Bure, also known as Bubbure, is an
Afro-Asiatic
The Afroasiatic languages (or Afro-Asiatic), also known as Hamito-Semitic, or Semito-Hamitic, and sometimes also as Afrasian, Erythraean or Lisramic, are a language family of about 300 languages that are spoken predominantly in the geographic su ...
language belonging to the Bole-Tangale group of the West branch of the
Chadic family. It is spoken in northern Nigeria in the village of Bure (10°31’06.16”N, 10°20’03.00”E,
Kirfi
Kirfi is a Local Government Area of Bauchi State, Nigeria, bordering Gombe State in the east. Its headquarters are in the town of Kirfi (or Kirfin Kasa). The northeasterly line of equal latitude and longitude passes through the LGA.
It has an ...
Local Government,
Bauchi State
Bauchi State (Fula: ''Leydi Bauchi'' 𞤤𞤫𞤴𞤣𞤭 𞤦𞤢𞤵𞤷𞥅𞤭) is a state in the North-East geopolitical zone of Nigeria, bordered by Kano and Jigawa to the north, Taraba and Plateau to the south, Gombe and Yobe to the ea ...
,
Nigeria
Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...
) and in some small settlements nearby. The language is used mostly by a very few speakers, of great-grandparental generation. Except for Hausa, which is lingua franca in the area, Bure is surrounded by other Chadic languages such as Gera, Giiwo and Deno (Bole group).
Compared to other languages of the same group (e.g. Bole or Karekare), the endangerment of Bure is by far the most critical.
Notes
References
* Batic, Gian Claudio. 2014. ''A Grammatical Sketch of Bure''. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe: 2014. .
* Batic, G. I. A. N. 2013. Documenting Bure, a Chadic Language of Northern Nigeria: the Clause Structure. In ''14th Italian Meeting of Afro-Asiatic Linguistics'' (Dell'Orso), pp. 225–238.
* Batic, Gian Claudio. 2011. Documenting Bure, a Chadic Language of Northern Nigeria: the Clause Structure. Paper presented at the '14th Italian Meeting of Afro-Asiatic Linguistics' (University of Turin, 15–18 June 2011).
* Batic, Gian Claudio. 2011. The Bure Language: an Overview. Paper presented at the '6th Biennial International Colloquium on the Chadic Languages' (CNRS LLACAN, Villejuif 22–23 September 2011).
* Haruna, Andrew. 2000. Language Death: The case of Bubburè in Southern Bauchi Area, Northern Nigeria. In Matthias Brenzinger (ed.), 'Endangered languages in Africa': 27-51. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe.
External links
OLAC resources in and about the Bure language
West Chadic languages
Languages of Nigeria
{{Nigeria-stub