Mefele is an

Afro-Asiatic The Afroasiatic languages (also known as Afro-Asiatic, Afrasian, Hamito-Semitic, or Semito-Hamitic) are a language family (or "phylum") of about 400 languages spoken predominantly in West Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and parts of th ...

language spoken in northern

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 ...

. Dialects are Mefele, Muhura, Serak, and Shugule. Blench (2006) considers Shugule (Shügule) a separate language.Blench, 2006
The Afro-Asiatic Languages: Classification and Reference List
(ms)

Names

The speakers of the Mefele language (more than 10,000 speakers) are often included with the Mafa people by the Cameroonian government. However, they themselves do not call themselves Mafa, and the Mafa often refer to them as ''Bélahay'' (''hay'' is a plural marker), which is often mentioned in the literature as ''Boulahay''.

Distribution

The Mefele area is divided into two areas separated by the town of

Mokolo Mokolo is the departmental capital and largest city of the Mayo-Tsanaga department, in the Far North Province of Cameroon. It is the fourth largest city in the Far North Province, after Maroua, Yagoua, and Kousséri. It is located in the Mandara M ...

, which is dominated by the Mafa. The Mefele live in parts of the town of Mokolo (commune of

, department of

Mayo-Tsanaga Mayo-Tsanaga is a department of Extreme-Nord Province in Cameroon. The department covers an area of 4,393 km and at the 2005 Census had a total population of 699,971. The capital of the department is at Mokolo. It is located within the Man ...

, Far North Region). The larger Mefele area is in the south and southeast and includes the villages of Sirak and Mouhour. The smaller Mefele area, 10 km to the northwest, includes the village of Sougoulé. Most of the Mefele (probably the children to a lesser extent) understand and speak Mafa, and so are generally bilingual in Mafa.

Notes

Biu-Mandara languages Languages of Cameroon {{BiuMandara-lang-stub