The Mbum or Kebi-Benue languages (also known as Lakka in narrower scope) are a group of the
Mbum–Day branch of the
Adamawa languages, spoken in southern
Chad
Chad (; ar, تشاد , ; french: Tchad, ), officially the Republic of Chad, '; ) is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic ...
, northwestern
Central African Republic, northern
Cameroon and eastern
Nigeria. Their best-known member is
Mbum; other languages in the group include
Tupuri
Tupuri (or Toupouri) is a language mostly spoken in the Mayo-Kebbi Est Region of southern Chad and in small parts of northern Cameroon. It is an Mbum language spoken by the Tupuri people with approximately 300,000 speakers.
Tupuri was erron ...
and
Kare.
They were labeled "G6" in
Joseph Greenberg's
Adamawa language-family proposal.
Languages
*Southern Mbum:
Mbum proper,
Mbere,
Gbete
* South West Mbum :
imbum of the Wimbum*Central Mbum
**Karang:
Karang (Mbum, Laka),
Nzakambay (Njak Mbai),
Pana
Pana or PANA may refer to:
*Pana (mythology), a god in Inuit religion
*PANA, in telecommunications, a Plain ANAlog loop Alarm circuit
*Protocol for carrying Authentication for Network Access, a network access authentication protocol
*Pana, used fo ...
,
Ngumi,
Kare (Kãrɛ̃)
**Koh:
Kuo (Koh),
Sakpu
*Northern Mbum
**Dama–Galke:
Dama
Dama or DAMA may refer to:
Animals
*Dama gazelle (''Nanger dama'')
* ''Dama'' (genus) (fallow deer)
**Fallow deer (''Dama dama'')
**Persian fallow deer (''Dama mesopotamica'')
*Tammar wallaby or Dama wallaby (''Macropus eugenii'')
Business, scie ...
,
Ndai
Ndai (local spelling Dai), formerly known as Gower Island (and sometimes Inattendue Island), is an island in Malaita Province, Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islan ...
(Galke, Pormi),
Mono,
Kali
**Tupuri–Mambai:
Mangbai,
Mundang,
Tupuri
Tupuri (or Toupouri) is a language mostly spoken in the Mayo-Kebbi Est Region of southern Chad and in small parts of northern Cameroon. It is an Mbum language spoken by the Tupuri people with approximately 300,000 speakers.
Tupuri was erron ...
In addition,
Pondo,
Gonge,
Tale
Tale may refer to:
* Narrative, or story, a report of real or imaginary connected events
* TAL effector (TALE), a type of DNA binding protein
* Tale, Albania, a resort town
* Tale, Iran, a village
* Tale, Maharashtra, a village in Ratnagiri distri ...
,
Laka
In Hawaiian mythology, Laka is the name of two different popular heroes from Polynesian mythology. (In other parts of Polynesia they are known as Rātā, Rata, Lata, Ata, or Lasa).
In one Hawaiian legend, Laka is the son of the '' Ali'i nui'' W ...
,
Pam and
To are unclassified within Mbum. To is a secret male initiation language of the
Gbaya. Dek is purported in some sources but apparently unattested.
La'bi, an esoteric
ritual language
A sacred language, holy language or liturgical language is any language that is cultivated and used primarily in church service or for other religious reasons by people who speak another, primary language in their daily lives.
Concept
A sacre ...
of male initiation among the
Gbaya Kara, the
Mbum, and some
Sara Laka, is related to Mbum. It has substantial loans from one or more
Sara languages. Other initiation languages in the Mbum family are To (Gbaya, but with partial Mbum origins), Dzel, and Ngarage.
[Elders, Stefan. 2006. Issues in comparative Kebi-Benue (Adamawa). Africana Linguistica XII. 37-88.]
See also
*
List of Proto-Lakka reconstructions (Wiktionary)
References
*Roger Blench, 2004
List of Adamawa languages(ms)
External links
A sociolinguistic survey of the Mambay language of Chad and Cameroon (PDF)by Cameron Hamm, 2002. SIL Electronic Survey Reports SILESR 2002–039.
{{Niger-Congo branches
Mbum–Day languages