| Bikya | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spoken in | Cameroon | |
| Region | North West Province, Menchum Division, Furu-Awa Subdivision, Furubana village | |
| Total speakers | 1 (1986 Breton) | |
| Language family | Niger-Congo
|
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| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1 | None | |
| ISO 639-2 | bnt | |
| ISO 639-3 | byb | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. | ||
Bikya (also known as Furu) is a Bantoid language isolate spoken in Cameroon. It is unknown if this language is still existent. In 1986 four surviving speakers were identified, although only one (a man in his seventies) spoke the language fluently.
Bikya is probably best known for the work of English linguist Dr. David Dalby who filmed an 87-year-old African woman who spoke Bikya as her native tongue. All records indicate that she was the last fluent speaker of the tongue. The archival footage was shot to preserve the language before it was lost forever.
Bibliography
- Breton, Roland (1995) 'Les Furu et leur voisins', Cahier Sciences Humaines, 31, 1, 17–48.
- Breton, Roland (1993) "Is there a Furu Language Group? An investigation on the Cameroon-Nigeria Border", The Journal of West African Languages, 23, 2, 97–98.
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