Beboid languages

Infobox Language family
name=Beboid
region=Southwest Cameroon, southeast Nigeria
familycolor=Niger-Congo
fam2=Atlantic-Congo
fam3=Volta-Congo
fam4=Benue-Congo
fam5=Bantoid
fam6=Southern Bantoid

The Beboid languages are Southern Bantoid spoken principally in southwest Cameroon, although two languages are also spoken over the border in Nigeria.

Previous research includes a study of noun classes in Beboid languages by Jean-Marie Hombert (1980), Larry Hyman (1980, 1981), a dissertation by Richards (1991) concerning the phonology of three eastern Beboid languages (Noni, Ncane, and Nsari), Lux (2003) a Noni lexicon and Cox (2005) a phonology of Kemezung.

SIL International survey reports have provided more detail on Eastern and Western Beboid (Brye & Brye 2002, 2004; Hamm et al. 2002) and Hamm (2002) is a brief overview of the group as a whole. Despite the confident division into Eastern and Western Beboid espoused since Hombert (1980) it is not easy to find shared innovations that define these groups.

References

*Brye, Edward and Elizabeth Brye. 2002. "Rapid appraisal and intelligibility testing surveys of the Eastern Beboid group of languages (Northwest Province)." SIL Electronic Survey Reports 2002-019. http://www.sil.org/silesr/2002/019/
*Brye, Edward and Elizabeth Brye. 2004. "Intelligibility testing survey of Bebe and Kemezung and synthesis of sociolinguistic research of the Eastern Beboid cluster." SIL Electronic Survey Reports 2004-011: 18 p. http://www.sil.org/silesr/abstract.asp?ref=2004-011
*Cox, Bruce 2005. Notes on the Phonology of Kemezung. ms. Yaoundé: SIL
*Hamm, Cameron, Diller, J., Jordan-Diller, K. & F. Assako a Tiati 2002. A rapid appraisal survey of Western Beboid languages (Menchum Division, Northwest Province). SIL Electronic Survey Reports 2002-014. http://www.sil.org/silesr/2002/014/
*Hamm, C. 2002. Beboid Language Family of Cameroon and Nigeria: Location and Genetic Classification. SIL Electronic Survey Reports 2002
*Hombert, Jean-Marie. 1980. Noun Classes of the Beboid Languages. In Noun classes in the Grassfields Bantu borderland, SCOPIL 8. Los Angeles: University of Southern California.
*Hyman, Larry M. 1980. Noni (Misaje group). L’expansion bantou. Paris: SELAF (no. special 9), 259–274.
*Hyman, Larry M. 1981. Noni grammatical structure, with special reference to verb morphology. Southern California: Occasional Papers in Linguistics 9. Los Angeles: University of Southern California.
*Lux, David 2003. Noni provisional lexicon. ms. Yaoundé: SIL
*Richards, Russell M. 1991. Phonologie de trois langues beboides du Cameroun: Noone, Ncanti et Sari. Thèse pour le doctorat (Arrête du 23 Novembre 1988), Livres I. et II. Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris III.