Esimbi

Upper Esimbi, Lower Esimbi. 100% mutual intelligibility between Upper and Lower Esimbi. Lexical similarity: 35% with Balo [bqo], Ipulo [ass], Iceve-Maci [bec], Caka [ckx], Eman [emn], and Osatu [ost].

Typology

SVO; prepositions; noun head initial; 14 noun classes; content question word in sentence-final position; up to 3 prefixes; up to 1 suffix; no passives; 30 consonant phonemes; 8 vowel phonemes; 5 tones.

Language Use

Vigorous, but children growing up in English- or French-speaking areas do not learn L1 well. Home, neighborhood, market, work, church. Used by all. Positive attitudes. Most also use Cameroon Pidgin [wes]. Some also use Aghem [agq]. A few also use English [eng]. Used as L2 by Mesaka [iyo].

Language Development

Literacy rate in L2: 10%. Literature. Radio. Bible portions: 2018.

Language Resources

OLAC resources in and about Esimbi

Writing

Latin script [Latn].

Other Comments

Traditional religion, Christian.