Makaa (Maka), or South Makaa, is a
Bantu language of Cameroon. It is not intelligible with the other language spoken by the
Makaa people,
North Makaa.
Varieties
The central part of the Meka area consists of the three central dialects Bésáp, Bébánde and Mbwas. Byáp in the north and Békol in the south are more geographically peripheral dialects. Byáp and Asón should not be confused with Northern Maka.
Meka covers essentially the entire northern part of
Haut-Nyong
Haut-Nyong is a department of East Province in Cameroon. The department covers an area of 36,384 km and as of 2001 had a total population of 216,768. The capital of the department lies at Abong-Mbang.
Subdivisions
The department is divide ...
department (Eastern Region). Bébánde covers the entire northern part of
Abong-Mbang commune and also
Bebeng commune. Mbwas covers most of the
Doumé area (
Mbouang and
Doumatang communes), and Bésáp covers the north of
Nguélémendouka.
Byap occupies the eastern part of Diang commune and
Bélabo
Bélabo is a town and commune in Cameroon, lying on the Yaoundé – N'Gaoundéré railway line. Near the town lies the Sanaga-Yong chimpanzee rescue centre.
Transport
The town has a railway station served by Camrail, and lies on the San ...
commune (
Lom-et-Djerem department, Eastern Region), west of
Bertoua. It extends into the Central and Southern Regions in
Nyong-et-Mfoumou (in
Akonolinga
Akonolinga is a town and commune situated in Cameroon's Centre Province, with a population of roughly 21,300.
It lies on the Nyong River, due east of the capital Yaoundé
Yaoundé (; , ) is the capital of Cameroon and, with a population of ...
and
Endom communes) and
Dja-et-Lobo (in
Bengbis and
Zoétélé communes) departments.
There are 89,500 speakers.
Writing system
Nasal vowels are indicated using the cedilla ‹ ɛ̧, ɔ̧ ›.
Tones are indicated using diacritics:
*the high tone with an acute accent;
*the descending high-low tone with a circumflex accent;
*the low-high rising tone with a caron;
*low tone without accent.
References
{{Authority control
Makaa-Njem languages
Languages of Cameroon