Crewe is a family of Nigerian-Congolese languages . Distributed in southeast Liberia (24.6% of the family) and south of Côte d'Ivoire (74.8%).
| Languages Kru (Klao, Kravi) | |
|---|---|
| Taxon | a family |
| Status | universally recognized |
| Area | West Africa , from southeast Liberia to south of Côte d'Ivoire |
| Number of carriers | 3.5 million people |
| Classification | |
| Category | African languages |
| Nigerian-Congolese macro-family | |
| Structure | |
| 5 branches | |
| Language group codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | kro |
| ISO 639-5 | |
In the mid-1980s, there were 3.5 million people of peoples belonging to this language family, which accounted for 0.7% of the total African population (and 1.2% of the Niger-Kordofan macro-family). The largest peoples of this family are:
- beta - 1800 thousand people. (51.4%),
- Bakwe - 640 (18.3%)
- hera , or ve - 400 (11.4%),
- Kru or Klao - 180 (5.1%),
- rowbo, or frill - 160 (4.6%),
- crane - 150 (4.3%),
- bass - 150 (4.3%).
Composition
The family consists of 5 branches and about 40 languages.
- Eastern Kru group (total group size 2.44 million people, or 69.7% of all Kru):
- Bakwe languages - the number in Côte d'Ivoire (along with Guwana close to the Bakva , kill, payya, abrinya, plapi, ba, tevi) 400 thousand people, in Liberia 500 thousand people (the number of actually speaking bakva - 10.3 thousand)
- one,
- Bete is a group of 5 dialects between the middle course of the Sassandra and Bandama rivers:
- kuya
- aizi
- sequel
- Godi or Goddey
- dida or cook
- aizi
- quadia, or kodya, is common in the southwest of Côte d'Ivoire between the Cavalli and Sasandra rivers and in southeast Liberia.
- one,
- Western Kru group (total number of 1.05 million people, or 30%):
- Bass languages
- devoin
- gbii,
- rowbo , or frill,
- cool
- glio kill
- klao or kru
- tajuason,
- daho-doo
- glaro-tuabo
- sapo
- ve or gere (in Liberia and Côte d'Ivoire - the western department - between the rivers Cavalli and Sassandra),
- crane
- nyabva
- conobo
- woo.
- devoin
- Aizi Group: Tegba , Abraco, and 1 other language in Côte d'Ivoire .
- Kuvaa group: Kuvaa language.
- siamu group: the language of siamu or seme.
- Bakwe languages - the number in Côte d'Ivoire (along with Guwana close to the Bakva , kill, payya, abrinya, plapi, ba, tevi) 400 thousand people, in Liberia 500 thousand people (the number of actually speaking bakva - 10.3 thousand)
Literature
- Duitsman J., Bertkau J., Laesch J. A survey of Kru dialects // SAL, 1975. V. 6. No. 1.
- Greenberg JH Languages of Africa. Bloomington, 1963.
- Marchese, Lynell. Atlas linguistique kru: essai de typologie . Abidjan: Institut de Linguistique Appliquée (ILA), Université d'Abidjan, 1979. 287 pp.
- Marchese, Lynell. Kru // John Bendor-Samuel and Rhonda L. Hartell (eds.), The Niger-Congo languages: A classification and description of Africa's largest language family. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1989. 119-39 pp.
- Westermann D. Die westlichen Sudansprachen. V., 1927
- Williamson K., Blench R. Niger-Congo // African languages. An introduction / Ed. by B. Heine and D. Nurse. Cambridge, 2000.