Beboid
Geographic distribution	SouthwestCameroon, southeastNigeria
Linguistic classification	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta–Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Beboid
Subdivisions	Eastern Beboid Western Beboid Furu?
Language codes
Glottolog	None bebo1243 (Eastern Beboid + Bikya) yemn1234 (Yemne–Kimbi)
The Beboid languages shown in western Cameroon and eastern Nigeria

TheBeboid languages are any of two families ofSouthern Bantoid languages spoken principally in southwestCameroon, although two (Bukwen and Mashi) are spoken over the border in southeastNigeria. The Eastern Beboid languages may be most closely related to theTivoid andMomo groups. The Western Beboid languages may be closer toEkoid andBantu.

Previous research includes a study ofnoun classes in Beboid languages byJean-Marie Hombert (1980),Larry Hyman (1980, 1981), a dissertation by Richards (1991) concerning thephonology of three eastern Beboid languages (Noni, Ncane and Nsari), Lux (2003) a Noni lexicon and Cox (2005) a phonology ofKemezung. The Largest Language is theFang Language ofCameroon

SIL International survey reports have provided more detail on Eastern and Western Beboid (Brye & Brye 2002, 2004; Hamm et al. 2002) and Hamm (2002) is a brief overview of the group as a whole.

Eastern Beboid is clearly valid; speakers recognise the relationship between their languages, their distribution is the result of recent population movements and linguistically they are similar, and they are close to the Bantu languages. The term "Beboid" sometimes refers specifically to this group. Western Beboid is not as tight-knit, and appears to be closer to theGrassfields languages. They may be called "Yemne-Kimbi" when the eastern group is called just "Beboid" (Di Carlo & Good 2012). See also Blench (2025).

Also spoken in the area isBikya (Furu), one of theFuru languages, andKung, one of theRing languages.

Below is a list of language names, populations, and locations (inNigeria only) from Blench (2019).^[1]

• Beboid word lists (Wiktionary)

• Blench, Roger, 2011.'The membership and internal structure of Bantoid and the border with Bantu'.Bantu IV, Humboldt University, Berlin.
• Blench, Roger. n.d.Beboid word lists.
• Blench, Roger, 2025.The classification of the Bukwen language [buz] spoken in Mairogo, SE Nigeria
• Brye, Edward and Elizabeth Brye. 2002. "Rapid appraisal and intelligibility testing surveys of the Eastern Beboid group of languages (Northwest Province)." SIL Electronic Survey Reports 2002-019.http://www.sil.org/silesr/2002/019/
• Pierpaolo Di Carlo & Jeff Good. 2012.What are we trying to preserve?: Diversity, change, and ideology at the edge of the Cameroonian Grassfields
• Good, Jeff, & Jesse Lovegren. 2009.'Reassessing Western Beboid'. Bantu III.
• Good, Jeff, & Scott Farrar. 2008.'Western Beboid and African language classification'. LSA.
• Hamm, Cameron, Diller, J., Jordan-Diller, K. & F. Assako a Tiati. 2002. A rapid appraisal survey of Western Beboid languages (Menchum Division, Northwest Province). SIL Electronic Survey Reports 2002-014.http://www.sil.org/silesr/2002/014/
• Hamm, C. 2002. Beboid Language Family of Cameroon and Nigeria: Location and Genetic Classification. SIL Electronic Survey Reports 2002
• Hombert, Jean-Marie. 1980. Noun Classes of the Beboid Languages. In Noun classes in the Grassfields Bantu borderland, SCOPIL 8. Los Angeles: University of Southern California.

 This article incorporatestext available under theCC BY 3.0 license.

• Beboid languages
• Languages of Cameroon
• Languages of Nigeria

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• Families rejected by Glottolog
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