Massa
The language of the herders and fishermen of the Logone, around Yagoua
Family : Afro-Asiatic, Chadic (Masa group)
Speakers : About 103,000 speakers in Cameroon according to the Linguistic Atlas of Cameroon (2012); between 200,000 and 342,000 in total including Chad, depending on the source.
Also called : Masana, Masa
Where and by whom it is spoken
Massa, which its speakers call Masana, is a Chadic language spoken by the Massa people along the Logone River, in Chad and Cameroon. In Cameroon it covers the south of the Mayo-Danay division, in the Far North: the Yagoua, Kalfou, Wina, Yele and Guéré subdivisions. Its varieties range from Yagwa, around Yagoua, to Gizay, around Guéré; Muzuk, long attributed to another language, also belongs to it.
History and writing
Massa is written in the Latin alphabet. In 1984 the Yagoua rice-growing development company (Semry) published a Massa primer. In 2001 the Bible Society of Cameroon published a New Testament in Masana, in a revised spelling that uses the letters ɓ, ɗ and ŋ.
Where to hear it today
- A language of worship, both Catholic and Protestant, in Cameroon.
- The language of the guruna, a pastoral retreat centred on cattle among the Massa, inscribed by UNESCO on the intangible cultural heritage list in December 2025, on a joint nomination by Cameroon and Chad.
- A language adopted by others: the Viri, or Wina, of Tupuri origin, now speak a dialect of Massa.
A few words
- guruna
- The young people's annual pastoral retreat with the cattle, away from the village.
What sources disagree on
The total number of speakers varies widely: about 200,000 according to English Wikipedia, 233,000 according to French Wikipedia, 342,000 according to Ethnologue. The position of Massa within the Chadic languages is also disputed.