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 langua ...

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Sierra Leone's land area is . It has a tropical climate and envi ...

. It belongs to the

Mel Mel, Mels or MEL may refer to: Biology * Mouse erythroleukemia cell line (MEL) * National Herbarium of Victoria, a herbarium with the Index Herbariorum code MEL People * Mel (given name), the abbreviated version of several given names (including ...

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. When the languages are just two, it is usually called bilingualism. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolin ...

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.
/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) is considered by speakers to be distinct, as speakers have separate ethnic identities.

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 {{atlantic-lang-stub