The Grassfields languages (or Wide Grassfields languages) are a branch of the
Southern Bantoid
Southern Bantoid (or South Bantoid) is a branch of the Bantoid language family. It consists of the Bantu languages along with several small branches and isolates of eastern Nigeria and west-central Cameroon (though the affiliation of some branch ...
languages spoken in the
Western High Plateau
The Western High Plateau, Western Highlands or Bamenda Grassfields is a region of Cameroon characterised by high relief, cool temperatures, heavy rainfall and savanna vegetation. The region lies along the Cameroon line and consists of mounta ...
of
Cameroon
Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west- central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; th ...
and some parts of
Taraba state
)
, image_map = Nigeria - Taraba.svg
, map_alt =
, map_caption = Location of Taraba State in Nigeria
, coordinates =
, coor_pinpoint =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, ...
,
Nigeria
Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya 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 G ...
. Better known Grassfields languages include the
Eastern Grassfields languages
The Eastern Grassfields languages, spoken in the Western High Plateau of Cameroon, are a branch of the Grassfields languages including Bamun, Yamba and Bamileke.
There are four or five branches to the family:
* Nkambe languages (north)
* ...
Bamun,
Yamba and the
Ring language,
Kom,
Nso,
Oku,
Bali
Bali () is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nu ...
,
Bafut. Almost all of these languages are closely related, sharing approximately half of their vocabulary.
Classifications
The Grassfields languages were previously known as ''Grassfields Bantu'' and ''Semi-Bantu.'' They are sometimes classified on two levels, ''Wide Grassfields,'' which includes all the languages, and ''Narrow Grassfields,'' which excludes
Menchum,
Ambele and sometimes the
Southwest Grassfields languages. These may form a group of their own, which Nurse (2003) calls Peripheral Grassfields but rejects.
Blench (2010) notes there is little evidence for the traditional assumption that the non-Western
Momo languages belong in Grassfields and that they may actually be closer to the poorly established
Tivoid group; Western Momo is therefore renamed Southwest Grassfields to avoid confusion, and only Menchum and Ambele are left out of Narrow Grassfields. The classification of Amebele is unclear, though it is clearly divergent, and Menchum may be closer to the
Tivoid languages (Blench 2011). Blench (2012) suggests that
Western Beboid may belong in Grassfields. Blench (2010b) adds
Momo as a Narrow Grassfields subgroup.
*Narrow Grassfields
**
Ring (Ring Road)
**
Eastern Grassfields (Mbam–Nkam)
**
Momo
**? ''
Ndemli''
**
Southwest Grassfields (previously Western Momo)
*? ''
Ambele''
*? ''
Menchum'' (Befang)
*?
Western Beboid
Viti (Vötö) is unclassified Narrow Grassfields.
The Eastern Grassfields languages share nasal
noun-class
In linguistics, a noun class is a particular category of nouns. A noun may belong to a given class because of the characteristic features of its referent, such as gender, animacy, shape, but such designations are often clearly conventional. Some ...
prefixes with the
Bantu languages
The Bantu languages (English: , Proto-Bantu: *bantʊ̀) are a large family of languages spoken by the Bantu people of Central, Southern, Eastern africa and Southeast Africa. They form the largest branch of the Southern Bantoid languages.
T ...
, which are not found in the other branches of Grassfields. However, they appear to be more closely related to the rest of Grassfields than they are to Bantu.
Names and locations (Nigeria)
Below is a list of Grassfields language names, populations, and locations (in
Nigeria
Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya 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 G ...
only) from Blench (2019).
See also
*
List of Proto-Grassfields reconstructions (Wiktionary)
References
External links
ComparaLex database with Grassfields word lists
Journal of West African Languages: Grassfields Bantu (archived on 18 August 2014)*
Proto-Grassfields reconstructions
{{Niger-Congo branches
Languages of Cameroon
Southern Bantoid languages