Bebe (Naami)

Bebe is member of the Eastern Beboid group of Southern Bantoid languages. It is spoken by about 3,600 people in the Misaje subdivision in the east of the Donga-Mantung Division in the northeast of the North West Region of Cameroon. In particular, it is spoken in the villages of Bebekette (Bimbua), Bebejatto (Bewu) in the northwest of the Misaje subdivision. There are also speakers of Bebe in other parts of Cameroon, particularly in the South West Region.

Bebe is also known as Naami or Yi-Binang. Each village has its own variety of Bebe: the Bebe spoken in Bebjato is called Yi-Bewu, and the Bebe spoken in Bebekette is known as Yi-Bimbua. Bebe is spoken by people of all ages in homes, churches and at community events. Bebe people mainly use Cameroonian Pidgin English to communicate with neighbouring peoples.

Ways to write Bebe with the Latin alphabet were first developed in the 1950s. The current spelling system was developed in the 2010s.

Bebe alphabet

Download an alphabet chart for Bebe (Excel)
Details of the Bebe alphabet (PDF) provided by Wolfram Siegel

Notes

Long vowels are doubled (ii)
In ideophones (words that sound like the thing or action they describe), vowels or syllables can be trebled, e.g. ŋaaaŋ = the sound of a baby crying, waaa = the sound of running water, and kpaŋkpaŋkpaŋ = the sound of a bell.
Consonants followed by i are palatalized, e.g. pi [pʲ]
Consonants followed by w are labialized, e.g. kw [kʷ]
Bebe has nine tones. However, they are not usually marked in writing, unless not doing so would result in confusion.

Sample text

Mbɛɛ ju ma duŋ bə chɛɛ wu lə lɔ. Lɔ nu ma duŋ bə bəkwɛ bə fwɛ. Ə chu bɔju bəkwɛ bə lɔ bəŋ je te cha mi. Lɔ ma duŋna bə kinࠛŋ gbaaŋ i yɔ lə yu gəŋ gbɛŋ, i ya chu kwələ bəkwɛ bə bwela bɔni bəkwɛ.

Source: Nchee Bə Mbieŋ Naami (Naami Reading and Writing Book)

Sample videos

Links

Information about Bebe
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bebe_language
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naami
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bebe_(Sprache)
https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/bebe1250
http://www.language-archives.org/language/bzv
https://www.sil.org/resources/search/language/bzv

Bantoid languages

Abon, Bafanji, Bebe, Bekwarra, Daka, Ipulo, Isu, Jagham, Jarawa, Kemezung, Kenyang, Ki, Koshin, Kung, Mambila, Mbe, Mbuʼ, Medumba, Metaʼ, Mundabli-Mufu, Mundani, Pinyin, Tiv, Yambeta

Languages written with the Latin alphabet

Page created on 28.01.26. Last modified: 20.04.26

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