Mambila is a
dialect chain
A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulate over distance so that widely separated varie ...
stretching across
Nigeria
Nigeria ( ), , ig, NaìjÃrÃyà , yo, Nà ìjÃrÃà , 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
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 one of the
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 la ...
, a branch of
Benue–Congo.
Notable dialects are Barup, Bang, Dorofi, Gembu, Hainari, Kabri, Mayo Ndaga, Mbamnga, Tamien, Warwar (in Nigeria); Sunu Torbi (Torbi), Ju Naare (Gembu), and in Cameroon, Ju Ba and Langa. Mambila goes by numerous names, which, besides the dialectical names, include Bea, Ble, Juli, Lagubi, Nor, Nor Tagbo, Tongbo, and the spellings Mabila, Mambere, Mambilla.
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 ...
is generally considered a dialect by those in Tep and by speakers of other varieties of Mambila, but though Tep speakers are ethnically Mambila, their speech is not intelligible to other varieties. In terms of linguistic classification it may be more accurate to call it a different
Mambiloid
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 la ...
language. See Connell references below.
Blacksmiths among 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 ...
once spoke
Somyev, a related Mambiloid language, though this is nearly extinct.
Phonology
Vowels
* /i/ can also be heard as
ªin different positions.
There is an occurrence of fricativized close vowel combinations when preceded by a number of consonants. An alveolo-palatal fricative with vowels /i, ɨ/ as
‘Íœi, ʑ͜ɨ and a labio-dental sound with /ɯ/ as
͜ɯ The only consonants /b, f, t, d, n, l, ʃ, k/ are heard with the fricativized vowels
ʑ, ʃʑ, fv, tv, dv, nv, lv, kv
Consonants
* /d/ can have allophones of
¾, r, ɺ among different speakers. /k/ can have an allophone of
when occurring in intervocalic or post-vocalic positions.
References
* Connell, Bruce. 1998. Moribund languages of the Nigeria-Cameroon borderland. In Endangered Languages in Africa, edited by M. Brenzinger. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe.
* Connell, Bruce. 2000. The Integrity of Mambiloid. In Proceedings of WOCAL97 (Second World Congress of African Linguistics), edited by E. Wolff. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.
* Connell, Bruce. 2010. Language Ecology and Language Endangerment: an Instance from the Nigeria-Cameroon Borderland. Journal of West African Languages XXXVII (1):1—11.
* Connell, Bruce, Zeitlyn, David, Griffiths, Sascha, Hayward, Laura and Marieke Martin. 2021. "Language ecology, language endangerment, and relict languages: Case studies from Adamawa (Cameroon-Nigeria)" Open Linguistics 7(1): 244-300. https://doi.org/10.1515/opli-2021-0011 https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/opli-2021-0011/html
Mambiloid languages
Languages of Nigeria
Languages of Cameroon
{{Bantoid-lang-stub