Ethnicity Kwasio, Gyele Pygmies | ||
Native to Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea Region along and near the coast at the border between Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea Native speakers (26,000 cited 1982–2012) Language family Niger–Congo
Atlantic–Congo
Benue–Congo
Bantu (Zone A)
Makaa–Njem + Kako (A.80–90)
Mvumboic
Kwasio Dialects Kwasio
Mvumbo
Mabi
Gyele
Kola | ||
The Kwasio language, also known as Ngumba / Mvumbo, Bujeba, and Gyele / Kola, is a language of Cameroon, spoken in the south along the coast and at the border with Equatorial Guinea by some 70 000 members of the Ngumba, Kwasio, Gyele and Mabi peoples. Many authors view Kwasio and the Gyele/Kola language as distinct. In the Ethnologue, the languages therefore receive different codes: Kwasio has the ISO 639-3 code nmg, while Gyele has the code gyi. The Kwasio, Ngumba, and Mabi are village farmers; the Gyele (also known as the Kola or Koya) are nomadic Pygmy hunter-gatherers living in the rain forest.
Dialects are Kwasio (a.k.a. Kwassio, Bisio), Mvumbo (a.k.a. Ngumba, Ngoumba, Mgoumba, Mekuk), and Mabi (Mabea). The Gyele speak the subdialects of Mvumbo, Gyele in the north and Kola a.k.a. Koya in the south, variously spelled Giele, Gieli, Gyeli, Bagiele, Bagyele, Bajele, Bajeli, Bogyel, Bogyeli, Bondjiel and Likoya, Bako, Bakola, Bakuele, also Bekoe. The local derogatory term for pygmies, Babinga, is also used. Glottolog adds Shiwa.
Kwasio is a tonal language. As a Bantu language, it has noun class system. The Kwasio noun class system is somewhat reduced, having retained only 6 genders (a gender being a pairing of a singular and a plural noun class).