User:NicoleNyiszter/sandbox

Somyev also known as Kila Kilayen, Kila Yang, Somyiwe, Sombe,  and  Sombə, is a nearly extinct Mambiloid language of Mambila region; 'Cameroon village of Nigeria', spoken by the Nigerian people whom call themselves Somyewe. Somyev is a language which apparently was only ever used by the blacksmiths of the region and their families. Somyev is spoken in two villages, one in Cameroon and one in Nigeria, with the majority of the speakers being in the Nigerian village of Kila Yang. [Sombə] is now known to be spoken for certain by just three elderly people in the village of Kila Yang; there are at least two others, semi-speakers, still living at Hore Taram Torbi.

General Information
Somyev is the language of a blacksmith group. It is not a trade jargon or sociolect, but is (or rather, was) the primary language of daily use for the smiths and their families, both in the home and outside. The traditional blacksmithing trade has now vanished, bringing substantial change to the lifestyle of this group. Kila means ‘blacksmith’ in Fulfulde. The people worked as blacksmiths in the past but with the demise of the blacksmith trade in the area their occupational habits changed. This consequently led to a shift in language choice among the Kila people. Today, everyone in the village [Kila Yang village] speaks Maberem and Fulfulde For those, especially the young and those who have been to school, also speak English.Sombə remains a part of the heritage of the Somyev, but it is no longer a viable language as said before, only about 4 known speakers are native speakers of the language. However,it has been replaced in all its normal daily functions in the home and in the village by Maberem Mambila. Fulfulde serves as a language of wider communication. English, normally the language of official business (governmental, legal, etc) in Nigeria is not spoken by any of the remaining speakers of Sombə" The people worked as blacksmiths in the past but with the demise of the blacksmith trade in the area their occupational habits changed. This consequently led to a shift in language choice among the Kila people. As with the case of Njanga, however, Fulfulde and French were not the languages that replaced Somyev. The shift was to the Torbi dialect of Mambila, which is also now endangered

Affinities
Somyev, on the other hand, appears to share its closest affinities with Wawa and Tep. Wawa is more or less adjacent to where the Somyewe currently live, and is where, according to some oral tradition, they are said to have emanated. Tep, on the other hand, is located at the far end of the Mambila plateau. This distribution suggests two hypotheses: that the Tep migrated to their present location, or that the Mambila cluster is a group of languages which has imposed itself relatively recently in the area, thereby separating previously contiguous languages. It is the latter (supported by independent evidence), which is proposed in Connell (in press). In addition, Somyev is interesting for being the language of a particular caste or occupation though, as mentioned, it is apparently relatively closely related to Wawa and other languages of the region. The facts - both linguistic and sociolinguistic - of its development into a caste language need to be explored while this language continues to be spoken.