Africa’s endangered languages

Africa comprises 54 countries, slightly over one billion people (2012 projections) and an estimated over 2,000 different spoken languages, making it the most linguistically diverse continent in the world. Other experts put the number at around 2,500 languages.

Linguists have noted that some languages are critically endangered and are disappearing, mainly through increasing assimilation by bigger language groups. According to Professor Okoth Okombo, a professor of Linguistics and Communication Skills at the University of Nairobi, Africa should worry when this happens.

“Language is like a reservoir of culture. Most of the cultural wealth of a community is stored in its language: their philosophy of life, their stories, their medicinal practices," said Prof Okombo.

“The death of a language is like the burning of a library.”

The expert adds that especially where there’s little or no literacy in the community, all the knowledge of its culture lies within the language.

Language death, however, does not mean that the ethnic speakers of the language have disappeared. It simply means that its speakers have shifted to speaking another (usually more dominant) language.

So what does it mean when a language is endangered?

Ethnologue states that a language may be endangered because there are fewer and fewer people who claim that language as their own and therefore neither use it nor pass it on to their children. It could also be endangered because it is being used for fewer and fewer daily activities.

In Africa, the rate of disappearing languages has accelerated because of official language policies that have been adopted by countries. Social situations are a factor too, where it may be considered prestigious to speak a global language, for example, English in East and southern Africa, and French in Francophone Africa.

According to UNESCO estimates, there are 231 extinct languages in the world. Of these, 37 are from sub-Saharan Africa. For example, the Zeem language in Nigeria, Berakou in Chad, Kwadi in Angola and Kw’adza in Tanzania are said to be among many that have become extinct in the last decade.

Nigeria and Cameroon have the highest number of critically endangered languages, according to Ethnologue, a comprehensive reference work cataloguing all of the world’s known living languages.

Africa Review, using research and data mined from UNESCO, Ethnologue and other literary sources compiled a list of some of the most endangered languages.

Nigeria

Ethnologue lists Nigeria as having 15 endangered languages, which is perhaps not surprising as it is the most linguistically rich country in Africa. UNESCO lists 14 as critically endangered, among them the Yangkam.

The Yangkam language is critically endangered, having only 100 speakers in 1996, and falling every year. Found in the Plateau state of Nigeria, it’s mostly those over 50 that still speak the language. Most indigenous Yangkam have shifted to speaking Hausa but maintain their Bashar identity. They are predominantly Muslim.

It is not clear how many speakers are left today.

Cameroon

Almost just as linguistically diverse as Nigeria, at 15, it has the highest number of critically endangered languages in Africa.

Of the critically endangered languages, Bikya and Bishuo are listed as having only one speaker left in 1986, therefore at the highest risk of extinction.

The rest include Akum, Bakole, Baldemu, Bung, Busuu, Cambap, Dimbong, Hijuk, Majera, Mono, Ndai, Njerep, Somyev and Zumaya.

Central African Republic

The country has three critically endangered languages, Birri, Bodo and Geme.

The Bodo, a language of the Bantu family, had 15 speakers left in 1996 and is nearly extinct. Located in the Haut-Mbomou Perfecture, Ethnologue reports that here were no more than three Bodo Bantu speakers per village.

Birri had 200 speakers left in 1996 while Geme had 500 in the same year.
Kenya

The East African country has three critically endangered languages left: The Yaaku, Elmolo and Omotik.

The Elmolo people live along the shores of Lake Turkana in the country’s north west. Matthias Brenzinger in the book Language Death suggests that their language was Cushitic in origin, but as they began to get assimilated by the neighbouring Samburu community, the language began to evolve into ElMolo-Samburu, a Nilotic blend of the two languages. According to Ethnologue, there were only eight speakers of this language left in 1994.

Also called ‘Mukogodo’, the Cushitic-affiliated Yaaku are a hunter-gatherer group that settled in the Mukogodo forest in Kenya. While transitioning from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to pastoralism, the group decided to give up their old language at the beginning of the 1930s in favour of Maaasai. The language shift, according to Brenzinger, happened for a couple of reasons.

Being hunter-gatherers, they lived on game and honey hunting, which brought them problems during the colonial period when hunting became ‘poaching’. Thus, it became unwise to identify themselves as hunters.

Another reason is because they did not own cattle, they were considered by the neighbouring Maasai as poor, primitive and ‘living like animals’. These prejudices led the Yaaku to want to assimilate into the Maasai community. Only 50 speakers were left as at 1983.

The Omotik are also in the Rift Valley and were absorbed by the neighbouring Maasai. It had 50 speakers left in 1980 and is nearly extinct.

Chad

Ethnologue lists the country as having six critically endangered languages: Berakou, Noy, Massalat, Buso, Mabire and Goundo. However, Berakou, which had two speakers left in 1995 (all above the age of 60) is now listed as extinct by UNESCO. Most of the Berakou shifted to Chadian Arabic, Babalia Creole Arabic or Kotoko languages.

Mabire, with a population of 3 speakers in 2001, is likely to be extinct soon.

African traditional dancers. Dance is one way of passing down African culture. AFP

Ethiopia

The country has 90 individual languages of which one, Ongota, is the most critically endangered. According to Ethnologue, it had eight speakers in 2007. Located in the southeast Omo region, the speakers are older adults who are not supportive of the language’s maintenance, nor are they passing it down to the younger generation.

Somalia

The country has 13 individual languages. One of these, Boon, is nearly extinct. Boon roughly translates to ‘alien’ or ‘inferior’. According to Bernhard Helander in his book Vulnerable Minorities in Somalia and Somaliland, the Boon were outsiders composed of different groups who were adopted by other clans.

Despite their full integration into their new clans, some were still regarded as second class citizens and were subject to some forms of prejudice. The Boon speakers were 59 as at 2000.

South Africa

Africa’s largest economy has 13 listed individual languages according to Ethnologue. Three of these, Korana, Xiri and N|u are critically endangered.

The N|u (or Khomani) are related to the Khoisan hunter-gatherer group. About six speakers are left in 2013. The younger generation speak Nama or Afrikaans. The Korana and Xiri are also related to the Khoisan.

Namibia

Namibian black German – This is a form of pidgin spoken by Namibians who worked for German colonial administrators but didn’t learn proper German. It is listed as a critically endangered language although it’s not clear how many speakers remain at present.

Email: lmukami@ke.nationmedia.com