Sawabantu languages are a group of

Bantu languages The Bantu languages (English: , Proto-Bantu: *bantʊ̀) are a large family of languages spoken by the Bantu people of Central, Southern, Eastern africa and Southeast Africa. They form the largest branch of the Southern Bantoid languages. The t ...

comprising most of zones A.20 and A.30 of Guthrie's classification, and most likely also part of zone A.10. According to Nurse & Philippson (2003), the A.20 and A.30 languages apart from Bubi form a valid node. The most important of these languages is Duala, which is a vehicular language.

Etymology

The name ''Sawabantu'' is made up of two words: ''sawa'', which means "coast" in Duala, and ''Bantu''. The name was proposed in 1989 by the Cameroonian linguist Carl Ebobissé.

Languages

Besides the A.20 and A.30 languages, the Oroko

dialect cluster 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 vari ...

of A.10 seems to be clearly connected to the Sawabantu group: : (A.10) Oroko; (A.20) Kpwe (Mokpwe, Bakweri)–

Mboko Mboko is a region in southern Cameroon. It may also refer to : Culture * Mboko language, Congo * Mboko people, Cameroon **their Wumboko language Kpwe (Mokpwe) is a Bantu language The Bantu languages (English: , Proto-Bantu: *bantʊ̀) ar ...

(Bomboko, Wumboko)–

Kole Kole Weathers is a fictional superheroine in DC Comics. She is a former member of the Teen Titans. Fictional character biography Professor Abel Weathers, paranoid of an impending nuclear holocaust, was attempting to find a way for humanity to s ...

(Bakole), Duala (incl. Mungo dialect), Su (Isuwu), Limba (Malimba); (A.30) Tanga (Batanga), Yasa–

Kombe Kombe may refer to: *Kombe people *Kombe language * Kombe (Lycia), an ancient city * Kömbe, a baked filled pastry of Turkey and Azerbaijan People with the surname * Paulin Tokala Kombe (born 1977), DR Congolese football player * Saviour Kombe ...

, Benga The A.20 languages are spoken around the

Wouri estuary The Wouri estuary, or Cameroon estuary is a large tidal estuary in Cameroon where several rivers come together, emptying into the Bight of Biafra. Douala, the largest city in Cameroon, is at the mouth of the Wouri River where it enters the est ...

and in the anglophone region around

Mount Cameroon Mount Cameroon is an active volcano in the South West region of Cameroon next to the city of Buea near the Gulf of Guinea. Mount Cameroon is also known as Cameroon Mountain or Fako (the name of the higher of its two peaks) or by its indigenous n ...

. The A.30 languages are spoken along the Atlantic coast of southern Cameroon down to northern

Gabon Gabon (; ; snq, Ngabu), officially the Gabonese Republic (french: République gabonaise), is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. Located on the equator, it is bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the nort ...

. These two geographic groups are clearly related; for example, Limba (Malimba, A.26) report some degree of mutual intelligibility with Tanga (Batanga, A.32), which they call "Old Malimba". Oroko is spoken in Ndian and

Meme A meme ( ) is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme. A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ...

departments in the Southwest Region of Cameroon. Oroko appears to be particularly close to Kpwe (A.22), with which mutual intelligibility might be possible to some extent.E. Monikang - Phonology of Mokpwe The Bube language of

Bioko Island Bioko (; historically Fernando Po; bvb, Ëtulá Ëria) is an island off the west coast of Africa and the northernmost part of Equatorial Guinea. Its population was 335,048 at the 2015 census and it covers an area of . The island is located of ...

(not to be confused with Bubia or Wovea) included in A.30 on geographic grounds, has no particular affinities with the others. Other A.10 languages apart from the Manenguba cluster (A.15 excluding Bafaw-Balong) may also belong, but this is uncertain as they are poorly documented. They are: : Bonkeng and Bafaw-Balong, Nkongho A survey is needed to determine whether these are genetically related to Sawabantu.

Situation

Duala is the vehicular language of the Sawa, spoken and understood throughout the coastal region, even by non-Sawabantu native speakers such as the

Basaa Basaa (also spelled ''Bassa, Basa, Bissa''), or Mbene, is a Bantu language spoken in Cameroon by the Basaa people. It is spoken by about 300,000 people in the Centre and Littoral regions. Maho (2009) lists North and South Kogo as dialects. ...

of Douala, the Bakoko, the Bankon, and the Manenguba.

Notes

References

* Derek Nurse and Gérard Philippson (2003), ''The Bantu Languages.'' * Carl Ebobissé (1989), `Dialectométrie lexicale des Parlers Sawabantu.´ ''The Journal of West African Languages'' 19, 2:57-63. * Carl Ebobissé (2014), ''Sawabantu: Eine vergleichende Untersuchung der Küstensprachen Kameruns''. Peter Lang, Frankfurt. {{Bantu-lang-stub