Overview
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Vulnerable

Native Speakers Worldwide

~15,000

Domains of Use

No data

Speaker Number Trends

No data

Transmission

No data

Recent Resources

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Community Members

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Revitalization Programs

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Language Information By Source

Illustrations of the IPA: Mambay
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Vulnerable

Native Speakers Worldwide

~15,000

Domains of Use

No data

Speaker Number Trends

No data

Transmission

No data

Speakers

Second-language speakers and learners

No data

Semi-speakers

No data

Child speakers

No data

Young adult speakers

No data

Older adult speakers

No data

Elder Speakers

No data

Ethnic Population

No data

Non-monolingual speakers

No data

More about speakers

No data

Year of info

2006

Location and Context

Countries

Cameroon, Chad

Coordinates

No data

Location description

"The majority of the population lives in the North Province of Cameroon, while the remaining group of 3,000 speakers is found immediately across the border in the Mayo-Kebbi Prefecture of southwestern Chad."

Government support

No data

Institutional support

No data

Speakers' attitudes

No data

Standard orthography

No data

Script (Writing system)

No data

Other writing systems

"The majority of the population lives in the North Province of Cameroon, while the remaining group of 3,000 speakers is found immediately across the border in the Mayo-Kebbi Prefecture of southwestern Chad."

More on writing systems

No data

Other languages used

No data

Domains of other languages

No data

More on context

No data

Vulnerable

Native Speakers Worldwide

<10,000

Domains of Use

No data

Speaker Number Trends

No data

Transmission

No data

Speakers

Second-language speakers and learners

No data

Semi-speakers

No data

Child speakers

No data

Young adult speakers

No data

Older adult speakers

No data

Elder Speakers

No data

Ethnic Population

No data

Non-monolingual speakers

Most

More about speakers

No data

Year of info

2002

Location and Context

Countries

No data

Coordinates

No data

Location description

No data

Government support

No data

Institutional support

No data

Speakers' attitudes

No data

Standard orthography

No data

Script (Writing system)

No data

Other writing systems

No data

More on writing systems

No data

Other languages used

Fufulde, Mundang, French

Domains of other languages

Fufulde with other ethnolinguistic groups and at market; Mundang in some churches; Fufulde in some mosques

More on context

Only Mambay is used in the home, in the fields, and with Mambay friends.

Threatened

Native Speakers Worldwide

2,000

Domains of Use

No data

Speaker Number Trends

No data

Transmission

No data

Speakers

Second-language speakers and learners

No data

Semi-speakers

No data

Child speakers

No data

Young adult speakers

No data

Older adult speakers

No data

Elder Speakers

No data

Ethnic Population

No data

Non-monolingual speakers

No data

More about speakers

No data

Year of info

2010

Location and Context

Countries

No data

Coordinates

9.6007,14.0899

Location description

No data

Government support

No data

Institutional support

No data

Speakers' attitudes

No data

Standard orthography

No data

Script (Writing system)

No data

Other writing systems

No data

More on writing systems

No data

Other languages used

No data

Domains of other languages

No data

More on context

No data

Vulnerable

Native Speakers Worldwide

10,000

Domains of Use

No data

Speaker Number Trends

No data

Transmission

No data

Speakers

Second-language speakers and learners

No data

Semi-speakers

No data

Child speakers

No data

Young adult speakers

No data

Older adult speakers

No data

Elder Speakers

No data

Ethnic Population

No data

Non-monolingual speakers

No data

More about speakers

There are 8,000 speakers in Cameroon (2002 SIL).

