Birri language
| Birri | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Central African Republic |
| Ethnicity | 5,000 in CAR (1996)[1] |
Native speakers | (200 cited 1996)[2] extinct in South Sudan (1993)[2] |
Nilo-Saharan?
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | bvq |
| Glottolog | birr1240 |
| ELP | Birri |
Birri (Bviri) is a nearly extinct, possibly Central Sudanic language[3] of CAR and South Sudan. According to Boyeldieu (2010), its classification as Central Sudanic has yet to be demonstrated,[4] but Starostin (2016) finds its closest relative to be Kresh.
There are two main varieties of Birri, Mboto and Munga. In 1911, a few thousand people were reported in Rafaï, Central African Republic, with a marginal population further to the east in Obo. Stefano Santandrea (1966) wrote a lexicon and grammatical sketch of the Mboto dialect in Deim Zubeir, South Sudan.[5]
See also
- Birri word list (Wiktionary)
References
- ^ Birri language[dead link] at Ethnologue (14th ed., 2000).
- ^ a b Birri at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ Blench, Roger (2012). Nilo-Saharan language listing (Draft) (PDF). p. 4.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Glottologwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Santandrea, Stefano. 1966. The Birri language: Brief elementary notes. Afrika und Übersee 49. 81‒234.
- Roger Blench (2012) Nilo-Saharan language listing