The Beboid languages are any of several groups of languages spoken principally in southwest

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 ...

, although two languages (Bukwen and Mashi) are spoken over the border in

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 ...

. They are probably not most closely related to each other. The Eastern Beboid languages may be most closely related to the

Tivoid The Tivoid languages are a branch of the Southern Bantoid languages spoken in parts of Nigeria and Cameroon. The subfamily takes its name after Tiv, the most spoken language in the group. The majority are threatened with extinction. The largest ...

and

Momo Momo may refer to: Geography * Momo (department), a division of Northwest Province in Cameroon * Momo, Gabon, a town in the Woleu-Ntem province of Gabon * Momo, Piedmont, a town in the province of Novara, in northern Italy * Joffrey Tower, in ...

groups, though some of the geographical Western Beboid grouping may be closer to

Ekoid The Ekoid languages are a dialect cluster of Southern Bantoid languages spoken principally in southeastern Nigeria and in adjacent regions of Cameroon. They have long been associated with the Bantu languages, without their status being precisely de ...

and

Bantu Bantu may refer to: *Bantu languages, constitute the largest sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages *Bantu peoples, over 400 peoples of Africa speaking a Bantu language * Bantu knots, a type of African hairstyle *Black Association for National ...

. Previous research includes a study of

noun classes In linguistics, a noun class is a particular category of nouns. A noun may belong to a given class because of the characteristic features of its referent, such as gender, animacy, shape, but such designations are often clearly conventional. Some ...

in Beboid languages by Jean-Marie Hombert (1980),

Larry Hyman Larry M. Hyman (born September 26, 1947, in Los Angeles, California) is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley. He specializes in phonology and has particular interest in African languages. Educ ...

(1980, 1981), a dissertation by Richards (1991) concerning the

phonology Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...

of three eastern Beboid languages (Noni, Ncane and Nsari), Lux (2003) a Noni lexicon and Cox (2005) a phonology of

Kemezung Kemezung (''Dumbo, Dumbu, Dzumbo, Kumaju'') is a Southern Bantoid ( Eastern Beboid) language of Cameroon. According to ''Ethnologue'', it's 85% lexically similar to Bebe Bebe, Bèbè, Bebé, Bébé or BeBe may refer to: People and fictional cha ...

Languages

SIL International SIL International (formerly known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics) is an evangelical Christian non-profit organization whose main purpose is to study, develop and document languages, especially those that are lesser-known, in order to ex ...

survey reports have provided more detail on Eastern and Western Beboid (Brye & Brye 2002, 2004; Hamm et al. 2002) and Hamm (2002) is a brief overview of the group as a whole. Eastern Beboid is clearly valid; speakers recognise the relationship between their languages, their distribution is the result of recent population movements and linguistically they are similar, and they are close to the Bantu languages. The term "Beboid" sometimes refers specifically to this group. Western Beboid, on the other hand, is a geographic rather than genetic group: some appear to be closer to the

Grassfields languages The Grassfields languages (or Wide Grassfields languages) are a branch of the Southern Bantoid languages spoken in the Western High Plateau of Cameroon and some parts of Taraba state, Nigeria. Better known Grassfields languages include the Easter ...

, and there does not appear to be much to link them together, though this may be partly due to lack of data (Good 2009, Di Carlo & Good 2012). They are also called "Yemne-Kimbi" when the eastern group is called just "Beboid" (Di Carlo & Good 2012). ;Eastern Beboid (Beboid): Cung,

Bebe Bebe, Bèbè, Bebé, Bébé or BeBe may refer to: People and fictional characters * Bebe (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or nickname * Bebé, footballer Tiago Manuel Dias Correia (born 1990) * Bebé (f ...

–

, Naki,

Saari Saari means ''island'' in Finnish and may refer to * Saari (name) *Saari, Finland, a former municipality * Saari, Estonia, a village *Saari language in Cameroon * Tarujen Saari, a Finnish folk-rock group *''Saari Bhool Hamari Thi ''Saari Bhool ...

–

Noni ''Morinda citrifolia'' is a fruit-bearing tree in the coffee family, Rubiaceae. Its native range extends across Southeast Asia and Australasia, and was spread across the Pacific by Polynesian sailors. The species is now cultivated throughout th ...

(Ncane-Mungong-Noone), Fio,

Mbuk ''Mountain Biking UK'' (often shortened to ''MBUK'') is a British mountain biking magazine. It is published by Our Media, an Immediate Media group company, and is currently the UK's best-selling mountain bike magazine, with a circulation of 2 ...

;Western Beboid (Yemne-Kimbi) — geographic :

Fang A fang is a long, pointed tooth. In mammals, a fang is a modified maxillary tooth, used for biting and tearing flesh. In snakes, it is a specialized tooth that is associated with a venom gland (see snake venom). Spiders also have external fang ...

: Koshin : Mundabli and Buu : Mungbam and Missong : Mbu’ (Ajumbu) and

Lung The lungs are the primary organs of the respiratory system in humans and most other animals, including some snails and a small number of fish. In mammals and most other vertebrates, two lungs are located near the backbone on either side of t ...

Also spoken in the area is Bikya (Furu), one of the

Furu languages The Furu languages are a proposed group of poorly attested extinct or nearly extinct and otherwise unclassified Southern Bantoid languages of Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (fren ...

, and

Kung Kung or Küng may refer to: * ǃKung people * ǃKung language * Kung (Haida village), an historical village of the Haida people of the Queen Charlotte Islands of British Columbia, Canada; also Kung Indian Reserve No. 11 at the same location * Kun ...

, one of the

Ring languages The Ring or Ring Road languages, spoken in the Western Grassfields of Cameroon, form a branch of the Narrow Grassfields languages. The best-known Ring language is Kom. The family is named after the old Ring Road of central Cameroon. Languages * ...

Names and locations (Nigeria)

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

only) from Blench (2019).

Bibliography

* Blench, Roger, 2011
'The membership and internal structure of Bantoid and the border with Bantu'
''Bantu IV'', Humboldt University, Berlin. *Blench, Roger. n.d.
Beboid word lists
'. *Brye, Edward and Elizabeth Brye. 2002. "Rapid appraisal and intelligibility testing surveys of the Eastern Beboid group of languages (Northwest Province)." SIL Electronic Survey Reports 2002-019. http://www.sil.org/silesr/2002/019/ *Pierpaolo Di Carlo & Jeff Good. 2012
What are we trying to preserve?: Diversity, change, and ideology at the edge of the Cameroonian Grassfields
*Good, Jeff, & Jesse Lovegren. 2009
'Reassessing Western Beboid'
Bantu III. *Good, Jeff, & Scott Farrar. 2008
'Western Beboid and African language classification'
LSA. *Hamm, Cameron, Diller, J., Jordan-Diller, K. & F. Assako a Tiati. 2002. A rapid appraisal survey of Western Beboid languages (Menchum Division, Northwest Province). SIL Electronic Survey Reports 2002-014. http://www.sil.org/silesr/2002/014/ *Hamm, C. 2002. Beboid Language Family of Cameroon and Nigeria: Location and Genetic Classification. SIL Electronic Survey Reports 2002 *Hombert, Jean-Marie. 1980. Noun Classes of the Beboid Languages. In Noun classes in the Grassfields Bantu borderland, SCOPIL 8. Los Angeles: University of Southern California.

References

{{authority control Languages of Cameroon Languages of Nigeria

Languages

Names and locations (Nigeria)

See also

Bibliography

References