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The Niger-Congo language family is not a scientific language grouping due to the multi-lateral and lexico – statistical methods that built it. The Niger-Congo classification as a whole has not been scientifically established and languages like the Bamileke languages that so-called form the Grassfield branch and other Black Afrikan languages should NOT be grouped within if it has internal methodological issues this major.
The paper states,
“It is clear from this overview of Niger-Congo language classification that much more
work needs to be done in this realm. The exact placement of Ijoid, Kru, and Dogon
within the Niger-Congo genetic tree remains to be determined. Whether several linguistic
groups—Atlantic, (new) Kwa, (new) Benue-Congo, Wide Bantu, Narrow Bantu, and
Adamawa-Ubangi—are each a unity also remains to be established.
Until now, the Niger-Congo classification has been influenced predominantly first
by work using the method of resemblances, and then by work focusing on lexicostatistics
and shared innovations. While these methods may be useful for approximating gross
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groupings, there are serious questions about the precision that can be obtained by their
application.
While the comparative method has occasionally been applied to small language
families within Niger-Congo, particularly Bantu, its use has so far been neglected in
tying the language family together as a whole. A comprehensive reconstruction of Niger-Congo, including the establishment of sound laws, remains the major future task in
Niger-Congo classification.” (pg.23-24)
