La'bi is the esoteric

ritual language A sacred language, holy language or liturgical language is any language that is cultivated and used primarily in church service or for other religious reasons by people who speak another, primary language in their daily lives. Concept A sacre ...

of male initiation among the Gbaya Kara, the

Mbum Mbum Proper (also Mboum, Buna, Mboumtiba and Wuna) is a Adamawa–Ubangi language of Central Africa. It is spoken by about people in Cameroon and the Central African Republic. History The Mbum language is spoken by the Mbum people who inhabit ...

, and some Sara Laka, in the area of

Touboro Touboro is a town and commune in North Region Cameroon. Refugees An April 10, 2014 report says: "Thousands of refugees, fleeing the violence of armed groups (Séléka and Anti-balaka) are concentrated in the towns of Mbaimboum and Touboro, on th ...

near where the CAR, Chad, and Cameroon meet. It has no native speakers. It is related to Mbum, with substantial loans from one or more

Sara languages The Sara languages comprise over a dozen Bongo–Bagirmi languages spoken mainly in Chad; a few are also spoken in the north of the Central African Republic. They are members of the Central Sudanic language family. Greenberg (1966) treats all var ...

. A word list of is given in Periquet (1915).Periquet, Louis. 1915. Rapport général sur la mission de délimitation Afrique Équatoriale Française-Cameroun (1912-1913-1914). Tome III, Vocabulaires. Paris: Ministère de colonies.

References

Languages of Cameroon Initiation languages Mbum–Day languages {{AtlanticCongo-lang-stub