Proto-Yoruboid | |
---|---|
Reconstruction of | Yoruboid languages |
Region | Confluence of the Niger and Benue rivers |
Era | c. 2500 BCE – c. 300 BCE |
Reconstructed ancestor |
Proto-Yoruboid is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Yoruboid languages, a subgroup of the Volta-Niger languages. It was likely spoken in what is now Nigeria and the confluence of the Niger River and Benue River. The ancestors of the Proto-Yoruboid speakers lived in the southern part of the Niger River Valley region for over three millennia. It split off from its neighbors in Volta-Niger about 3,000 years ago during a time of westward migration.[2]