Mboteni language


Mboteni or Baga Pokur is an endangered Rio Nunez language spoken in the coastal Rio Nunez region of Guinea. Speakers who have gone to school or work outside their villages are bilingual in Pokur and the Mande language Susu.
Pokur has lost the noun-class concord found in its relatives.

Geographical distribution

According to Fields, Mboteni is spoken exclusively in the two villages of Mboteni and Binari on a peninsula south of the mouth of the Nunez River. Mboteni speakers are surrounded by Sitem speakers.

Classification

As one of the two Rio Nunez languages of Guinea, its closest relative is Mbulungish.
Despite the name, Baga Mboteni is not one of the Baga languages, though speakers are ethnically Baga. The language is instead most closely related to Nalu and Mbulungish, though it shares a low percentage of cognate vocabulary with them.