad , the Republic of the Congo , the Democratic Republic of the Congo , Equatorial Guinea , Gabon , and São Tomé and Príncipe . All of the states in the UN subregion of Middle Africa , plus those otherwise commonly reckoned in Central Africa ( 11 states in total ), constitute the Economic Community of Central African States ( ECCAS ). Since its independence in 2011 , South Sudan has also been commonly included in the ___MASK48___ . Chad ('), officially the ___MASK26___ of Chad ('), is a landlocked country in Central Africa . It is bordered by Libya to the north , Sudan to the east , the Central African ___MASK26___ to the south , Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest and Niger to the west . It is the fifth largest country in Africa in terms of area . The Federal ___MASK26___ of Nigeria , commonly referred to as Nigeria , is a federal ___MASK26___ in West Africa , bordering Benin in the west , Chad and Cameroon in the east , and Niger in the north . Its coast in the south lies on the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic ___MASK71___ . It comprises 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory , where the capital , Abuja is located . Its largest cities include : Lagos , Kano , Ibadan , Benin City and Port Harcourt . Nigeria is officially a democratic secular country . In linguistics , mutual intelligibility is a ___MASK58___ between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort . It is generally used as the most important ___MASK47___ for distinguishing languages from dialects , although sociolinguistic factors are often also used . Gabon , officially the Gabonese ___MASK26___ , is a ___MASK79___ on the west coast of Central Africa . Located on the equator , Gabon is bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest , Cameroon to the north , the ___MASK26___ of the Congo on the east and south , and the Gulf of Guinea to the west . It has an area of nearly and its population is estimated at ___MASK56___ . 5 million people . Its capital and largest ___MASK25___ is Libreville .