Mbam languages
The Mbam languages (often called Mbam for short ) form a subgroup of the southern bantoid languages , a branch of the Benue-Congo languages , which in turn belong to the Niger-Congo language family.
The approximately 15 Mbam languages are spoken by around 120,000 people in western Cameroon ( Central Province , Mbam Division). The two most important Mbam languages are Nugunu (or Yambasa) with 35,000 speakers and Tuki (or Sanaga) with 25,000 speakers.
classification
Position of the Mbam within the Niger-Congo:
- Niger-Congo > Volta-Congo > Benue-Congo > East-Benue-Congo > Bantoid-Cross > Bantoid> South-Bantoid> Mbam languages
Subdivision of the Mbam languages:
-
Mbam
- Sanaga
- Nomaande-Yambeta
- Yambasa
literature
- Joseph Greenberg: The Languages of Africa. Mouton, The Hague and Indiana University Center, Bloomington 1963.
- Bernd Heine and others (ed.): The languages of Africa. Buske, Hamburg 1981.
- Bernd Heine and Derek Nurse (eds.): African Languages. An Introduction. Cambridge University Press 2000.
In it: Kay Williamson and Roger Blench: Niger-Congo. - John Bendor-Samuel (Ed.): The Niger-Congo Languages: A Classification and Description of Africa's Largest Language Family. University Press of America, Lanham, New York, London 1989.
Therein: John R. Watters and Jacqueline Leroy: Southern Bantoid. - Patrick Bennett and Jan Sterk: South Central Niger-Congo: A Reclassification. Studies in African Linguistics. 1977.