Nigeria's languages
One country, hundreds of languages.
Nigeria is one of the most linguistically rich places on earth — home to more than 500 languages, spread across several major families. We can't build for all of them at once, but we can be thoughtful about how we grow. Here's the landscape we're working within.
The big picture
Three major language families.
Nigeria's languages don't all descend from one root. They belong to several distinct families that developed separately over thousands of years — which means they can differ enormously in their sounds, tones, and grammar.
The largest family
The biggest language family in Africa, and the one most Nigerian languages belong to. It stretches across most of the south and centre of the country.
In Nigeria, it includes: Yorùbá, Igbo, Edo (Bìnì), Efik, Ibibio, Tiv, Idoma, Igala, Nupe, Urhobo, and Fulfulde, among many others. Ijaw (Izon) sits on one of the family's more distinct branches.
Reaching across a continent
A family that spans North Africa, the Horn, and the Middle East. In Nigeria, its Chadic branch is especially important.
In Nigeria, it includes: Hausa — the most widely spoken language in the country — along with many smaller Chadic languages across the north.
The north-east
A family centred on the Nile and the Lake Chad basin, present in Nigeria's north-eastern corner.
In Nigeria, it includes: Kanuri, the language of the historic Kanem–Bornu Empire, and related languages of the Borno region.
A note on humility: linguists continue to debate exactly how these families branch and where some languages belong. We hold these groupings lightly and defer to native speakers and scholars of each language.
Where we fit
Starting close to home, building outward.
We began with Yorùbá, and we're building toward Igbo — both Niger-Congo languages, and both close to the communities we started with. Those are the first two languages we are developing as full, structured learning courses, and that work requires more infrastructure, sustained community participation, and the kind of group support needed for live online lessons.
For open resources, the timeline is different. For any of Nigeria's roughly 520 languages, even a single person willing to contribute translations or recordings can help that language appear early in our open-source game work. The same dynamic can apply to YouTube videos: one or two contributors can help launch videos sooner, with games first and videos added as more voices come in.
Do you speak one of these languages?
Every language we add depends on people who speak it. If that's you, you can help us reach further — no teaching experience needed.