Baguirmi language

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Baguirmi ɓarma
Spoken in:	Chad, Nigeria
Total speakers:	44,761
Language family:	Nilo-Saharan Central Sudanic Western Bongo-Bagirmi Sara-Bagirmi Bagirmi group Baguirmi
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	`ssa`
ISO 639-3:	`bmi`
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Baguirmi (autonym: ɓarma) is the language of the Baguirmi people of Chad, belonging to the Nilo-Saharan family. It is spoken by 44,761 people (as of 1993), mainly in the Chari-Baguirmi Prefecture. It was the language of the kingdom of Baguirmi.

Baguirmi was given written form, and texts providing basic literacy instruction were composed through the efforts of Don and Orpha Raun late in their Chadian careers, during the 1990s. A font to support the Baguirmi alphabet, and a Keyman input method for Latin keyboards, were developed by Anthony Kimball in 2003, and the body of published Baguirmi literature continues to expand. The majority of this literature is distributed in Chad by David Raun at a token cost, as a service to the Baguirmi-speaking peoples of Chad.