The Bube language or Bubi, Bohobé, Bube–Benga or Fernandian (Bobe) is a
Bantu language
The Bantu languages (English: , Proto-Bantu language, Proto-Bantu: *bantʊ̀), or Ntu languages are a language family of about 600 languages of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern, East Africa, Eastern and Southeast Africa, South ...
spoken predominately by the
Bubi, a
Bantu people
The Bantu peoples are an Indigenous peoples of Africa, indigenous ethnolinguistic grouping of approximately 400 distinct native Demographics of Africa, African List of ethnic groups of Africa, ethnic groups who speak Bantu languages. The language ...
native to, and once the primary inhabitants of
Bioko Island in Equatorial Guinea. The language was brought to Bioko from continental Africa more than three thousand years ago when the
Bubi began settling on the island.
It has around 50,000 speakers, with three variants: North, South and Central-East. It is noted for its
tonal character and the divergence of words by gender. The language is also spoken by the Bubi native to
Gabon
Gabon ( ; ), officially the Gabonese Republic (), is a country on the Atlantic coast of Central Africa, on the equator, bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, the Republic of the Congo to the east and south, and ...
and
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 ...
.
The Bube language is divided into six different dialects that vary in the northern and southern regions of Bioko Island. For example, in the North, people speak ''Rebola'' and its variations: ''Basile'', ''Banapa'' and ''Basupa''. However, in the North-East, ''Bakake'' is spoken.
Bube is also spoken in a small area on the mainland closest to the island, where speakers are shifting to
Wumboko. This has been reported as "Bube", "Bubia" or "Wovea" (see
Wovea people).
The first works on the Bube language were those of the Baptist missionary
John Clarke, published in 1846 and 1848. A later Bube-to-English
primer was authored in 1875 by
William Barleycorn, a colonial era
Primitive Methodist missionary
A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thoma ...
of
Igbo and
Fernandino descent, while he was serving in the Bubi village of
Basupu. An official language dictionary and grammar guide was published by the ethnic Bubi scholar
Justo Bolekia Boleká.
Other names
Other names and forms of the name include Bubé, eVoové, eBubée, Bhubhi, Bubi, Ibubi, Ibhubhi, Pove and Eviia.
Phonology
Vowels
Bube has 7 vowels that can be either short or long:
The
nasal
Nasal is an adjective referring to the nose, part of human or animal anatomy. It may also be shorthand for the following uses in combination:
* With reference to the human nose:
** Nasal administration, a method of pharmaceutical drug delivery
* ...
vowels are
allophone
In phonology, an allophone (; from the Greek , , 'other' and , , 'voice, sound') is one of multiple possible spoken soundsor '' phones''used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, the voiceless plos ...
s of respective oral vowels.
Consonants
Bube has 29 consonants. Some of them are
prenasalized:
Numbers
The numbers one through ten in Bube are as follows:
[C. Junyent, ''Las lenguas del mundo'', p. 66]
:
References
Bibliography
* Biddulph, Joseph, Fernandian (1988). ''The Bubi Bantu language of Bioco/Fernando Po''. Pontypridd, Wales: Languages Information Centre, WorldCat no. 17838738.
*Bolekia, Justo Bolekia (1991). Curso de lengua bubi. (Coleccion ensayos, 8.) Malabo: Centro Cultural Hispano-Guineano.
*Bolekia, Justo (2009). Diccionario español-bubi. Madrid: Ediciones AKAL. 544pp.
* Clarke, John (1846)
''Sentences in the Fernandian Tongue'' Dunfermline Press, Bimbia.
* Clarke, John (1848)
''Introduction To The Fernandian Tongue'', Part 1.Berwick-on-Tweed.
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bube language
Mbam languages
Languages of Equatorial Guinea
Languages of Gabon
Languages of Cameroon