Tivoid languages

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Tivoid languages are a group of African languages, a sub-family of the Southern Bantoid group, spoken in parts of Nigeria and Cameroon. SIL Ethnologue lists 17 Tivoid languages:

  • Abon [abo] (Nigeria)
  • Esimbi [ags] (Cameroon)
  • Ambo [amb] (Nigeria)
  • Ipulo [ass] (Cameroon)
  • Iceve-Maci [bec] (Cameroon)
  • Balo [bqo] (Cameroon)
  • Bitare [brt] (Nigeria)
  • Batu [btu] (Nigeria)
  • Evant [bzz] (Nigeria)
  • Caka [ckx] (Cameroon)
  • Eman [emn] (Cameroon)
  • Mesaka [iyo] (Cameroon)
  • Manta [myg] (Cameroon)
  • Osatu [ost] (Cameroon)
  • Tiv [tiv] (Nigeria)
  • Iyive [uiv] (Cameroon)
  • Otank [uta] (Nigeria)

The majority of these are threatened with extinction. The largest of these languages by far is the Tiv language for which the group is named, with some 2 million speakers (as of 1991). The second largest is the Bitare language with some 110,000 speakers (as of 2000).


[edit] References