The Defoidlanguages constitute a branch of the Benue-Congo language family, and the name of the language family derives from the fact that nearly all of the ethnic groups who speak member languages refer to the city of Ilé Ifè as their place of origin - Defoid = èdè ('language')+ ifè (Ife) + oid. The Defoid language group consists of two branches, Yoruboid and Akokoid. The Benue-Congo group of languages constitutes the largest branch of the Niger_Congo language family, both in terms of sheer number of languages, of which 938 are known (not counting mere dialects), and in terms of speakers, numbering perhaps 550 million. ... A bronze cast depicting the head of an Ooni, or king, from 1100s-1200s Ife. ...
By far the most important member of this family in terms of number of speakers is Yorùbá, with approximately 30 million speakers in Nigeria, Benin, Togo and elsewhere. Other important languages in the group are Igala and Itsekiri, the latter of which shares substantial intelligibility with certain dialects of Yorùbá spoken in Nigeria's Ondo state. Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ...
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