Year of info

2009

Location and Context

Countries

Chad; Cameroon;

Coordinates

No data

Location description

No data

Government support

No data

Institutional support

No data

Speakers' attitudes

No data

Standard orthography

No data

Script (Writing system)

No data

Other writing systems

No data

More on writing systems

No data

Other languages used

No data

Domains of other languages

No data

More on context

No data

Threatened

Native Speakers Worldwide

15,000

Domains of Use

No data

Speaker Number Trends

No data

Transmission

No data

Speakers

Second-language speakers and learners

No data

Semi-speakers

No data

Child speakers

No data

Young adult speakers

No data

Older adult speakers

No data

Elder Speakers

No data

Ethnic Population

No data

Non-monolingual speakers

No data

More about speakers

Cameroon: 12,000; Chad: 3,000; Both countries: 15,000

Year of info

2008

Location and Context

Countries

Cameroon, Chad

Coordinates

No data

Location description

"To the north of the Adamawa Massif and approximately eight hundred kilometres from the Gulf of Guinea, the Mambay ethnic group straddles the border of Cameroon and Chad. Members of the group, numbering about fifteen thousand, live along the Mayo Kebbi (Kebbi River) at the point where it flows south-west from Chad toward its confluence with the Benue River in Cameroon..."

Government support

No data

Institutional support

Yes (COLAMA, Catholic Church, SIL)

Speakers' attitudes

No data

Standard orthography

No data

Script (Writing system)

Yes

Other writing systems

"To the north of the Adamawa Massif and approximately eight hundred kilometres from the Gulf of Guinea, the Mambay ethnic group straddles the border of Cameroon and Chad. Members of the group, numbering about fifteen thousand, live along the Mayo Kebbi (Kebbi River) at the point where it flows south-west from Chad toward its confluence with the Benue River in Cameroon..."

More on writing systems

No data

Other languages used

Fulfulde, French, Mundang, Hausa, Arabic

Domains of other languages

Wider communication, religious teaching (Fulfulde), school (French), prayers (Arabic), Christian celebrations (Mundang)

More on context

"Most Mambay speakers are proficient in at least one other language. The most common languages of multilingualism are (in order of decreasing frequency) Fulfulde (the language of the Fulbe), French and Mundang. Proficiency in Hausa and Arabic, two other languages of multilingualism, is limited to a small minority of men... In the Mambay language area, as throughout most of Northern Cameroon, the dominance of Fulfulde is an inescapable part of the sociolinguistic equilibrium ... it has steadily increased among the Mambay, with the possible exception of the last decade, since the ethnic community has begun to show interest in the preservation of their language... Even in interethnic encounters involving groups other than Fulbe, Fulfulde is almost always used as a language of wider communication. Proficiency in French is, unsurprisingly, correlated to level of education in the Frenchlanguage school systems of Cameroon and Chad. ... Interestingly, proficiency in additional languages is also correlated to religious adherence. The Mambay view Fulfulde as an Islamic language, and while Arabic is used for prayer, imams in the area use Fulfulde for religious teaching; use of Mambay (or any language other than Arabic or Fulfulde) is discouraged for Muslims in religious contexts. Because of this, Mambay who are Muslim tend to be more proficient in Fulfulde than those who are Christian... In contrast, Mambay who consider themselves Christian (particularly those who are Protestant) generally have a higher level of proficiency in Mundang than those who are Muslim. This is particularly true of Mambay Christians living on the Chad side of the border because until recently, Mundang was the primary language used there in Christian celebrations. Finally, geographic proximity to other language areas is related to multilingualism: proficiency in Mundang is more common in Chad, where the Mambay and Mundang language areas are adjacent to one another... Languages other than Mambay are used primarily in situations where members of other ethnic groups are present, and in domains where written languages are used. Among Mambay speakers, the only place where another language is used in an oral domain is in conversation in and around the mosque."

