Esimbi | Ethnologue

A language of Cameroon

ISO 639: ags
Alternate Names: Aage, Age, Bogen, Bogue, Essimbi, Isimbi, Mburugam, Simpi
Autonym: Eshimbi
Population: 34,800 in Cameroon (2005 SIL), increasing.
Location:: North West region: Menchum division, Menchum Valley subdivision, from Benakuma into Nigeria.
Language Status: 6a (Vigorous).
Classification: Niger-Congo, Atlantic-Congo, Volta-Congo, Benue-Congo, Bantoid, Southern, Tivoid
Dialects: 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.