Baka (Far North Region, Cameroon)
Classification: Afro-Asiatic
·severely endangered
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Severely endangered
80 percent certain, based on the evidence available
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140
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652
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0
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"A sociolinguistic survey was conducted of all households in the Baka-speaking settlements... There are some 115 households which at least claim part Baka ethnicity, or in which there is at least one competent speaker. These households contain some 652 individuals. There are 10 households where all members are Baka speakers, but 9 of these contain only one person, usually an aging widow, and the tenth only two people. In these households there are 140 Baka speakers."
- DATE OF INFO
- 2009
- SPEAKER NUMBER TRENDS
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- TRANSMISSION
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- MORE ON VITALITY
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"The age range of Baka speakers is 15-90; with a significant bias towards the upper end of the age range. Estimations of the age of speakers above sixty must be taken as approximate. The mean age of speakers is 39.7 years but there are no speakers at all aged 14 and below... [Baka is] in imminent danger of disappearing."
- OTHER LANGUAGES USED BY THE COMMUNITY
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Muyang
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Mandara
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Fulfulde
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French
- LANGUAGE CONTEXT COMMENTS
"All Baka speakers are fluent in Muyang... Apart from Muyang, Baka speakers are typical familiar with the two main vehicular languages of the region, Mandara and Fulfulde. Some French is known to a few individuals, as well as to schoolchildren who by and large do not speak Baka, however."
- PLACES
- Cameroon
- LOCATION DESCRIPTION
"Far North Province, Mayo-Sava Division, northeast of Tokombere, Muyang, Mougouba, Gouadagouada, and Palbarar massifs... By some irony, the Baka language is no longer spoken in the village of that name except by a few older speakers in Muyang households. The main settlements where some Baka speakers live are Həmasək, Kablagaka, Akormagara, Koselbey, Demsa, Baka, Dakazlala, Makilŋgay, Yam Agda and Poŋ. Settlement is very dispersed in this region and these are in reality hamlets with a just a few compounds."