Oblo is a poorly attested, unclassified, and possibly extinct language of northern Cameroon. It is, or was, spoken in a tiny area including Gobtikéré, Ouro Bé, and Ouro Badjouma, in Pitoa, Bénoué Department.
| Oblo | |
|---|---|
| Region | Cameroon |
Native speakers | Nearly extinct[1] |
| Unwritten | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | obl |
| Glottolog | oblo1238 |
| ELP | Oblo |
Eldridge Mohammadou located Olbo around Bé, at the confluence of the Benue River and Kebi River, in Bibemi commune.[2] However, ALCAM (2012), following Ethnologue, reports that Oblo was spoken near Tcholliré in Mayo-Rey department, Northern Region.[3] Oblo is known only from eight words collected by Kurt Strümpell in the early 1900s.[2]
Oblo has been classified as one of the Adamawa languages, but it has not been included in recent classifications.[2] It might be best left unclassified altogether.[4]
Further reading
edit- Mohammadou, Eldridge. 1983. Peuples et Royaumes du Foumbina. In African Languages and Ethnography XVII. Morimichi Tomikawa, ed. Japan: Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA).
- Mohammadou, Eldridge. 1979. Les Yillaga de la Bénoué: Ray ou Rey-Bouba. Paris: CNRS.
- Mohammadou, Eldridge. 1980. Garoua: Tradition historique d’une cité peule du Nord-Cameroun. Paris: CNRS.
- Mohammadou, Eldridge. 1983. Peuples et Etats du Foumbina et de l’Adamawa. (Traduction d’études par K. Strümpell et von Briesen). Yaoundé.
- Strümpell, Kurt, and Bernard Struck. 1910. “Vergleichendes Wörterverzeichnis der Heidensprachen Adamauas”. Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 42 (314):444–448. (“Vocabulairecomparé des langues des païens de l’Adamaoua”)
- Struempell, Kurt. 1912. “Die Geschichte Adamauas nach mündlichen Ueberlieferungen”. Mitt. Geogr. Gesellschaft in Hamburg 26:46–107.
References
edit- ^ Oblo at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ a b c Ayotte, Michael and Charlene Ayotte. 2002. Sociolinguistic Language Survey of Dama, Mono, Pam, Ndai, and Oblo. SIL International.
- ^ Binam Bikoi, Charles, ed. (2012). Atlas linguistique du Cameroun (ALCAM) [Linguistic Atlas of Cameroon]. Atlas linguistique de l'Afrique centrale (ALAC) (in French). Vol. 1: Inventaire des langues. Yaoundé: CERDOTOLA. ISBN 9789956796069.
- ^ "Towards a new classification of African languages", Linguistic Contribution to the History of Sub-Saharan Africa, University of Lyons
