Mabire is a critically endangered

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 spoken in Oulek village in

Chad Chad (; ar, تشاد , ; french: Tchad, ), officially the Republic of Chad, '; ) is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic ...

Speakers

As of a report published in 2001, there were three living speakers of Mabire, two of whom were an elderly brother and sister, named Terab and Balha, living in Oulek. The third speaker, Souleymane Dabanga, was the chief of the Mabire and lived in Katch.

Classification

The Mabire language belongs to the Dangla group of Eastern Chadic, along with Dangaleat (Dangla) and Migaama (Migama).

Decline

Fifty years ago, the Mabire lived in four large villages near Mount Mabire. These villages were Amdjaména, Arga, Mambire. The community disbanded following an epidemic, with the survivors assimilating into neighboring speech communities.Eric Johnson & Cameron Hamm. 2002. "Mabire: A Dying Language of Chad," SIL Electronic Working Papers 2002-002
online
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References

External links

Mabire Profile at the Endangered Languages Project
East Chadic languages Languages of Chad Endangered Afroasiatic languages {{Chad-stub