Grassfields languages
The Grassfields languages are a branch of Benue–Congo spoken in the Western High Plateau of Cameroon and a sister group to the Bantu languages. Better known Grassfields languages include the Eastern Grassfields languages Bamun, Yamba and Bamileke and the Ring language Kom. The languages are closely related, sharing approximately half of their vocabulary.
Classifications
The Grassfields languages were previously known as Grassfields Bantu and Semi-Bantu. They are sometimes classified on two levels, Wide Grassfields, which includes all the languages, and Narrow Grassfields, which excludes Menchum, Ambele and sometimes the Southwest Grassfields languages. These may form a group of their own, which Nurse calls Peripheral Grassfields but rejects.Blench notes there is little evidence for the traditional assumption that the non-Western Momo languages belong in Grassfields and that they may actually be closer to the poorly established Tivoid group; Western Momo is therefore renamed Southwest Grassfields to avoid confusion, and only Menchum and Ambele are left out of Narrow Grassfields. The classification of Amebele is unclear, though it is clearly divergent, and Menchum may be closer to the Tivoid languages. Blench suggests that Western Beboid may belong in Grassfields. Blench adds Momo as a Narrow Grassfields subgroup.
- Narrow Grassfields
- *Ring
- *Eastern Grassfields
- *Momo
- *? Ndemli
- *Southwest Grassfields
- ? Ambele
- ? Menchum
- ? Western Beboid
The Eastern Grassfields languages share nasal noun-class prefixes with the Bantu languages, which are not found in the other branches of Grassfields. However, they appear to be more closely related to the rest of Grassfields than they are to Bantu.
Names and locations (Nigeria)
Below is a list of Grassfields language names, populations, and locations from Blench.| Language | Cluster | Alternate spellings | Own name for language | Endonym | Other names | Other names for language | Exonym | Speakers | Location |
| Yamba | Yamba | Mbem | Kaka | few in Nigeria; 25,000 in Cameroon | Taraba State, Sardauna, Gashaka LGAs, Antere and other border villages; mainly spoken in Cameroon | ||||
| LamNsọ | Lam–Nsaw, Lam–Nsọ | Lam–Nsọ’ | Nsọ, Nsaw | 125,000 in Cameroon | Taraba State, Sarduana LGA, at Gembu and nearby towns; Takum LGA at Manya; mainly spoken in Cameroon | ||||
| Limbum | Limbum | Wimbum | few in Nigeria; 73,000 in Cameroon | Taraba State, Sardauna LGA, Mambila uplands, mainly in Cameroon | |||||
| Dzodinka | Adiri, Adere | Taraba State, Sardauna LGA; also in Cameroon: a single village on the border |