Miyobe or Soruba is an unclassified Niger-Congo language of

Benin Benin, officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It was formerly known as Dahomey. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the north-west, and Niger to the north-east. The majority of its po ...

and

Togo Togo, officially the Togolese Republic, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Ghana to Ghana–Togo border, the west, Benin to Benin–Togo border, the east and Burkina Faso to Burkina Faso–Togo border, the north. It is one of the le ...

. Güldemann (2018) notes that Miyobe cannot be securely classified within Gur, and leaves it out as unclassified within Niger-Congo. Unlike the

Gur languages The Gur languages, also known as Central Gur or Mabia, belong to the Niger–Congo languages. They are spoken in the Sahelian and savanna regions of West Africa, namely: in most areas of Burkina Faso, and in south-central Mali, northeastern Ivor ...

, which are SVO, Miyobe has

SOV word order SOV may refer to: * SOV, a former ticker symbol for Sovereign Bank * SOV, a legal cryptocurrency created by the Sovereign Currency Act of 2018 of the Republic of the Marshall Islands * SOV, the National Rail station code for Southend Victoria rail ...

like the Senufo,

Mande Mande may refer to: * Mandé peoples of western Africa * Mande languages, their Niger-Congo languages * Manding languages, Manding, a term covering a subgroup of Mande peoples, and sometimes used for one of them, Mandinka people, Mandinka * Garo p ...

, and Dogon languages.

Geographic distribution

In Togo, Miyobe is spoken in the Solla area of

Binah Prefecture Binah is a prefecture located in the Kara Region of Togo. At the time of the 2022 census it had a population of 84,199 people. The prefecture seat is located in Pagouda. The cantons A canton is a type of administrative division of a country. I ...

. In Benin, Miyobe is spoken in Atacora Department ( Boukoumbé and Kouandé communes) and

Donga Department Donga is one of the twelve departments of Benin; its capital is Djougou, the fourth largest city in the country. The department of Donga was created in 1999 when it was split off from Atakora Department. Donga is subdivided into five communes ...

(

Copargo Copargo is a town, Arrondissements of Benin, arrondissement, and Communes of Benin, commune in the Donga Department of western Benin. The commune covers an area of 876 square kilometres and as of 2013 had a population of 70,938 people. Refere ...

commune). Villages are Anandana, Kuhobè, Sétrah, Kantchoko (Kapatcharè), Tchomitchomi, Koubéné-Béné, Koutchamang, and Moupémou villages.Pali, Tchaa. 2011. Description systematique de la langue Miyobe (Togo/Benin). (Doctoral dissertation, Université de Bordeaux III; 575pp.)

References

{{Niger-Congo branches Gurma languages Languages of Benin Languages of Togo