ISO 639-3 bmf | Native speakers a "few hundred" (2014) Glottolog bomm1240 | |
Language family Niger–CongoAtlantic–CongoMelBullom–KissiBullomNorthernBom | ||
The Bom language (alternates: Bome; Bomo) is an endangered language of Sierra Leone. It belongs to the Mel branch of the Niger–Congo language family and is particularly closely related to the Bullom So language. Most speakers are bilingual in Mende, and use of the Bom language is declining among members of the ethnic group.
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Speakers
There are about 250 speakers of Bom left, all of whom are over the age of 50. They have spread westward from their original location, and the language is today spoken west of the Wanje River.
Classification
Like Krim, to which it is closely related, Bom is a Northern Bullom language. Krim is sometimes considered to be a dialect of the same language, but speakers of these two languages consider them to be distinct from one another. The two Northern Bullom languages are further distinguished from the Southern Bullom language Sherbro, which is the most widely spoken of the Bullom languages.