Bebele Language
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Bebele (Bamvele, ''Bëbëlë'') 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 ...
of
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 ...
. It is
mutually intelligible In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between different but related language varieties in which speakers of the different varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. Mutual intellig ...
with other Beti dialects such as Ewondo and Fang.


Varieties

The Bémbélé group includes all the neighboring languages that claim to belong to the Eki group. These are Bebele (Bembélé), Yasám, Yekaba, Yesamba, Bajia, Bafék, and Yanavok. Bémbélé covers, along with Bébélé (Bamvele), Yébaka, Yesamba, and Bajia, the entire part of Haute Sanaga department, located south of the Sanaga River (in the communes of Minta, Nanga-Ebogo, Bibé, and Nsem). Meanwhile, the "Feuk", Yangavék (Yangafeuk), and Bafék (Bafeuk) are located north of the Sanaga River (in Ntui commune), and the Yasém (Asem) are confined to the village of Yassem at the northern end of the commune of Ngoro (department of Mbam-et-Kim). Bémbélé also extends into the Eastern Region in the departments of Lom-et-Djerem ( Diang commune) and Haut-Nyong ( Nguélémendouka commune). They are estimated at 56,200 speakers (Djomeni 2004).


References

Beti languages Languages of Cameroon {{Bantu-lang-stub