Chamba Leko is one of two languages spoken by the Chamba people, the other being Chamba Daka. It is a member of the

Leko Leko may refer to: * Leko (surname) * Leko languages, a small group of African Savanna languages * Leco language, a moribund isolate language of Bolivia * Lekolite or Leko, a type of stage spotlight * Alexandro da Silva Santos or Leko, Brazilian fo ...

branch of

Savanna languages The Savannas languages, also known as Gur–Adamawa or Adamawa–Gur, is a branch of the Niger–Congo languages that includes Greenberg's Gur and Adamawa–Ubangui families. History of classification The Gur–Adamawa link was demonstrated in ...

, and is spoken across the northern

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, ...

n–

Cameroon Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...

ian border. ''Chamba'' is also spelled 'Samba', ''Leko'' also 'Leeko', 'Lego' or 'Lekon'. The language is also known as ''Suntai''.

Dialects

Samba, also called Samba Leeko, is highly distinct from ''Chamba Daka'', also called ''Daga Mumi'' ('language of the Daka'), spoken in Nigeria by another subgroup of the ''Chamba'' people. These two languages are respectively classified in groups 2 and 3 of the Adamawa branch by

Joseph Greenberg Joseph Harold Greenberg (May 28, 1915 – May 7, 2001) was an American linguist, known mainly for his work concerning linguistic typology and the genetic classification of languages. Life Early life and education Joseph Greenberg was born on M ...

(see

Adamawa languages The Adamawa languages are a putative family of 80–90 languages scattered across the Adamawa Plateau in Central Africa, in northern Cameroon, north-western Central African Republic, southern Chad, and eastern Nigeria, spoken altogether by on ...

). In Cameroon, the two main groups of dialects are: *Samba languages proper (consisting of the Samba Leeko, Deenu, Bangla, Wangai varieties, as well as Sampara, mainly spoken in Nigeria) located between the Alantika Mountains in one area, and Faro and Mayo-Déo as well (in the south of Béka commune, Bénoué department, North Region) *Daganjonga, spoken in two enclaves of 25,000 speakers surrounded by Grassfields languages, near the Ndop Plain (more than 400 kilometers from the Alantika Mountains). It is spoken in the villages of Balikumbat, Baligashu, Baligashu ( Balikumbat commune, Ngoketunjia department, North-West Region) and Baligam ( Santa commune, Mezam department, North-West Region)

Phonology

Consonants

Vowels

References

Leko languages Languages of Nigeria Languages of Cameroon {{AtlanticCongo-lang-stub