Adamawa languages

Infobox Language family
name=Adamawa
region=Cameroon, Chad, Nigeria
familycolor=Niger-Congo
fam1=Niger-Congo
fam2=Atlantic-Congo
fam3=Volta-Congo
fam4=North Volta-Congo
fam5=Adamawa-Ubangi
child1=Waja-Jen
child2=Mbum-Day
child3=Leko-Nimbari

The Adamawa languages are a putative family of languages scattered across the Adamawa Plateau in central Africa, in Nigeria, Cameroon, and Chad. They are traditionally classified as one branch of the Adamawa-Ubangi family of Niger-Congo languages. They are among the least studied languages in Africa, and include many endangered languages; by far the largest of the nearly one hundred small Adamawa languages is Mumuye, with 400,000 speakers. A couple of unclassified languages - notably Laal and Jalaa - are found along the fringes of the Adamawa area. Boyd (1989) classified them as follows:

*Waja-Jen
** Tula-Wiyaa (or Waja)
** Bikwin-Jen (or Jen)
** Baa (or, confusingly, Kwa)
** Bəna-Mboi (or Yungur)
** Longuda
* Leko-Nimbari
** Mumuye-Yendang
** Leko
** Duru
** Nimbari
* Mbum-Day
** Mbum
** Day
** Bua
** Kim
* Nyimwom (or Kam)
* Unclassified Adamawa languages

(The Fali and Dakoid languages were removed by Boyd 1989.)

More recently, Blench has posited that the Adamawa languages are a geographic grouping, not a linguistic family, and has broken them up in his Savannas family.

External links

* [http://homepage.ntlworld.com/roger_blench/Adamawa-Ubangian%20languages/Adamawa%20language%20list.pdf List of Adamawa languages] - Blench
* [http://homepage.ntlworld.com/roger_blench/Adamawa-Ubangian%20languages/Wiyaa_group.htm Tula-Wiyaa languages] - Blench
* [http://homepage.ntlworld.com/roger_blench/Adamawa-Ubangian%20languages/Leeko_group.htm Leeko group] - Blench
* [http://homepage.ntlworld.com/roger_blench/RBOP.htm The Perema (Wom) language of northeastern Nigeria: classification, phonology and noun morphology (PDF)] by Roger M. Blench, 2000. Mallam Dendo, Cambridge.
* [http://www.sil.org/silesr/abstract.asp?ref=2002-050 A rapid appraisal survey of Gbete (PDF)] by Jason Diller & Kari Jordan-Diller, 2002. SIL Electronic Survey Reports SILESR 2002-050.
* [http://www.sil.org/silesr/abstract.asp?ref=2002-039 A sociolinguistic survey of the Mambay language of Chad and Cameroon (PDF)] by Cameron Hamm, 2002. SIL Electronic Survey Reports SILESR 2002-039.
* [http://www.sil.org/silesr/abstract.asp?ref=2002-048 Rapid appraisal and lexicostatistical analysis surveys of Dama, Mono, Pam, Ndai and Oblo (PDF)] by Michael & Charlene Ayotte, 2002. SIL Electronic Survey Reports SILESR 2002-048.
* [http://www.sil.org/africa/cameroun/bylanguage/languages/karang.html Karang] - SIL-Cameroon
* [http://www.sil.org/africa/cameroun/bydomain/linguistics/bibliography/biblio2001.html SIL-Cameroon bibliography]
* Langue kim
* Langue tupuri
* [http://www.bondy.ird.fr/pleins_textes/pleins_textes_4/sci_hum/19379.pdf Vocabulaires comparés des instruments aratoires dans le Nord-Cameroun] , Tourneaux