View source for Southern Bantoid languages

{{Infobox language family
|name=Southern Bantoid
|altname=Wide Bantu
|region=[[Subsaharan Africa]], but not further west than [[Nigeria]]
|familycolor=Niger-Congo
|fam2=[[Atlantic-Congo]]
|fam3=[[Benue-Congo]]
|fam4=[[Bantoid]]
|child1=[[Jarawan languages|Jarawan]]
|child2=[[Tivoid languages|Tivoid]]
|child3=[[Beboid languages|Beboid]]
|child4=[[Mamfe languages|Mamfe]] (Nyang)
|child5=[[Grassfields languages|Grassfields]]
|child6=[[Ekoid languages|Ekoid]]
|child7=? [[Mbam languages|Mbam]]
|child8=[[Bantu languages|(Narrow) Bantu]] (unity in doubt)
}}

The '''Southern Bantoid''' languages are a group of [[African languages]] of the [[Niger-Congo languages|Niger-Congo language family]]. This group was first described by Kay Williamson in 1989. Williamson described a way of splitting the [[Bantoid]] languages into two groups, [[Northern Bantoid|North]] and South. 

According to the ''[[Ethnologue]]'', there are 643 languages in the Southern Bantoid group. Many of these languages are [[mutually intelligible]] (someone who is speaking one language can be understood by someone who speaks another language.) The group includes a number of smaller language families:{{sfn|Williamson|Blench|2000|pp=34-5}}
* [[Narrow Bantu]] languages
* [[Jarawan languages]]
* [[Tivoid languages]]
* [[Beboid languages]]
* [[Mamfe languages]]
* [[Grassfields languages]]
* [[Ekoid languages]]
There are also some languages in the Southern Bantoid group that have not been [[classification|classified]] into one of these language families.

==References==
{{reflist}}

=== Bibliography ===
* {{citation|last1=Williamson|first1=Kay|last2=Blench|first2=Roger|year=2000|contribution=Niger-Congo|editor-last=Heine|editor-first=Bernard|editor2-last=Nurse|editor2-first=Derek|title=African Languages – An Introduction|location=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University press|pages=11–42}}

==Outside pages==
* [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=73-16 Southern Bantoid on the Ethnologue]

[[Category:Niger-Congo languages|*]]