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Language Information By Source

Mabire: A Dying Language of Chad
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Critically Endangered

Native Speakers Worldwide

~5

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

~5

Ethnic Population

No data

Non-monolingual speakers

Majority speak Kofa and Chadian Arabic

More about speakers

"The existence of Mabire was first mentioned to Dr. James Roberts (SIL) during an interview he had in 1993 with some Kofa men in the town of Mongo in central Chad. Additional information collected in January 2001 by SIL's language survey team (consisting of Eric Johnson, Noelle Hutchinson, Susanne Malander, and Calvain Mberjodji) confirms its existence as a distinct and endangered language. Mabire is now only spoken by a few older people, in the Guera province of Chad (Bidiyo canton, Mongo-Rural subprefecture). Word list comparison results show a relatively close lexical simliarity to the Jegu dialect of Mogum, though not close enough to suspect intercomprehension. The Mabire-speaking community appears to have disbanded following a devastating epidemic, and the survivors have been assimilated into neighboring speech communities. Word list."

Year of info

2002

Location and Context

Countries

No data

Coordinates

No data

Location description

"Probably within the last fifty years, the Mabire were all together in four large villages near Mount Mabire. Their villages were named Amdjaména, Arga, Mambire (which later divided into Antéréné and Berouet), and Milaal. Moussa Duwane, the Mabire interviewed in Mongo, claims that Arga and Milaal did not speak the Mabire language, rather they spoke Bidiyo-Tounkoul and Chadian Arabic but were united to the other Mabire villages by the canton chief. According to Terab and Balha, the ancestors of the Mabire came from a village named Mabir, which they said was “7 km west of Baro” (Dadjo II canton, Mangalmé subprefecture). The map prepared by Chad's Bureau Central de Recensement shows a village around seven km northwest of Baro, named Mabar, which the Migaama people consider to be the original Migaama village and is currently entirely peopled by Migaama speakers (William Chesley, personal communication)."

Government support

No data

Institutional support

No data

Speakers' attitudes

No data

Standard orthography

No data

Script (Writing system)

No data

Other writing systems

"Probably within the last fifty years, the Mabire were all together in four large villages near Mount Mabire. Their villages were named Amdjaména, Arga, Mambire (which later divided into Antéréné and Berouet), and Milaal. Moussa Duwane, the Mabire interviewed in Mongo, claims that Arga and Milaal did not speak the Mabire language, rather they spoke Bidiyo-Tounkoul and Chadian Arabic but were united to the other Mabire villages by the canton chief. According to Terab and Balha, the ancestors of the Mabire came from a village named Mabir, which they said was “7 km west of Baro” (Dadjo II canton, Mangalmé subprefecture). The map prepared by Chad's Bureau Central de Recensement shows a village around seven km northwest of Baro, named Mabar, which the Migaama people consider to be the original Migaama village and is currently entirely peopled by Migaama speakers (William Chesley, personal communication)."

More on writing systems

No data

Other languages used

Kofa, Chadian Arabic

Domains of other languages

All others

More on context

No data

Critically Endangered

Native Speakers Worldwide

3

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

12.1682,18.7275

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

Critically Endangered

Native Speakers Worldwide

3

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

3 (2001 SIL)

Year of info

2009

Location and Context

Countries

Chad;

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

Critically Endangered

Native Speakers Worldwide

3

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

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  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. Mabire: A Dying Language of Chad
    Johnson, Eric and Cameron Hamm. 2002. "Mabire: A Dying Language of Chad." SIL International.
  3. 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/
  4. 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
  5. World Oral Literature Project
    "World Oral Literature Project." Online: http://www.oralliterature.org.
    http://www.oralliterature.org