Bikya language

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bikya
Spoken in	Cameroon
Region	North West Province, Menchum Division, Furu-Awa Subdivision, Furubana village
Total speakers	1 (1986 Breton)
Language family	Niger-Congo Atlantic-Congo Benue-Congo Bantoid Bikya
Language codes
ISO 639-1	None
ISO 639-2	bnt
ISO 639-3	byb
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Bikya (also known as Furu) is a Bantoid language isolate spoken in Cameroon. It is unknown if this language is still existent. 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. All records indicate that she was the last fluent speaker of the tongue. The archival footage was shot to preserve the language before it was lost forever.

[edit] Bibliography

• Breton, Roland (1995) 'Les Furu et leur voisins', Cahier Sciences Humaines, 31, 1, 17–48.
• Breton, Roland (1993) "Is there a Furu Language Group? An investigation on the Cameroon-Nigeria Border", The Journal of West African Languages, 23, 2, 97–98.

This Cameroon-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v • d • e

This Niger-Congo languages-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v • d • e