The Adamawa languages are a putative family of 80 to 90 languages scattered across the Adamawa Plateau in Central Africa, in northern Cameroon, north western Central African Republic, southern Chad and eastern Nigeria, spoken altogether by only one and a half million people. Joseph Greenberg classified them as one branch of the Adamawa-Ubangi family of Niger-Congo languages. They are among the least studied languages in Africa and include many endangered languages; by far the largest is Mumuye, with 400,000 speakers.
Facts
Disputed
Proto-Language StatusGenetic unity is itself disputed, not merely the proto-language: Roger Blench (2012) treats Adamawa as a geographic grouping rather than a valid family and redistributes its branches into his proposed Savannas family, so no family-wide proto-language is reconstructed or claimed. 1 Partially Attested
Speaker CountAggregate figure as of 1996 across all 80 to 90 constituent languages; the largest single language, Mumuye, alone accounts for 400,000 of the total. RegionScattered across the Adamawa Plateau in Central Africa: northern Cameroon, north-western Central African Republic, southern Chad and eastern Nigeria. 1 Sources
1. Wikipedia: Adamawa Languages
Wikimedia FoundationIntroduction
spoken altogether by only one and a half million people (as of 1996)
Classification, Blench (2012, 2020) subsection
Roger Blench (2012) concludes that the Adamawa languages are a geographic grouping, not a language family, and breaks up its various branches in his proposed Savannas family.
Introduction, opening sentence
The Adamawa languages are a putative family of 80-90 languages scattered across the Adamawa Plateau in Central Africa, in northern Cameroon, north-western Central African Republic, southern Chad, and eastern Nigeria.
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