Mafa
The major Chadic language of the Mandara Mountains, around Mokolo
Family : Afro-Asiatic, Chadic, Biu-Mandara (Mafa group)
Speakers : About 136,000 speakers in Cameroon according to the Linguistic Atlas of Cameroon (2012); about 150,000 according to Barreteau and Le Bléis's lexicon (1990).
Also called : Matakam
Where and by whom it is spoken
Mafa is the language of the Mafa people, in the Mayo-Tsanaga division of the Far North region, from Mokolo northwards; it is also spoken in neighbouring Nigeria. Long called "Matakam" in written sources, a name its speakers consider improper, it belongs to the Mafa group, which brings together eighteen languages of the northern Mandara Mountains. It has three dialects: the western one (Magoumaz), the central one (Mokolo, Koza, Soulédé), understood by all, and the eastern one (Roua).
History and writing
According to Barreteau and Le Bléis, the language long remained almost unknown to linguists: before their work, the only resources were a vocabulary by G. Lavergne (1949), a glossary from the Catholic Mission of Djinglia (1965) and a work from the Protestant Mission in Mokolo (1978). Their "Lexique mafa", published in 1990 by Orstom, has about 4,000 words and follows the spelling rules agreed with the Mafa Language Committee. It is a language with two tones, high and low.
Where to hear it today
- The everyday language of the Mandara Mountains, west of Maroua, also home to other peoples such as the Kapsiki.
- A written language: the 1990 lexicon was designed to help the Mafa learn to read and write their language alongside French.
What sources disagree on
The total varies depending on whether speakers in Nigeria are counted: Ethnologue, cited by English Wikipedia, gives about 215,000 speakers in 2005 for both countries.