Kare language (Adamawa)

"Kareng language" redirects here. Not to be confused with Karang language or Kali language.
Kare
nzáà kã́rĩ́[1]
Native toCentral African Republic, Cameroon
Native speakers
(97,000 cited 1996–2000)[2]
62,000 Kare, 35,000 Tale in CAR (1996)
Dialects
  • Kare (Kari, Kali)
  • ? Tale
Language codes
ISO 639-3kbn
Glottologkare1338

Kare (Kãrɛ̃, Kareng; autonym nzáà kã́rĩ́, where nzáà = "mouth") is a southern Mbum language of the Central African Republic, spoken by the Kare people in the mountains of the northeasterly Ouham-Pendé prefecture around Bocaranga. It is spoken by around 97,000 people in the country, and another few thousand speakers in Cameroon. The language's presence on the southeastern edge of the Mbum family is thought to reflect early 19th-century migrations from the Adamawa Plateau, fleeing Fulani raids.[3]

Ethnologue 17 reports that Kare is intelligible with Mbum proper. However, languages more closely related to either are not reported to be intelligible. Ethnologue lists Tale (Tali) as a dialect, but Blench (2004) leaves it unclassified within the Mbum languages. Ethnologue also lists Kali as a synonym; Blench lists a Kali language in a different branch of the Mbum languages.

  1. ^ Lim 1997, p. 10.
  2. ^ Kare at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  3. ^ Lim 1997, pp. 3–4.