Fam ( ámref name="Idiatov">Idiatov, Dmitry, Mark Van de Velde, Tope Olagunju and Bitrus Andrew. 2017.
Results of the first AdaGram survey in Adamawa and Taraba States, Nigeria
'. 47th Colloquium on African Languages and Linguistics (CALL) (Leiden, Netherlands).) is an endangered Bantoid language, spoken by less than 500 in Bali LGA,

Taraba State Taraba is a States of Nigeria, state in north-eastern Nigeria, named after the Taraba River, which traverses the southern part of the state. It is known as "Nature's Gift to the Nation". Its capital is Jalingo. The state's main Demographics ...

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

Name

The speakers call themselves Fam, and their language either Fam or Awol Fam, although outsiders call the language Koŋa, Kɔŋa or Konga.

Demographics

Speakers

In 2016, the language had less than 500 speakers. Fam is recorded as having either 1000, or less than 1000 speakers in 1984. However, according to linguist

Roger Blench Roger Marsh Blench (born August 1, 1953) is a British linguist, ethnomusicologist and development anthropologist. He has an M.A. and a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and is based in Cambridge, England. He researches, publishes, and work ...

, it did not have more than 500 speakers when it was recorded in 1984.

Area spoken

The language was previously thought to be spoken in the single village of Sabon Gida. However, according to later research, it is actually spoken in multiple villages.

Classification

Fam is unclassified within the Bantoid family. Blench (1993) classifies Fam as a

Mambiloid language The twelve Mambiloid languages are languages spoken by the Mambila and related peoples mostly in eastern Nigeria and in Cameroon. In Nigeria the largest group is Mambila (there is also a small Mambila population in Cameroon). In Cameroon the l ...

, within the Northern Bantoid family. It is classed there as likely related particularly to Ndoro, on the basis of a few

cognates In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical effects on both the soun ...

. Likewise, Dimmendaal and Voeltz (2007) classify it as a member of the Mambiloid group. However, Blench (2014) revises his former opinion, stating there is not enough data for a classification and that the claim of a relation to Ndoro is very weak. He concludes Fam is best treated as an isolated Bantoid language. Still, Blench (2020) lists it as a Mambiloid language, most closely related to Ndoro.

Grammar

A minimal

grammar In linguistics, grammar is the set of rules for how a natural language is structured, as demonstrated by its speakers or writers. Grammar rules may concern the use of clauses, phrases, and words. The term may also refer to the study of such rul ...

of the language was written by Tope Olagunjo Demilade in 2017.

Wordlist

This wordlist comes from Blench (2014), although note that the words lack

tone Tone may refer to: Visual arts and color-related * Tone (color theory), a mix of tint and shade, in painting and color theory * Tone (color), the lightness or brightness (as well as darkness) of a color * Toning (coin), color change in coins * ...

markers. Many of the words have no clear

etymology Etymology ( ) is the study of the origin and evolution of words—including their constituent units of sound and meaning—across time. In the 21st century a subfield within linguistics, etymology has become a more rigorously scientific study. ...

. There are

with

Mambiloid languages The twelve Mambiloid languages are languages spoken by the Mambila and related peoples mostly in eastern Nigeria and in Cameroon. In Nigeria the largest group is Mambila (there is also a small Mambila population in Cameroon). In Cameroon the l ...

, but this cannot be considered proof of a genetic connection as they are often with words that are isolated in Mambiloid languages. For example, "leopard" is in Fam and in Mvanip; this may be evidence of a shared

substrate Substrate may refer to: Physical layers *Substrate (biology), the natural environment in which an organism lives, or the surface or medium on which an organism grows or is attached ** Substrate (aquatic environment), the earthy material that exi ...

. Many words have a

plural In many languages, a plural (sometimes list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated as pl., pl, , or ), is one of the values of the grammatical number, grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than ...

suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns and adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can ca ...

-bə, resembling many Mambiloid languages but also many Dakoid languages. In the phonology, there is evidence of contact with Jukun, but no good evidence for classification as a Jukunoid language. Note the

prefix A prefix is an affix which is placed before the stem of a word. Particularly in the study of languages, a prefix is also called a preformative, because it alters the form of the word to which it is affixed. Prefixes, like other affixes, can b ...

a- found in some plurals, like the Jukunoid languages; many singular nouns also seem to have this prefix. The

phone A telephone, colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that enables two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most ...

/θ/ is present, characteristic of Jukunoid languages (but unusual for Mambiloid languages). There are common words shared with

Upper Cross River languages The Upper Cross River languages form a branch of the Cross River languages of Cross River State, Nigeria. The most populous languages are Loko language (Nigeria), Lokö and Mbembe language, Mbembe, with 100,000 speakers. Languages The internal s ...

(e.g. "one" is in Fam, in Gbo and in Mbembe), but again these are not considered proof of relation here. The words for 'man' and 'women' both have

suppletive In linguistics and etymology, suppletion is traditionally understood as the use of one word as the inflection, inflected form of another word when the two words are not cognate. For those learning a language, suppletive forms will be seen as "irre ...

-seeming plurals, a common West African

areal feature In geolinguistics, areal features are elements shared by languages or dialects in a geographic area, particularly when such features are not descended from a common ancestor or proto-language. An areal feature is contrasted with genetic relatio ...

Numbers

This list of numbers comes from Blench (2014), although note that the words lack

markers.

References

{{Northern Bantoid languages Mambiloid languages Languages of Nigeria