Nigeria

=== Languages ===
{{main|Languages of Nigeria}}
{{More citations needed|section|date=July 2018}}
[[File:Nigeria linguistical map 1979.svg|thumb|upright=1.45|right|Map of Nigeria's linguistic groups]]
525 languages have been spoken in Nigeria; eight of them are now extinct.<ref>{{cite web |year=2019 |title=Nigeria |url=http://www.ethnologue.com |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190912022921/https://www.ethnologue.com/country/NG |archive-date=12 September 2019 |work=Ethnologue: Languages of the World |publisher=SIL International Publications |location=Dallas, TX |edition=22th |editor-first1=David M. |editor-last1=Ebihard |editor-first2=Gary F. |editor-last2=Simons |editor-first3=Charles D. |editor-last3=Fennig}}</ref> In some areas of Nigeria, ethnic groups speak more than one language. The official language of Nigeria, English, was chosen to facilitate the cultural and linguistic unity of the country, owing to the influence of British colonisation which ended in 1960. Many French speakers from surrounding countries have influenced the English spoken in the border regions of Nigeria and some Nigerian citizens have become fluent enough in French to work in the surrounding countries. The French spoken in Nigeria may be mixed with some native languages and English.<ref>{{cite web |title=Updated List of Tribes, Languages and Ethnic Groups in Nigeria - Kogi State Hub |date=6 April 2023 |url=https://kogistatehub.com/list-of-tribes-languages-in-nigeria/ |access-date=2023-04-11 |language=en-US |archive-date=11 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230411145059/https://kogistatehub.com/list-of-tribes-languages-in-nigeria/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The major languages spoken in Nigeria represent three major families of [[languages of Africa]]: the majority are [[Niger–Congo languages|Niger-Congo]] languages, such as [[Igbo language|Igbo]], [[Yoruba language|Yoruba]], [[Ibibio language|Ibibio]], [[Ijaw languages|Ijaw]], [[Fula language|Fulfulde]], [[Ogoni languages|Ogoni]], and [[Edo language|Edo]]. [[Kanuri language|Kanuri]], spoken in the northeast, primarily in [[Borno State|Borno]] and [[Yobe State]], is part of the [[Nilo-Saharan languages|Nilo-Saharan]] family, and [[Hausa language|Hausa]] is an [[Afroasiatic languages|Afroasiatic]] language. Even though most ethnic groups prefer to communicate in their languages, English as the official language is widely used for education, business transactions and official purposes. English as a first language is used by only a small minority of the country's urban elite, and it is not spoken at all in some rural areas. Hausa is the most widely spoken of the three main languages spoken in Nigeria.

With the majority of Nigeria's populace in the rural areas, the major languages of communication in the country remain indigenous languages. Some of the largest of these, notably Yoruba and Igbo, have derived standardised languages from several different dialects and are widely spoken by those ethnic groups. [[Nigerian Pidgin|Nigerian Pidgin English]], often known simply as "[[Pidgin]]" or "Broken" (Broken English), is also a popular [[lingua franca]], though with varying regional influences on dialect and slang. The pidgin English or Nigerian English is widely spoken within the Niger Delta Region.<ref>{{cite book |last=Adegbija |first=Efurosibina E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=auI_WuBrWncC&pg=PA55 |title=Multilingualism: A Nigerian Case Study |publisher=Africa World Press |year=2003 |isbn=978-1-59221-173-9 |location=Last paragraph |page=55 |access-date=26 December 2008}}</ref>