Introduction

 

The Bulu language of Cameroon is used by over 1,658,000 speakers. About 858,000 are mother-tongue speakers. They reside in Centre region: southern Upper Sanaga division, northern Nyong-and-Mfoumou division; East region: western tip Upper Nyong division; South region: northern Mvila and Dja-and-Lobo divisions, into Océan division.

The Bulu language is classified as Niger-Congo, Atlantic-Congo, Volta-Congo, Benue-Congo, Bantoid, Southern, Narrow Bantu, Northwest, A, Ewondo-Fang (A.74). The ISO code is [bum]. Boulou is an alternate spelling for the language.

This ethnic group originated in Nubia, a region between southern Egypt and central Sudan. They migrated to the centre province in Cameroon around 1883. A few years later Protestant missionaries promoted the language, setting up churches and schools. Now it is used as a language of wider communication throughout a vast region.

There are four dialects of Bulu: Yelinda, Yembana, Yengono, and Bene. This language is intelligible with Eton [eto], Ewondo [ewo], and Fang [fan] in the Beti group. The following languages use Bulu as their second language: Batanga [bnm], Elip [ekm], Gyele [gyi], Kol [biw], Kwasio [nmg], Mmaala [mmu], Swo [sox], Yangben [yav], and Yasa [yko].

A grammar was written on this language and the full Bible was completed in 2004, after having begun in 1940.