Bikya language

Bikya
Furu
Native to Cameroon
Region North West Province, Menchum Division, Furu-Awa Subdivision, Furubana village
Native speakers
probably extinct (date missing)
Language codes
ISO 639-3 byb
Glottolog biky1238[1]

Bikya (also known as Furu) is an extinct Southern Bantoid language spoken in Cameroon. In 1986 four surviving speakers were identified, although only one (a man in his seventies) spoke the language fluently.

Bikya is probably best known for the work of English linguist Dr. David Dalby who filmed an 87-year-old African woman who spoke Bikya as her native tongue. It was thought that she was the last speaker, but Kiessling (2007) reports that Bikya has the largest number of remaining speakers of the Furu languages.

It, and presumably all of Furu, is perhaps a Beboid language (Blench 2011).

Bibliography

References

  1. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Bikya". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.


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