Mungbam language

Mungbam
Abar
Missong
Native to	Cameroon
Native speakers	1,900 (2011)[1]
Language family	Niger–Congo Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Southern Bantoid ? Western Beboid Mungbam
Language codes
ISO 639-3	mij
Glottolog	abar1238[2]

Mungbam is a Southern Bantoid language of Cameroon. It is traditionally classified as a Western Beboid language, but that has not been demonstrated to be a valid family.

The language is spoken in five villages, Abar, Missong, Munken, Ngun, and Za’; speakers of each of these consider their speech to be distinct, so there is no name for the language as a whole. The village names Abar and Missong are sometimes used. The name "Mungbam" is a quasi-acronym of the village names. Good (2009) suggests using the word for 'mouth', Fən, as a name for the language, since that word is not shared with other Beboid languages, but as of 2012 supported 'Mungbam'.^[3]

References

1. Mungbam at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
2. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Abar". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

• Blench, Roger, 2011. 'The membership and internal structure of Bantoid and the border with Bantu'. Bantu IV, Humboldt University, Berlin.
• Good, Jeff, & Jesse Lovegren. 2009. 'Reassessing Western Beboid'. Bantu III.
• Good, Jeff, & Scott Farrar. 2008. 'Western Beboid and African language classification'. LSA.

External links

• Abar and Missong basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database
• ELAR archive of Ngun (a variety of Mungbam) language documentation materials