The Bafut language, ''Fut'', is an Eastern Grassfields language of the

Niger–Congo languages Niger–Congo is a hypothetical language family spoken over the majority of sub-Saharan Africa. It unites the Mande languages, the Atlantic–Congo languages, Atlantic-Congo languages (which share a characteristic noun class system), and possibly ...

, and related to

Bamum Bamum, also spelled Bamoum, Bamun, or Bamoun, may refer to: *The Bamum people *The Bamum kingdom *The Bamum language *The Bamum script The Bamum scripts are an evolutionary series of six scripts created for the Bamum language by Ibrahim Njoya, ...

. Oral tradition traces dynastic origins to the

Ndobo Ngiri is a Bantu language 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 South ...

or Tikari areas. It is spoken by people of

Bafut Subdivision The Bafut Subdivision or the Kingdom/Chiefdom/Fondom of Bafut is a commune in the Mezam Department of Northwest Province, Cameroon. It is located in the Western Grassfields region - a name for the Northwest Province and surrounding grassland a ...

, Tuba, in the division of

Mezam Mezam is a division of the North West Region of Cameroon. The department covers an area of 1745 km and as of 2005 had a total population of 524,127. The capital of the department lies at Bamenda. Subdivisions The department is divided admini ...

and in the division of Metchum in Northwest Province, Cameroon. The Bafut language was alphabetized by

SIL International SIL International (formerly known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics) is an evangelical Christian non-profit organization whose main purpose is to study, develop and document languages, especially those that are lesser-known, in order to e ...

consultant

Joseph Mfonyam Joseph Ngwa Mfonyam (born February 7, 1948, in Bafut in the North West Province of Cameroon) works with the Bafut Language Association as an SIL International SIL International (formerly known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics) is an eva ...

in 1982. Since then, some literature has been translated into Bafut, most notably the

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...

in 2000.

Writing system

References

External links

* ELAR archive o
Bafut
Ngemba languages Languages of Cameroon {{Cameroon-lang-stub