Vemgo-Mabas is an
Afro-Asiatic language
The Afroasiatic languages (also known as Afro-Asiatic, Afrasian, Hamito-Semitic, or Semito-Hamitic) are a language family (or "phylum") of about 400 languages spoken predominantly in West Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and parts of the ...
of Cameroon and Nigeria. Dialects are Vemgo, Mabas. Blench (2006) considers these to be separate languages. ''Ethnologue'' lists a third dialect, Visik in Nigeria, which is not well attested;
[ Blench suspects it may be a dialect of Lamang instead.][Blench, 2006]
The Afro-Asiatic Languages: Classification and Reference List
(ms)
In Cameroon, Mabas is spoken only in one village on the Nigerian border, namely Mabas village (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 Mandara M ...
arrondissement, 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 Man ...
department, Far North Region) by about 5,000 speakers (ALCAM 1984). Although closely related, Mabas is distinct from Hdi
The Human Development Index (HDI) is a statistical composite index of life expectancy, education (mean years of schooling completed and expected years of schooling upon entering the education system), and per capita income indicators, which ...
(78% lexical similarity, 36% mutual intelligibility).
References
Biu-Mandara languages
Languages of Cameroon
{{BiuMandara-lang-stub