| Mbam | |
|---|---|
| Geographic distribution | Southwestern Cameroon |
| Linguistic classification | Niger–Congo? |
| Proto-language | Proto-Mbam |
| Glottolog | mbam1252 (Mbam) |
 | |
The Mbam languages are a group of Bantu languages spoken in Cameroon
| Mbam | |
|---|---|
| Geographic distribution | Southwestern Cameroon |
| Linguistic classification | Niger–Congo? |
| Proto-language | Proto-Mbam |
| Glottolog | mbam1252 (Mbam) |
| | |
The Mbam languages are a group of Bantu languages spoken in Cameroon
The Bantu languages are a large family of languages spoken by the Bantu peoples in the southern half of Africa. They form the largest branch of the Southern Bantoid languages.
The Centre Region occupies 69,000 km² of the central plains of the Republic of Cameroon. It is bordered to the north by the Adamawa Region, to the south by the South Region, to the east by the East Region, and to the West by the Littoral and West Regions. It is the second largest of Cameroon's regions in land area. Major ethnic groups include the Bassa, Ewondo, and Vute.
French is the official language in Gabon, however 32% of the people speak Fang as a mother tongue. French is the medium of instruction. Before World War II very few Gabonese learned French, nearly all of them working in either business or government administration. After the war, France worked for universal primary education in Gabon, and by the 1960-61 census, 47% of the Gabonese over the age of 14 spoke some French, while 13% were literate in the language. By the 1990s, the literacy rate had risen to about 60%.
Southern Bantoid is a branch of the Bantoid language family. It consists of the Bantu languages along with several small branches and isolates of eastern Nigeria and west-central Cameroon. Since the Bantu languages are spoken across most of Sub-Saharan Africa, Southern Bantoid comprises 643 languages as counted by Ethnologue, though many of these are mutually intelligible.
Bafia is a Cameroonian town and commune in the Centre Province region. It is the capital of the Mbam-et-Inoubou department. It lies 120 km (75 mi) north of the country's capital Yaoundé. Bafia has approximately 55,700 inhabitants, making it the third largest city in the province after Yaoundé and Mbalmayo. Most citizens belong to either the Bafia people or the Yambassa people. It is the see of the eponymous diocese.
The Regions of Cameroon are divided into 58 divisions or departments. The divisions are further sub-divided into sub-divisions (arrondissements) and districts. The divisions are listed below, by province.
Cameroon is home to at least 250 languages. However, some accounts report around 600 languages. These include 55 Afro-Asiatic languages, two Nilo-Saharan languages, four Ubangian languages, and 169 Niger–Congo languages. This latter group comprises one Senegambian language (Fulfulde), 28 Adamawa languages, and 142 Benue–Congo languages . French and English are official languages, a heritage of Cameroon's colonial past as a colony of both France and the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1960. Eight out of the ten regions of Cameroon are primarily francophone, representing 83% of the country's population, and two are anglophone, representing 17%. The anglophone proportion of the country is in constant regression, having decreased from 21% in 1976 to 20% in 1987 and to 17% in 2005, and is estimated at 16% in 2015.
Foundiougne Department is one of the departments of Senegal, located in the Fatick Region.
The 250 or so "Narrow Bantu languages" are conventionally divided up into geographic zones first proposed by Malcolm Guthrie (1967–1971). These were assigned letters A–S and divided into decades ; individual languages were assigned unit numbers, and dialects further subdivided. This coding system has become the standard for identifying Bantu languages; it was the only practical way to distinguish many ambiguously named languages before the introduction of ISO 639-3 coding, and it continues to be widely used. Only Guthrie's Zone S is (sometimes) considered to be a genealogical group. Since Guthrie's time a Zone J has been set up as another possible genealogical group bordering the Great Lakes.
The Grassfields languages are a branch of Southern Bantoid spoken in the Western High Plateau of Cameroon and some parts of Taraba state, Nigeria. Better known Grassfields languages include the Eastern Grassfields languages Bamun, Yamba and the Ring language Kom. The languages are closely related, sharing approximately half of their vocabulary.
Mbam-et-Inoubou is a department of Centre Province in Cameroon. The department covers an area of 7,125 km2 and as of 2001 had a total population of 712,500. The capital of the department lies at Bafia.
Mbam-et-Kim is a department of Centre Region in Cameroon. The department covers an area of 25,906 km2 and as of 2001 had a total population of 64,540. The capital of the department lies at Ntui.
The Eastern Grassfields languages, spoken in the Western High Plateau of Cameroon, are a branch of the Grassfields languages including Bamun, Yamba and Bamileke.
The Mbam River is the main tributary of the Sanaga River in Cameroon.
The Mbam Djerem National Park is found in Cameroon. It was established in 2000 and covers 4234.78 km2.
Mbule, also called Dumbule or Mbola, is an endangered Southern Bantoid language spoken by a few people in central Cameroon.
The Bedzan people, also known as the Tikar, are a Pygmy people of Cameroon. The Bedzan community is primarily located in the village of Yoko, on the Tikar Plain, in the Mbam-et-Kim department of Centre Region, and is estimated at between 250 and 1,200. They live at the interface of the forest and the savannah, and their language is a dialect of Tikar, which is related to the Bantu languages.
The Bafia language is a Bantu language spoken by 60,000 people in Cameroon according to 1991 figures.
The Basaa languages are a clade of Bantu languages coded Zone A.40 in Guthrie's classification. According to Nurse & Philippson (2003), the languages remaining from the formation of the Mbam group form a valid node. They are:
Mbam is a village in the Fatick Region of Senegal.
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