Buru and Angwe constitute a potentially rather divergent
Southern Bantoid language
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 ...
spoken in
Sardauna LGA,
Taraba State
)
, image_map = Nigeria - Taraba.svg
, map_alt =
, map_caption = Location of Taraba State in Nigeria
, coordinates =
, coor_pinpoint =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, ...
of Nigeria.
Buru is the language of a village near where
Batu is spoken, east of Baissa.
Angwe had previously been assumed to be Batu, a
Tivoid language
The Tivoid languages are a branch of the Southern Bantoid languages spoken in parts of Nigeria and Cameroon. The subfamily takes its name after Tiv, the most spoken language in the group.
The majority are threatened with extinction. The larg ...
, but turns out to be the same language as Buru. There are resemblances to Tivoid, though apart from sharing some lexical items with Northwest Tivoid, presumably due to contact, there is little evidence to classify it. It is treated as an isolate within
Bantoid
Bantoid is a major branch of the Benue–Congo language family. It consists of the Northern Bantoid languages and the Southern Bantoid languages, a division which also includes the Bantu languages that constitute the overwhelming majority and to ...
by Blench (2016).
References
Southern Bantoid languages
Languages of Nigeria
{{SBantoid-lang-stub