The Bom language (alternates: Bome; Bomo)
is an
endangered language
An endangered language or moribund language is a language that is at risk of disappearing as its speakers die out or shift to speaking other languages. Language loss occurs when the language has no more native speakers and becomes a " dead lang ...
of
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...
. It belongs to the
Mel languages, Mel branch of the
Niger–Congo language family and is particularly closely related to the
Bullom So language The Bullom So language, also called Mmani,Wilson, William André Auquier. 2007. ''Guinea Languages of the Atlantic group: description and internal classification''. (Schriften zur Afrikanistik, 12.) Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang. Mani, or Mandingi, ...
. Most speakers are
bilingual
Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all Eu ...
in
Mende. Use of the Bom language is declining among members of the ethnic group.
Speakers
The number of speakers range from 15 to 1669 (Census 2015)
[''Sierra Leone 2015 Population and Housing Census national analytical report.'' Statistics Sierra Leone, October 2017, S. 89ff.](_blank)
/ref> for Krim and 20 to a few hundred for Bom.
Classification
Bom is a Northern Bullom language. The Krim dialect (also known as Dilan Hassan)
References
External links
Bom entry in the UNESCO Red Book of Endangered LanguagesEndangeredLanguages.com Profile for BomBom Audio sample included in video on Endangered Languages
Bullom languages
Endangered languages of Africa
Languages of Sierra Leone
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