Largest branch of the Niger-Congo language family , both in numbers of languages (900) and speakers (at least 500 million).
Its major divisions are Defoid, including Yoruba, with more than 20 million speakers; Edoid, including Edo (see kingdom of Benin ); Nupoid, including Nupe, Ebira, and Gbagyi; Idomoid, including Idoma; Igboid, including the many dialects of the approximately 19 million Igbo people; Kainji, with 40 languages; Platoid, a congeries of 50 languages; Cross River, a group of more than 55 languages; and Bantoid. The largest branch, Bantoid, comprises a Northern and a Southern group and includes more than 500 languages, 47 of which are spoken by more than 1 million people. The Bantu languages make up the largest subgroup of Southern Bantoid.