Bulu language

Not to be confused with Bulu language (Oceanic).
Bulu
Bulu-Bene
Region Cameroon
Native speakers
860,000 (2007)[1]
Dialects
Bulu
Bene
Language codes
ISO 639-3 bum
Glottolog bulu1251[2]
A.74[3]

Bulu is the language of the Bulu people of Cameroon. The language had 174,000 native speakers in 1982, with some 800,000 second language speakers in 1991. Colonial and missionary groups formerly used Bulu as a lingua franca in the region for commercial, educational, and religious purposes, though it is today becoming less frequent in those spheres. Dialects include Bene, Yelinda, Yembana, Yengono, and Zaman.

Bulu speakers are concentrated primarily in Cameroon's South Province, with the largest number at Ebolowa and Sangmélima. Some speakers live in the Nyong-et-Mfoumou division of the Centre and the Haut-Nyong division of the East.

Bulu is a Bantu language. It is a dialect of the Beti language and is intelligible with Eton, Ewondo, and Fang.

References

  1. Bulu at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Bulu (Cameroon)". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
  3. Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online


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