Bikya language

Bikya
Furu
Native to	Cameroon
Region	Northwest Region, Menchum department, Furu-Awa Subdivision, Furubana village
Extinct	1980s [1]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta–Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Beboid Furu or Eastern Beboid Bikya
Language codes
ISO 639-3	byb
Glottolog	biky1238
ELP	Bikya

Bikya (also known as Furu) is a potentially extinct Southern Bantoid language spoken in Cameroon. It is one of the three, or four, Furu languages. In 1986 four surviving speakers were identified, although only one (a man in his seventies) spoke the language fluently.

English linguist Dr. David Dalby filmed^{[ when? ]} an 87-year-old African woman who spoke Bikya as her native tongue. At the time, it was believed that she was the last Bikya speaker. ^[2]

It, and presumably all of Furu, is perhaps a Beboid language. ^[3]

Bibliography

• Breton, Roland (1995) 'Les Furu et leur voisins', Cahier Sciences Humaines, 31, 1, 17–48.
• Breton, Roland (1993) "Is there a Furu Language Group? An investigation on the Cameroon-Nigeria Border", The Journal of West African Languages, 23, 2, 97–98.
• Blench, Roger (2011) 'The membership and internal structure of Bantoid and the border with Bantu'. Bantu IV, Humboldt University, Berlin.

References

1. Bikya at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
2. Dyer, Gwynne. "Profusion of tongues in the global village". Baltimore Sun . Retrieved 22 December 2020.
3. Blench, Roger (7–9 April 2011). "The membership and internal structure of Bantoid and the border with Bantu" (PDF). Retrieved 5 March 2024.