Atlantic languages spoken in Nigeria

The Atlantic languages are, as their name suggests, spoken along the Atlantic coastline of West Africa from the mouth of the Senegal River as far as Liberia. Their closest neighbors are the Mande languages

The largest Atlantic languages are Fulfulde, spoken by several million people scattered over much of West-Central Africa; Wolof, with nearly two million speakers in Senegambia; the Diola cluster, with nearly 400,000 speakers in the Casamance province of Senegal; Serer, with 600,000 speakers in Senegal; and Temne, with over 600,000 speakers in Sierra Leone (Wilson 1989). The remaining languages are spoken by ethnic groups verying from 250,000 to a few hundred speakers and most of them are very little described.

The only Atlantic language found in Nigeria is Fulfulde. Fulfulde is spoken in many countries and has a number of dialects:

Western dialects: spoken in Senegal, Guinea and Mali
West central dialects: spoken in Guinea, Burkina Faso, Togo and Benin
East central dialects: spoken in Northern Nigeria, extending to Gombe
Eastern dialects: spoken in Borno and Adamawa States, Cameroon and Chad

In spite of the differences, there seems to be a high intelligibility between speakers of different origins.

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Dr. Uwe Seibert

Department of Languages and Linguistics
Faculty of Arts
University of Jos

Email address: seibertu@unijos.edu.ng

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