formerly West Atlantic languages
Branch of the Niger-Congo language family .
Atlantic comprises some 45 languages spoken by some 30 million people living mainly in Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. About half of these people speak Fula, the language of the Fulani . The languages of the Wolof of Senegal and The Gambia and the Temne of northwest Sierra Leone are spoken by more than 1 million people.