Tupuri (or Toupouri) is a language mostly spoken in the

Mayo-Kebbi Est Mayo-Kebbi Est ( ar, مايو كيبي الشرقية) is one of the 23 regions of Chad. Its capital is Bongor. It is composed of the northern areas of the former prefecture of Mayo-Kebbi (sub-prefectures of Bongor, Fianga and Gounou Gaya). ...

Region of southern

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 ...

and in small parts of northern

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 ...

. It is an

Mbum language 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 ...

spoken by the

Tupuri people The Tupuri are an ethnic group in Cameroon and Chad. They speak a language called Tupuri, which had 125,000 speakers in Cameroon at an unspecified date and 90,785 speakers in Chad in 1993. There were 215,466 of them in Chad in 2009. In Cameroon, ...

with approximately 300,000 speakers. Tupuri was erroneously classified as a Chadic language by

Joseph Greenberg Joseph Harold Greenberg (May 28, 1915 – May 7, 2001) was an American linguist, known mainly for his work concerning linguistic typology and the genetic classification of languages. Life Early life and education Joseph Greenberg was born on ...

, due to a vocabulary list that is actually that of Kera (cf. K. Ebert 1974).

Distribution

Tupuri is predominantly spoken in the southeastern part of the Moulvouday plain, in: *Kaélé, Porhi, Taibong villages in Moulvouday commune * Guidigis commune, in

Mayo-Kani Mayo-Kani is a department of Extreme-Nord Province in Cameroon. The department covers an area of 5,033 km and at the 2005 Census had a total population of 404,646. The capital of the department is at Kaélé. Subdivisions The department is d ...

department * Kar-Hay,

Kalfou Kalfou is a town and commune in Niger. As of 2012, it had a population of 111,274. References

Communes of Niger {{Niger-geo-stub ...

, Datcheka, Tchatibali communes in

Mayo-Danay Mayo-Danay is a department of Far North Province, Cameroon. The department covers an area of 5,303 km and at the 2005 Census had a total population of 529,061. The capital of the department is at Yagoua. Subdivisions The department is divided ...

department The Viri or Wina are ethnically Tupuri, but today they speak a

Massa Massa may refer to: Places *Massa, Tuscany, the administrative seat of the Italian province of Massa-Carrara. *Massa (river), river in Switzerland * Massa (Tanzanian ward), administrative ward in the Mpwapwa district of the Dodoma Region of Ta ...

dialect. Tupuri is also spoken in Chad. In Cameroon, it has about 125,000 speakers (SIL 2000).

References

Languages of Chad Languages of Cameroon Mbum languages Tupuri {{AtlanticCongo-lang-stub