Mboteni language

{{Short description|Endangered Rio Nunez language of Guinea}} {{Infobox language |name=Mboteni |nativename=Baga Pokur |states=Guinea |region=coastal villages of Binari and Mboteni |ethnicity=3000 (no date) |speakers=3,700 |date=2015 |ref=e25 |familycolor=Niger-Congo |fam2=? Atlantic–Congo |fam3=Rio Nunez |dia1=Baga Mboteni |dia2=Baga Binari |iso3=bcg |glotto=baga1275 |glottorefname=Pukur |script=Unwritten }}

'''Mboteni''', also known as '''Baga Mboteni''', '''Baga Binari''',<ref name="Wilson"/> 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.<ref name="fields2004">Fields, E. L. (2004). Before" Baga": Settlement Chronologies of the Coastal Rio Nunez Region, Earliest Times to C. 1000 CE. International Journal of African Historical Studies, 229-253.</ref>

Pokur has lost the noun-class concord found in its relatives.<ref name="wilson1961">Wilson, W. A. A. (1961). Numeration in the Languages of Guiné. Africa, 31(04), 372-377.</ref>

==Geographical distribution== According to Fields (2008:33-34), 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.<ref name="Fields08">Fields-Black, Edda L. 2008. ''Deep Roots: Rice Farmers in West Africa and the African Diaspora''. (Blacks in the Diaspora.) Bloomington: Indiana University Press.</ref><ref name=e25/>

Wilson (2007), based on his field reports from the 1950s, reported that Baga Mboteni (called ''Pukur'' by the speakers) was spoken on Binari Island by two clans that were hostile to each other.<ref name="Wilson">Wilson, William André Auquier. 2007. ''Guinea Languages of the Atlantic group: description and internal classification''. (Schriften zur Afrikanistik, 12.) Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.</ref>

==Classification== As one of the two Rio Nunez languages of Guinea, its closest relative is Mbulungish.<ref name="Guldemann">{{Cite book|title=The Languages and Linguistics of Africa|last=Güldemann|first=Tom|editor-last=Güldemann|editor-first=Tom|publisher=De Gruyter Mouton|chapter=Historical linguistics and genealogical language classification in Africa|year=2018|isbn=978-3-11-042606-9|doi=10.1515/9783110421668-002|location=Berlin|pages=58–444|series=The World of Linguistics series|volume=11|s2cid=133888593 }}</ref>

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.<ref name="fields2004"/>

==Phonology== {| class="wikitable" |+Consonants<ref name="Wilson"/> ! !Labial !Alveolar !Palatal !Velar |- !Plosive |{{IPA link|p}} {{IPA link|b}} |{{IPA link|t}} {{IPA link|d}} |{{IPA link|c}} {{IPA link|ɟ}} |{{IPA link|k}} {{IPA link|g}} |- !Fricative |{{IPA link|f}} |{{IPA link|s}} | |{{IPA link|x}} |- !Nasal |{{IPA link|m}} |{{IPA link|n}} |{{IPA link|ɲ}} |{{IPA link|ŋ}} |- !Approximant |{{IPA link|w}} |{{IPA link|r}}, {{IPA link|l}} |{{IPA link|j}} | |} {| class="wikitable" |+Vowels<ref name="Wilson"/> ! !Front !Central !Back |- !High |{{IPA link|i}} | |{{IPA link|u}} |- !Mid-high |{{IPA link|e}} |{{IPA link|ə}} |{{IPA link|o}} |- !Mid-low |{{IPA link|ɛ}} | |{{IPA link|ɔ}} |- !Low | |{{IPA link|a}} | |} ==References== {{Reflist}}

==Further reading== *{{citation | url = http://www.gowestafrica.org/peoplegroups/resources/149/baga_mboteni_en.pdf | publisher = Go West Africa | year = 2009 | title = Baga Mboteni Profile | access-date = February 12, 2015}} *Fields-Black, E. L. (2008). Deep Roots: Rice Farmers in West Africa and the African Diaspora. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

==External links== * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsJI7r7zkA0 * [http://www.endangeredlanguages.com/profile/14903 Endangered Languages Project Profile for Baga Mboteni]

Category:Senegambian languages Category:Languages of Guinea