Bayot is a language of southern
Senegal
Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea t ...
, southwest of
Ziguinchor in a group of villages near
Nyassia, and in northwestern
Guinea-Bissau
Guinea-Bissau, officially the Republic of Guinea-Bissau, is a country in West Africa that covers with an estimated population of 2,026,778. It borders Senegal to Guinea-Bissau–Senegal border, its north and Guinea to Guinea–Guinea-Bissau b ...
, along the Senegalese border, and in
the Gambia
The Gambia, officially the Republic of The Gambia, is a country in West Africa. Geographically, The Gambia is the List of African countries by area, smallest country in continental Africa; it is surrounded by Senegal on all sides except for ...
.
The Kugere and Kuxinge (Essin) dialects of Senegal and the Arame (Edamme) and Gubaare dialects of Guinea-Bissau are distinct enough to be sometimes considered different languages.
Bayot is the most divergent of the
Jola languages, in the
Senegambian branch of the
Niger–Congo language family.
Bayot is grammatically Jola, apart from a non-Jola pronominal system. However, perhaps half its vocabulary is non-Jola and even non-Atlantic. It may therefore be a
language isolate with substantial Jola borrowing (
relexification). In any case, Bayot is clearly distinct from (other) Jola languages.
References
External links
* ELAR archive o
Documenting the Bayot language
Unclassified languages of Africa
Languages of Guinea-Bissau
Languages of Senegal
Jola languages
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