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Psikyɛ dialect

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Psikye
Native toCameroon, Nigeria
RegionFar North Province, Adamawa State
EthnicityKapsiki
Native speakers
(52,500 cited 1982–1992)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3kvj
Glottologpsik1239
PeopleKapsiki
LanguageMargi

Psikye (Psikya, Kapsiki) is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken in northern Cameroon and eastern Nigeria. Varieties include Psikyɛ and Zləngə. Blench (2006) classifies it as a dialect of Kamwe.[2]

Names

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In Cameroon, Psikya speakers use the name Margi to refer to their own language and its three varieties. The prefix ka-, in Kapsiki 'people', marks the plural ethnonym. It is called Higi in Nigeria.[3]

Dialects

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Psikyá covers the entire southwestern part of the arrondissement of Mokolo and Mogodé (department of Mayo-Tsanaga, Far North Region, Cameroon) along the Nigerian border, in the settlements of Roumzou, Mogode, and Roumsiki. The Sara people refer to them as Kamu.[3]

Zléŋé and Wula are spoken in only two neighborhoods in the border village of Oula in Cameroon.[3]

Writing system

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A Psikyɛ spelling was developed by the Biblical Alliance of Cameroon and is used in the translation of the Bible into Psikyɛ, Ghena ta Shala, published in 1988.[4] This uses several additional letters including in particular ⟨ɓ, ɗ, ə, ɛ, ŋ, ’⟩.

Notes

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  1. ^ Psikye at Ethnologue (21st ed., 2018) Closed access icon
  2. ^ a b Blench, 2006. The Afro-Asiatic Languages: Classification and Reference List (ms)
  3. ^ a b c 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.
  4. ^ van Beek 2012, p. xi-xii.
  • van Beek, W. E. A. (2012). The dancing dead : ritual and religion among the Kapsiki/Higi of north Cameroon and northeastern Nigeria. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199858163.