Mimi is a name applied to several at-best distantly related
Nilo-Saharan languages
The Nilo-Saharan languages are a proposed family of African languages spoken by some 50–60 million people, mainly in the upper parts of the Chari River, Chari and Nile rivers, including historic Nubia, north of where the two tributaries of the ...
of the
Wadai area of Chad. It is most commonly used for the Fur relative
Amdang, with several tens of thousands of speakers, but also for two extinct and possibly
Maban languages
The Maban languages are a small family of languages which have been included in the proposed Nilo-Saharan family. Maban languages are spoken in eastern Chad, the Central African Republic and western Sudan (Darfur).
Languages
The Maban branch ...
,
Mimi of Nachtigal
Mimi of Nachtigal, or Mimi-N, is a language of Chad that is attested only in a word list labelled " Mimi" that was collected ca. 1870 by Gustav Nachtigal. Nachtigal's data was subsequently published by Lukas & Voelckers (1938).
Classification
...
and
Mimi of Decorse
Mimi of Decorse, also known as Mimi of Gaudefroy-Demombynes and Mimi-D, is a language of Chad that is attested only in a word list labelled " Mimi" that was collected ca. 1900 by G. J. Decorse and published by Maurice Gaudefroy-Demombynes. Josep ...
.
Tucker & Bryan (1956:53) state,
:''Several other languages, of which nothing is known, are said to be spoken in District
Oum Hadjer
Oum Hadjer ( ar, أم هاجر) is a small city in Chad, and the capital of Batha Est Department. It straddles the ephemeral Batha River, lies on the main road between Khartoum and N'Djamena, and has a small airport.
Strategically located, it ha ...
''
t the time in Wadai ''The people speaking them are known to the Arabs as RA TANING, i.e. 'those who speak the strange language'. The names MIGE or míkí, màkú, and mànyáŋ were recorded.''
These names have occasionally appeared in language lists as putative Maban languages.
[For example, classification code 05-AAB of ''Linguasphere''.]
References
{{reflist
Nilo-Saharan languages
Languages of Chad
Language naming