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Laal is an endangered language isolate spoken by 749 people in three villages in the Moyen-Chari prefecture of Chad on opposite banks of the Chari River, called Gori (lá), Damtar (ɓual), and Mailao. It represents an isolated survival of an earlier language group of Central Africa. It is unwritten except in transcription by linguists. According to former Summer Institute of Linguistics-Chad member David Faris, it is in danger of extinction, with most people under 25 shifting to the locally more widespread Bagirmi.
The Bua languages are a subgroup of the Mbum–Day subgroup of the Savanna languages spoken by fewer than 30,000 people in southern Chad in an area stretching roughly between the Chari River and the Guéra Massif. They were labeled "G13" in Joseph Greenberg's Adamawa language-family proposal. They are ultimately part of the Niger–Congo family, and have exerted a significant influence on Laal.
The Gula Iro language is a Bua language spoken by some 3,500 people north and east of Lake Iro in southern Chad, between the Bola and Salamat rivers. It has four dialects, according to Pairault:
The Adamawa languages are a putative family of 80–90 languages scattered across the Adamawa Plateau in central Africa, in Nigeria, Cameroon, Central African Republic, and Chad, spoken altogether by only one and a half million people. Joseph Greenberg classified them as one branch of the Adamawa–Ubangi family of Niger–Congo languages. They are among the least studied languages in Africa, and include many endangered languages; by far the largest is Mumuye, with 400,000 speakers. A couple of unclassified languages—notably Laal and Jalaa—are found along the fringes of the Adamawa area.
The Bua language is spoken north of the Chari River around Korbol and Gabil in Chad. In 1993 it was spoken by some 8,000 people. It is the largest member of the small Bua group of languages and is mutually comprehensible with Fanian. Kawãwãy (Korom) may be a dialect or a distinct language.
Day is an Adamawa language of southern Chad, spoken by 50,000 or so people southeast of Sarh. Ethnologue reports that its dialects are mutually intelligible, but Blench (2004) lists Ndanga, Njira, Yani, Takawa as apparently separate languages.
Sungor (Assangori) is a language of eastern Chad and western Sudan. It is spoken in an area located to the south of Biltine and to the north of Adré in Chad.
Fali, or Fali of Mubi after the local city, is a Chadic dialect cluster spoken in Nigeria, in Adamawa State in the Mubi North and Michika LGAs. It is one of several languages in the area that go by the generic name Fali.
Boor is an endangered Afro-Asiatic language spoken in southern Chad. The language has less than 100 native speakers worldwide.
Longuda (Nʋngʋra) is a Niger–Congo language of Nigeria. Joseph Greenberg counted it as a distinct branch, G10, of his Adamawa family. Boyd (1989) assigned it a branch within Waja–Jen. When Blench (2008) broke up Adamawa, Longuda was made a branch of the Bambukic languages.
The Nimbari language, which is no longer spoken, was a member of the Leko–Nimbari group of Savanna languages. It was spoken in northern Cameroon. Ethnologue lists Badjire, Gorimbari, and Padjara-Djabi villages as Nimbari locations in Bénoué and Mayo-Louti divisions.
Shemya is the language of the Sinyar people. It is a Central Sudanic language spoken in Chad and formerly in Darfur, Sudan. It is variously spelled Shamya, Shamyan, Shemya, Sinya, and known as Symiarta, Taar Shamyan, Zimirra.
Noy, or Loo, is a nearly extinct language of Chad. In 1993 it had a population of 36 speakers, who lived in the Moyen-Chari and Mandoul regions, between Sarh, Djoli, Bédaya, Koumra, and Koumogo villages. Speakers are shifting to Sar, the lingua franca of regional capital Sarh.
Kwah (Kwa), also known as Baa (Bàː), is a Niger–Congo language of uncertain affiliation; the more it has been studied, the more divergent it appears. Joseph Greenberg counted it as one of the Bambukic languages of the Adamawa family. Boyd (1989) assigned it its own branch within Waja–Jen. Kleinewillinghöfer (1996) removed it from Waja–Jen as an independent branch of Adamawa. When Blench (2008) broke up Adamawa, Kwah became a provisional independent branch of his larger Savannas family.
Sua, also known by other ethnic groups as Mansoanka or Kunante, is a divergent Niger–Congo language spoken in the Mansôa area of Guinea-Bissau.
Gola is a language of Liberia and Sierra Leone. It was traditionally classified as an Atlantic language, but this is no longer accepted in more recent studies.
Pana is an Mbum language of the Central African Republic. A few thousand speak it in southern Chad and northern Cameroon. A dialect in Cameroon, Man, may be a separate language. Blench (2004) leaves Pondo and Gonge in CAR unclassified within the Mbum languages.
Kare is a southern Mbum language of the Central African Republic, spoken by the Kare people in the mountains of the northeasterly Ouham-Pendé prefecture around Bocaranga. It is spoken by around 97,000 people in the country, and another few thousand speakers in Cameroon. The language's presence on the southeastern edge of the Mbum family is thought to reflect early 19th-century migrations from the Adamawa Plateau, fleeing Fulani raids.
Goundo is a nearly extinct Adamawa language of Chad. It is one of the three members of the Kim languages group, together with Kim and Besme.
Kathu and Thou constitute a Lolo-Burmese language of Balong (坝聋), Nanping Township (南屏镇), Guangnan County, Yunnan, China. The Kathu are locally known as the White Yi (白彝). Wu Zili (2004) estimates that Kathu has a total of more than 7,000 speakers in Guangnan County, as well as in Jinping County, Yunnan. Ethnologue mentions a possible presence in Guangxi Province.
References
- ↑ Fania at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ↑ Lionnet, Florian. Chadic languages.
- ↑ Boyeldieu, Pascal, Raimund Kastenholz, Ulrich Kleinewillinghöfer & Florian Lionnet (2018). The Bua Group languages (Chad, Adamawa 13): A comparative perspective. In Kramer & Kießling (eds.), Current approaches to Adamawa and Gur languages. Cologne: 2018, 53-126.