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Musgu is a cluster of closely related language varieties of the Biu–Mandara subgroup of the Chadic languages spoken in Cameroon and Chad. The endonym is Mulwi. Blench (2006) classifies the three varieties as separate languages. Speakers of the extinct related language Muskum have switched to one of these.

Names

Muzuk is another name for the language. Another term, Mousgoum, is not used by the speakers themselves.

Munjuk languages

Munjuk languages:

• Munjuk
  • Muzuk
  • Beege
  • Mpus
  • Vulum

Munjuk, from manjakay (H. Tourneux), refers to the a group of four related languages, not only Muzuk. Munjuk languages are spoken in northern Mayo-Danay Department (arrondissements of Maga, Yele, and Kai-Kai in the Far North Region).

Beege and Mpus are found in the flood plains of the Logone River, in (Logone-et-Chari department, Zina district); Diamaré department (Bogo district). Beege is found in the south (Djafga and Begué) and Mpus in the north (in Pouss). Vulum is found mainly in Chad.

Phonology

Consonants

• Sounds /tʃ, dʒ/ and prenasal sounds /ᵐb, ⁿd, ⁿdʒ, ᵑɡ/, may occur across different dialects.
• /h/ can be heard as either glottal or velar among dialects.

• Sounds /b, k, ɡ/ occur as labialized when preceding a glide /w/.
• A glottal stop may also occur in different positions, but its phonemic status is unclear.

Vowels

• Other sounds as /y, ø/ may occur across different dialects.

References

1. Musgu at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
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. Tourneux, Henry (2011). Le Munjuk. Les langues d’Afrique et de l’Asie du Sud-Ouest. pp. 258–266.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
5. Meyer-Bahlburg, Hilke (1972). Studien zur Morphologie und Syntax des Musgu. Hamburg: Helmut Buske.

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