Mina language (Cameroon)

Not to be confused with Mina (or Gen) language of Togo and Benin.

Mina
Spoken in	Cameroon
Region	Far North Province
Native speakers	10,987  (2000)
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Chadic Biu–Mandara A Daba Mina
Language codes
ISO 639-3	hna

The Mina language is spoken in Northern Cameroon. Another language of the same name is found in India. They are distinguished in ISO 639-3 by referring to this language as Mina (Cameroon) and to the other as Mina (India)

The Mina language—also known in linguistic literature by the names Hina and Besleri -- is classified as a Chadic language (part of the wider Afro-Asiatic group).^[1] Further, the language is classified as a member of the Biu–Mandara group, subgroup A, branch A7.^[2]

The language is spoken in Northern Cameroon by a population estimated at around 10,000.^[3] Frajzyngier & Johnston (2005) define three Mina dialects: Marbak, Kefedjevreng and Dzundzun, whereas Ethnologue defines the following three dialects Besleri, Jingjing (Dzumdzum), Gamdugun. While the relationship between the names Jingjing and Dzundzun is clear, the relationships between the four others is unclear. Mutual intelligibility between dialects is difficult to ascertain, but Frajzyngier & Johnston (2005:3) demonstrate one-way intelligibility between Dzundzun and Mina (presumably the Marbak dialect).

The speakers of Mina are generally bilingual, with Fulfulde (Fula) being the second language. Fulfulde is often joined by French as a third language in educated speakers.^[4]

Notes

1. ^ Frajzyngier & Johnston (2005).
2. ^ cf. Newman (1992)
3. ^ Raymond G. Gordon, Jr, ed. 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 15th edition. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
4. ^ Ethnologue 2005.

References

• Ethnologue entry for Mina
• Frajzyngier, Zygmunt & Johnston, Eric. (2005). A Grammar of Mina. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
• Newman, Paul. (1992). "Chadic Languages." In: Bright, William. International Encyclopedia of Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

External links

• Map of Mina language from the LL-Map project
• Information on Mina language from the MultiTree project