Documentation of Chinene in the language ecology of the UNHCR camp of Minawao (Cameroon)
| Language | Chinene |
| Depositor | Pierpaolo Di Carlo, Ndokobai Dadak |
| Affiliation | University “L’Orientale” Napoli |
| Location | Cameroon |
| Collection ID | 0824 |
| Funding Body | Endangered Languages Documentation Programme |
| Collection Status | Forthcoming |
| Landing Page Handle | http://hdl.handle.net/2196/abf9b2e1-f8c3-4dd0-898f-26781f0fb81f |
Summary of the collection
English: This deposit results from the documentation of Chinene as spoken in the UNHCR camp of Minawao, in Cameroon, which has housed the largest and most cohesive community of speakers since 2013.
French: Ce dépôt résulte de la documentation du chinene tel qu’il est parlé dans le camp du HCR de Minawao, au Cameroun, qui abrite la communauté de locuteurs la plus importante et la plus cohérente depuis 2013.
Group represented
English: Chinene is a language historically spoken in the village of the same name, located in the Gwoza Local Government Area of Borno State, Nigeria. Due to repeated attacks by Boko Haram, the village was abandoned in 2013, and the population dispersed. Today, Chinene speakers reside in cities like Maiduguri and Abuja, in Nigeria, and in the UNHCR refugee camp at Minawao, in Cameroon’s Far- North Region. According to a community leader interviewed by Di Carlo in February 2023, in Minawao there is the largest cohesive community of Chinene speakers, whereas speakers in Nigeria live for the most part scattered across urban centers or relatively large rural areas, especially in the Adamawa State.
French: Le chinene est une langue historiquement parlée dans le village du même nom, situé dans la zone de gouvernement local de Gwoza de l’État de Borno, au Nigeria. En raison des attaques répétées de Boko Haram, le village a été abandonné en 2013 et la population s’est dispersée. Aujourd’hui, les locuteurs de Chinene résident dans des villes comme Maiduguri et Abuja, au Nigéria, et dans le camp de réfugiés du HCR à Minawao, dans la région de l’Extrême-Nord du Cameroun. Selon un chef de communauté interrogé par Di Carlo en février 2023, c’est à Minawao que se trouve la plus grande communauté cohésive de locuteurs du chinene, alors que les locuteurs du Nigeria vivent pour la plupart dispersés dans des centres urbains ou des zones rurales relativement étendues, en particulier dans l’État de l’Adamawa.
Language information
English: Community members report about 10,000 ethnically Chinene people living in Nigeria and Cameroon, but the estimated number of Chinene speakers is around 5,000 as of 2024, ca. 550 of whom live in the camp. Language use is declining, especially among younger generations, as observed both in 1999 (Hamm 2024) and in current fieldwork at the Minawao camp, where Chinene is mostly spoken by adults. Claims that Islamization may be contributing to language shift remain unverified.
French: Les membres de la communauté font état d’environ 10 000 personnes d’ethnie chinene vivant au Nigeria et au Cameroun, mais le nombre estimé de locuteurs de chinene est d’environ 5 000 en 2024, dont environ 550 vivent dans le camp. L’utilisation de la langue est en déclin, en particulier parmi les jeunes générations, comme cela a été observé à la fois en 1999 (Hamm 2024) et dans le cadre du travail de terrain actuel au camp de Minawao, où le chinene est principalement parlé par les adultes. Les affirmations selon lesquelles l’islamisation pourrait contribuer au changement de langue n’ont pas été vérifiées
References
Hamm, C. 2024 (2004). A Sociolinguistic Survey of the Glavda, Chinene, and Vemgo-Mabas Languages of Cameroon and Nigeria. Dallas: SIL International.
Acknowledgement and citation
Users of any part of this collection should acknowledge Pierpaolo Di Carlo as principal investigator and Ndokobai Dadak as core member of the research team. The Endangered Languages Documentation Programme should be acknowledged as the funder of the project that allowed the creation of this collection. Users of parts of the corpus should acknowledge by name (i) the people who recorded the given session and (ii) the individuals appearing in the recordings, whose words and/or images are used. Any other contributors involved in data collection, transcription, and translation, or who contributed in any other way, should be acknowledged by name. The relevant information is available in the metadata.
To refer to any data from the collection, please cite as follows:
Di Carlo, Pierpaolo. 2025.. Documentation of Chinene in the linguistic ecology of the UNHCR camp of Minawao (Cameroon). Endangered Languages Archive. Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/2196/354b8a15-f643-4c57-9362-218ab86ac0f8. Accessed on [insert date here]
