Psikyɛ dialect

Psikye (Psikya, Kapsiki) is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken in northern Cameroon and eastern Nigeria. Varieties include Psikyɛ and Zləngə. Blench (2006) classifies it as a dialect of Kamwe.^[2]

Psikye
Native to	Cameroon, Nigeria
Region	Far North Province, Adamawa State
Ethnicity	Kapsiki
Native speakers	(52,500 cited 1982–1992)[1]
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Chadic Biu–Mandara Bura–Higi Higi (A.3) Kamwe[2] Psikye
Language codes
ISO 639-3	kvj
Glottolog	psik1239

People	Kapsiki
Language	Margi

Names

In Cameroon, Psikya speakers use the name Margi to refer to their own language and its three varieties. The prefix ka-, in Kapsiki 'people', marks the plural ethnonym. It is called Higi in Nigeria.^[3]

Dialects

Psikyá covers the entire southwestern part of the arrondissement of Mokolo and Mogodé (department of Mayo-Tsanaga, Far North Region, Cameroon) along the Nigerian border, in the settlements of Roumzou, Mogode, and Roumsiki. The Sara people refer to them as Kamu.^[3]

Zléŋé and Wula are spoken in only two neighborhoods in the border village of Oula in Cameroon.^[3]

Writing system

A Psikyɛ spelling was developed by the Biblical Alliance of Cameroon and is used in the translation of the Bible into Psikyɛ, Ghena ta Shala, published in 1988.^[4] This uses several additional letters including in particular ⟨ɓ, ɗ, ə, ɛ, ŋ, ’⟩.

Notes

1. Psikye at Ethnologue (21st ed., 2018)
2. Blench, 2006. The Afro-Asiatic Languages: Classification and Reference List (ms)
3. Binam Bikoi, Charles, ed. (2012). Atlas linguistique du Cameroun (ALCAM) [Linguistic Atlas of Cameroon]. Atlas linguistique de l'Afrique centrale (ALAC) (in French). Vol. 1: Inventaire des langues. Yaoundé: CERDOTOLA. ISBN 9789956796069.
4. van Beek 2012, p. xi-xii.

• van Beek, W. E. A. (2012). The dancing dead : ritual and religion among the Kapsiki/Higi of north Cameroon and northeastern Nigeria. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199858163.