Kru
Geographic distribution:	Côte d'Ivoire, Liberia, Burkina Faso
Genetic classification:	Niger-Congo  Atlantic-Congo   Kru
Subdivisions:	Aizi Eastern Kru Kuwaa Siamou Western Kru
ISO 639-2:	kro

The Kru languages belong to the Niger-Congo language family and are spoken in the area ranging from the south-east of Liberia to the east of Côte d'Ivoire. The name Kru is of unknown origin and is according to Westermann (1952) 'used by Europeans to denote a number of tribes speaking related dialects, and the dialects as a whole'; Marchese (1989) notes that the term might be derived from the fact that many of these peoples were recruited as 'crew' by European seafarers.

The Kru languages are known for some of the most complex tone systems in Africa, rivaled perhaps only by the Omotic languages.

The Marchese (1989) classification of Kru languages is as follows. Many of these languages are dialect clusters and are sometimes considered more that a single language.

References

• Westerman, Diedrich Hermann (1952) Languages of West Africa (Part II). London/New York/Toronto: Oxford University Press.

External links

• Kru family tree at Ethnologue
• PanAfrican L10n page on Kru/Bassa