Bankon language

Last updated
Bankon
Abo
Native to Cameroon
Region Littoral region
Native speakers
12,000 (2001) [1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3 abb
Glottolog bank1256
A.42 [2]
ELP Bankon

Bankon (Abo, Abaw, Bo, Bon) is a Bantu language spoken in the Moungo department of the Littoral Province of southwestern Cameroon. [1] It has a lexical similarity of 86% with Rombi which is spoken in the nearby Meme department of Southwest Province. [1]

Bankon is the endonym. Abo is an administrative name.

Varieties

With 1,300 speakers, Lombe and Bankon are two dialects of the same language. There is over 83% mutual intelligibility. [3]

The Barombi claim to come from the land of the Abo, and the Abo claim to be descended from the Barombi. According to local ethnic legends, coming from the Congo, Nkon, the son of Lombi, settled in the present Bankon or Abo area, while his father Lombi continued further north to found the present Barombi settlements. [3]

The northern subgroup of the Abo is arrived more recently and is of Duala origin; this explains why the Abo are considered to be brothers of the Duala, or even confused with them, even though their language is closer to the Basaa group. The Abo (like all Barombi) also speak Duala. [3]

Lombe, a dialect of the Barombi people, is spoken in the Southwestern Region in three distinct areas: two are located in the department of Mémé. The first is located north of Mount Cameroon around Lake Barombi-Koto, and the second is located west of Kumba around Lake Barombi Mbo (both of which are in Kumba commune). The third, further west, is located in Ndian department, Ekondo-Titi commune, northeast of Ekondo-Titi city. All three areas are enclosed within the Eastern Oroko-speaking area. [3]

In ethnic/folk genealogy, Lombi is ancestral to Nkon, who is ancestral to Bo, according to the genealogies collected by Dika-Akwa. [3]

Bankon is spoken north of the Wouri estuary in the entire northern part of Dibombari commune (in Mungo department, Littoral Region) between the Mbo language area to the north and west, and the Duala language area to the south and east. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kumba</span> Place in Southwest Region, Cameroon Ambazonia

Kumba is a city in the Southwest Region of Cameroon and the administrative capital of Meme Division. It is one of the largest and most economically significant cities in the Anglophone regions of Cameroon. Known for its vibrant commercial activity, Kumba plays a crucial role as a trade and transportation hub for the Southwest Region, particularly in the agricultural sector.

Basaa, or Mbene, is a Bantu language spoken in Cameroon by the Basaa people. It is spoken by about 300,000 people in the Centre and Littoral regions.

Kako is a Bantu language spoken mainly in Cameroon, with some speakers in the Central African Republic and the Republic of the Congo. The main population centres of Kako speakers are Batouri and Ndélélé in the East Region of Cameroon.

Afade (Afaɗə) is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken in eastern Nigeria and northwestern Cameroon.

Malgbe is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken in northern Cameroon and southwestern Chad. Dialects are Douguia, Dro, Malgbe, Mara, and Walia.

Maslam is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken in northern Cameroon, with a few in southwestern Chad. Dialects are Maslam and Sao. Maslam is in rapid decline.

Mser (Msər), or Kousseri (Kuseri), is a moribund Afro-Asiatic language spoken in northern Cameroon and southwestern Chad. Dialects are Gawi, Houlouf, Kabe, Kalo, Mser (Kuseri).

Daba is a Chadic dialect cluster spoken in Cameroon in Far North Province and in one village in neighboring Nigeria. Blench (2006) considers Mazagway to be a dialect.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ndian</span> Department in Southwest Region, Cameroon

Ndian is a department of Southwest Region in Cameroon. It is located in the humid tropical rainforest zone about 650 km (400 mi) southeast of Yaoundé, the capital.

Rombi (Lombi) is a Bantu language spoken in the Meme department of the Southwest Province of southwestern Cameroon by the Barombi people. It has a lexical similarity of 86% with Bankon, which is spoken in the nearby Moungo department of Littoral Province.

Baka is a dialect cluster of Ubangian languages spoken by the Baka Pygmies of Cameroon and Gabon. The people are ethnically close related to the Aka, collectively known as the Mbenga (Bambenga).However, the languages are not related, apart from some vocabulary dealing with the forest economy, which suggests the Aka may have shifted to Bantu, with an estimated 15000 people have shifted.

Chamba Leko is one of two languages spoken by the Chamba people, the other being Chamba Daka. It is a member of the Leko branch of Savanna languages, and is spoken across the northern Nigerian–Cameroonian border.

Kogo, also referred to as Bakoko and Basoo, is a Bantu language of Cameroon. North and South Kogo are as distinct from each other as they are from Basaa; they might be considered three dialects of a single language.

Sawabantu languages are a group of Bantu languages comprising most of zones A.20 and A.30 of Guthrie's classification, and most likely also part of zone A.10. According to Nurse & Philippson (2003), the A.20 and A.30 languages apart from Bubi form a valid node. The most important of these languages is Duala, which is a vehicular language.

Makaa (Maka), or South Makaa, is a Bantu language of Cameroon. It is not intelligible with the other language spoken by the Makaa people, North Makaa.

Pol is a Bantu language of Cameroon. Pol proper is spoken in central Cameroon; the Pomo and Kweso dialects are spoken in Congo and the CAR near the Cameroonian border.

Mono is a moribund Mbum language spoken by older adults in northern Cameroon.

Pongo is a dialect of the Duala language, spoken on the coast of Cameroon, in the district of Dibombari, by the Pongo tribe. It belongs to the Bantu languages, Code A26 according to Guthrie classification.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oroko people</span> Ethnic group in Cameroon

The Oroko are an ethnic group in Cameroon. They belong to the coastal Bantu group, widely known as Sawa, and primarily occupy the Ndian and Meme divisions of the Southwest Region of Cameroon. The people predominantly speak Oroko, English, and Cameroon Pidgin English. The Oroko are related to several ethnic groups in Cameroon's coastal areas, with whom they share a common traditional origin, and similar histories and cultures. These include the Bakweri (Kwe), Bakole, Duala, Ewodi, the Bodiman, the Pongo, the Bamboko, the Isubu, the Limba, the Mungo, and the Wovea.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Bankon at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ↑ Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Binam Bikoi, Charles, ed. (2012). Atlas linguistique du Cameroun (ALCAM)[Linguistic Atlas of Cameroon]. Atlas linguistique de l'Afrique centrale (ALAC) (in French). Vol. 1: Inventaire des langues. Yaoundé: CERDOTOLA. ISBN   9789956796069.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.