Edekiri languages

The Edekiri is a group of languages in the Volta-Niger branch of the Niger-Congo family.^[1] The Niger-Congo language family, and by extension the Edekiri languages, formed a cohesive linguistic unit as far back as the end of the Upper Paleolithic 11,000 years ago.^[2]

The group includes:

• the Ede dialect cluster, including Ife^[3][4]
• Itsekiri^[3]
• Lucumi language, which is spoken in Cuba^[3]
• the Nago languages^[3]
• the Yoruboid languages Ulukwumi and Mokole^[3]
• Yoruba, with approximately 40 million speakers in Nigeria and several million more in the diaspora.^[2]