Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jul 2, 2026

Musey language

Musey is a Chadic language of Chad and Cameroon. There is a degree of mutual intelligibility with Masana. Although Musey and Masa are mutually unintelligible, many Musey speakers also speak Masa.

Last revised
Jul 2, 2026
Read time
≈ 1 min
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215 w
Citations
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Source
Wikipedia ↗
Musey
Native toChad, Cameroon
Native speakers
430,000 (2005–2019)1
Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3mse
Glottologmuse1242

Musey is a Chadic language of Chad and Cameroon. There is a degree of mutual intelligibility with Masana. Although Musey and Masa are mutually unintelligible, many Musey speakers also speak Masa.2

Distribution

Musey is spoken east of Guéré, in the southern part of Mayo-Danay commune in Danay department, Far North Region, by 20,000 speakers in Cameroon. It is also spoken in Chad.2

Phonology

Consonants

Labial Alveolar Lateral Palatal Velar Glottal
Plosive voiceless p t tʃ k ʔ
voiced b d dʒ ɡ
implosive ɓ ɗ
prenasalized mb nd nd͡ʒ ŋɡ
Fricative voiceless f s ɬ h
voiced v z ɮ ɦ
Nasal m n ŋ
Flap ɾ
Approximant w l j

Vowels

Front Central Back
Close i u
Mid e o
Open a

Lax allophones of /i u e o/ occur as [ɪ ʊ ɛ ɔ].34

References

References

  1. Musey at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon
  2. Binam Bikoi, Charles, ed. (2012). Atlas linguistique du Cameroun (ALCAM) [Linguistic Atlas of Cameroon]. Atlas linguistique de l'Afrique centrale (ALAC) (in French). Vol. 1: Inventaire des langues. Yaoundé: CERDOTOLA. ISBN 9789956796069.
  3. Duncanson, Robert (1972). Interpreting tone in the Musey language. University of North Dakota.
  4. Shryock, Aaron M. (1992). Consonants and tone in Musey. UCLA.
External links