No data

Native Speakers Worldwide

No data

Domains of Use

No data

Speaker Number Trends

No data

Transmission

No data

Speakers

Second-language speakers and learners

No data

Semi-speakers

No data

Child speakers

No data

Young adult speakers

No data

Older adult speakers

No data

Elder Speakers

No data

Ethnic Population

No data

Non-monolingual speakers

No data

More about speakers

No data

Year of info

2005

Location and Context

Countries

No data

Coordinates

9.66666666667,14.0

Location description

No data

Government support

No data

Institutional support

No data

Speakers' attitudes

No data

Standard orthography

No data

Script (Writing system)

No data

Other writing systems

No data

More on writing systems

No data

Other languages used

No data

Domains of other languages

No data

More on context

No data

Vulnerable

Native Speakers Worldwide

10,000

Domains of Use

No data

Speaker Number Trends

No data

Transmission

No data

Speakers

Second-language speakers and learners

No data

Semi-speakers

No data

Child speakers

No data

Young adult speakers

No data

Older adult speakers

No data

Elder Speakers

No data

Ethnic Population

No data

Non-monolingual speakers

No data

More about speakers

No data

Year of info

Location and Context

Countries

No data

Coordinates

No data

Location description

No data

Government support

No data

Institutional support

No data

Speakers' attitudes

No data

Standard orthography

No data

Script (Writing system)

No data

Other writing systems

No data

More on writing systems

No data

Other languages used

No data

Domains of other languages

No data

More on context

No data

Media Resources

No resources

No resources

No resources

No resources

No resources

No resources

Filter By

No programs

  1. Endangered Languages Catalogue Project. Compiled by research teams at University of Hawai'i Mānoa and Institute for Language Information and Technology (LINGUIST List) at Eastern Michigan University
    2012. "Endangered Languages Catalogue Project. Compiled By Research Teams At University of Hawai'i Mānoa and Institute For Language Information and Technology (LINGUIST List) At Eastern Michigan University."
  2. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 16th Edition (2009)
    Lewis, M. Paul (ed.). 2009. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 16 edn. http://www.ethnologue.com/home.asp. (15 February, 2011.)
    http://www.ethnologue.com/
  3. Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger
    Moseley, Christopher (ed.). 2010. Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger, 3rd edn. http://www.unesco.org/culture/en/endangeredlanguages/atlas. (03 June, 2011.)
    http://www.unesco.org/culture/en/endangeredlanguages/atlas
  4. World Oral Literature Project
    "World Oral Literature Project." Online: http://www.oralliterature.org.
    http://www.oralliterature.org
  5. A sociolinguistic survey of the Mambay language of Chad and Cameroon
    Hamm, Cameron. 2002. "A Sociolinguistic Survey of the Mambay Language of Chad and Cameroon." In SIL Electronic Survey Reports, 2002-039: Online: http://www.sil.org/silesr/abstract.asp?ref=2002-039.
    http://www.sil.org/silesr/abstract.asp?ref=2002-039
  6. Illustrations of the IPA: Mambay
    Anonby, Erik John. 2006. "Illustrations of the IPA: Mambay." In Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 36: 221-233. Cambridge University Press.
  7. The World Atlas of Language Structures
    2005. "The World Atlas of Language Structures." edited by Bernard Comrie et al. Oxford University Press.
  8. The labial flap in Mambay: phonological rarity or fundamental element?
    Anonby, Erik John. 2007. "The Labial Flap in Mambay: Phonological Rarity or Fundamental Element?" In Journal of African languages and linguistics, 28 , no. 1: 1-18.
  9. Phonology and morphology of Mambay (Niger-Congo, Adamawa)
    Erik John Anonby. Phonology and Morphology of Mambay (Niger-Congo, Adamawa). PhD thesis, Leiden University, 2008. Online: https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/bitstream/handle/1887/13045/Complete%%20dissertation%%20submitted%%20for%%20defense.pdf?sequence=1.
    https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/bitstream/handle/1887/13045/Complete%%20dissertation%%20submitted%%20for%%20defense.pdf?sequence=1
  10. Esquisse de la langue mambai
    Eguchi, Paul Kazuhisa. 1971. "Esquisse De La Langue Mambai." In Kyoto Univ. African studies, 6: 139-194.