The twelve Mambiloid languages are languages spoken by the

Mambila The Mambilla or Mambila people of Nigeria live on the Mambilla Plateau (in 'Sardauna' local government area of Taraba State in Nigeria). A small fraction of Mambilla migrants left the Mambilla Plateau for the Ndom Plain (also known as northern Tik ...

and related peoples mostly in eastern

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

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...

. In Nigeria the largest group is Mambila (there is also a small Mambila population in Cameroon). In Cameroon the largest group is Vute.

Languages

The following classification follows Blench (2011). Languages with (?) are not listed in that source, but close to other languages according to ''Ethnologue''. Ndoro–Fam may be a separate branch of Benue–Congo. * Ndoola (Ndoro) *Mambiloid proper ** Nizaa (Suga) **Mambila–Konja ***Konja: Kwanja, ? Twendi ***Mambila–Vute ****Mambila–Kamkam *****Magu–Kamkam–Kila: Mbongno, Mvanip (Mvano), ? Somyev, ? Ndunda *****

****Tep–Vute *****

Tep Tep may refer to: *Tep language Tep is a Mambiloid language of Nigeria. ''Ethnologue'' considers it a dialect of Mambila The Mambilla or Mambila people of Nigeria live on the Mambilla Plateau (in 'Sardauna' local government area of Taraba Sta ...

*****Vute:

Vute Vute is a Mambiloid language of Cameroon and Gabon, with a thousand speakers in Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, i ...

, Wawa ''Ethnologue'' also lists Njerep, which most likely lies somewhere in the Mambila–Kamkam branch. The extinct Yeni,

Luo Luo may refer to: Luo peoples and languages *Luo peoples, an ethno-linguistic group of eastern and central Africa **Luo people of Kenya and Tanzania or Joluo, an ethnic group in western Kenya, eastern Uganda, and northern Tanzania. *** Luoland, th ...

and Kasabe languages were apparently Mambiloid, the first two close to Njerep. Fam is sometimes classified with Ndoro, but appears to be more divergent. The unclassified language

Bung A stopper or cork is a cylindrical or conical Closure (container), closure used to seal a container, such as a bottle, tube or barrel (storage), barrel. Unlike a Lid (container), lid or bottle cap, which encloses a container from the outside wit ...

shows its strongest resemblance to be with the Ndung dialect of Kwanja. It also has words in common with other Mambiloid languages such as

, Somyev and

, while a number of words' origins remain unclear (possibly Adamawan).Bruce Connell, 1997: Moribund Languages of the Nigeria-Cameroon Borderland

Names and locations (Nigeria)

Below is a list of language names, populations, and locations (in

only) from Blench (2019).

References

* Blench, Roger, 2011
'The membership and internal structure of Bantoid and the border with Bantu'
''Bantu IV'', Humboldt University, Berlin.

External links

*Marieke Martin, 2011
'The Erosion of Noun Classes in Mambiloid'
{{Niger-Congo branches Northern Bantoid languages