Ibibio-Efik languages

central Ibibio
central Ibibio
Central Lower Cross
Ethnicity	Annang, Efik, Ibibio, Oro
Geographic; distribution	Cross River State, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria
Linguistic classification	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Cross River Lower Cross central Ibibio; ; ; ; ;
Subdivisions	Anaang; Efik; Ibibio; Ukwa; Oro; (See 'Varieties');
Glottolog	efik1244

Central Ibibio is the major dialect cluster of the Cross River branch of Benue–Congo. Efik proper has national status in Nigeria and is the literary standard of the Efik languages, though Ibibio proper has more native speakers.

Varieties

Efik-Ibibio is a dialect cluster spoken by about 10 million people of Akwa Ibom State and Cross River States of Nigeria, making it the sixth largest language cluster in Nigeria after Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, Fulani and Kanuri.

The major Efik-Ibibio languages are:

Anaang (2 million speakers, 2018 estimate)
Ibibio (10 million speakers, including L2 speakers, 2018 estimate)
Efik (1 million speakers, 2018 estimate. Efik also has about 2 million second-language speakers.)

Minor varieties, according to Williamson and Blench,^[a] are:

Ekit (200,000 speakers), with dialect Etebi
Efai (7,000 speakers)
Ibuoro (20,000 speakers), with dialects Ibuoro proper, Ito, Itu Mbon Uzo and Nkari
Eki (5,000 speakers)
Idere (5,000 speakers)
Ukwa (100 speakers)

These arguably constitute a single language, though Ethnologue considers them to be separate.

^ These are varieties of what Williamson and Blench (2000) calls "Central Lower Cross", which they list as "Efik, Ibibio, Anaang, Ibuoro, Ekit, Efai, etc."