Mafa is an

Afro-Asiatic The Afroasiatic languages (or Afro-Asiatic), also known as Hamito-Semitic, or Semito-Hamitic, and sometimes also as Afrasian, Erythraean or Lisramic, are a language family of about 300 languages that are spoken predominantly in the geographic ...

language spoken in northern

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west- central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; th ...

and Northern

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of G ...

by the Mafa people. The term ''Matakam'' is traditionally seen as pejorative.

Dialects

Mafa is widely spoken in the department of

Mayo-Tsanaga Mayo-Tsanaga is a department of Extreme-Nord Province in Cameroon. The department covers an area of 4,393 km and at the 2005 Census had a total population of 699,971. The capital of the department is at Mokolo. It is located within the M ...

from

Mokolo Mokolo is the departmental capital and largest city of the Mayo-Tsanaga department, in the Far North Province of Cameroon. It is the fourth largest city in the Far North Province, after Maroua, Yagoua, and Kousséri. It is located in the Man ...

to the north. Mafa includes the following dialects. *Central Mafa in Koza commune and in

town *West Mafa in the northwest of

Commune (Magoumaz) *East Mafa in the northeast ( Soulede and Roua communes) There are 136,000 speakers in Cameroon.

Notes

Biu-Mandara languages Languages of Cameroon Languages of Nigeria {{BiuMandara-lang-stub