Twendi language


Twendi, or Cambap as it is also known, is a nearly extinct Mambiloid language of Cameroon. Speakers have largely shifted to the closely related language Kwanja, and Twendi has not been passed down to children for decades. The language is spoken in the villages of Cambap and Sanga on the Tikar Plain by no more than 30 people, the youngest of whom were born in the 1940s.

Classification

Twendi is a Mambiloid language belonging to the Mambila group. Speakers consider Twendi to be a dialect of Kwanja, but lexical evidence from a variety of Mambiloid languages, especially Kabri, indicates its affinity to the Manmbila group.