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Bikya 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 spoke the language fluently.
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.
Bantoid is a major branch of the Benue–Congo language family. It consists of the Northern Bantoid languages and the Southern Bantoid languages, a division which also includes the Bantu languages that constitute the overwhelming majority and after which Bantoid is named.
The Tikar are a Central African ethnic group in Cameroon. They are known to be great artists, artisans and storytellers. Once a nomadic people, some oral traditions trace the origin of the Tikar people to the Nile River Valley in present-day Sudan. According to the Bamenda City Council the Tikari groups migrated from Northern Nigeria to settle in the highlands of western Cameroon. Such ethnic groups were referred to in the 1969 official statistics as "Semi-Bantus" and "Sudanese Negroes." They speak a Northern Bantoid language called Tikar. One of the few African ethnic groups to practice a monotheistic traditional religion, the Tikar refer to God the Creator by the name Nyuy. They also have an extensive spiritual system of ancestral reverence.
The Semi-Bantu or Semibantu are specific inhabitants of the Western grassfields of Cameroon, who speak languages that have certain characteristics to the Bantu language family but are excluded from them. The people themselves are considered ethnically and linguistically divergent from other Bantu peoples of central and southern Africa.
The Ekoid languages are a dialect cluster of Southern Bantoid languages spoken principally in southeastern Nigeria and in adjacent regions of Cameroon. They have long been associated with the Bantu languages, without their status being precisely defined. Crabb (1969) remains the major monograph on these languages, although regrettably, Part II, which was to contain grammatical analyses, was never published. Crabb also reviews the literature on Ekoid up to the date of publication.
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The Dakoid languages are a branch of the Northern Bantoid languages spoken in Taraba and Adamawa states of eastern Nigeria.
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Daka is one of two languages spoken by the Chamba people in Nigeria, the other being Chamba Leko.
The Jagham language, Ejagham, also known as Ekoi, is an Ekoid language of Nigeria and Cameroon spoken by the Ekoi people. The E- in Ejagham represents the class prefix for "language", analogous to the Bantu ki- in KiSwahili
Tep is a Mambiloid language of Nigeria. Ethnologue considers it a dialect of Mambila, as speakers identify as Mambila, but it is a distinct language.
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Taram is language of Nigeria. It has traditionally been considered a dialect of Daka, but appears to be more divergent than that. It is poorly documented, only attested in a publication from 1931.
The Mbwasa language is a Southern Bantoid language of Cameroon. It is very similar to Ki, and is sometimes considered a dialect of it.
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References
- ↑ Tikar at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- 1 2 3 Blench, Roger (2011). "'The membership and internal structure of Bantoid and the border with Bantu" (PDF). Berlin: Humboldt University. p. 16.
- ↑ Stanley, Carol. 1991. Description morphosyntaxique de la langue Tikar (parlée au Cameroun). Ph.D. Sorbonne. SIL International.
- ↑ PRICE, DAVID (1979). "Who Are the Tikar Now?". Paideuma. 25: 89–98. JSTOR 23076439.
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