Cameroon

Batanga is a Bantu language (Guthrie code A32), spoken in Cameroon and Equatori-al Guinea. It is currently considered to have the three dialects Batanga bá Ndá, Banɔhɔ and Bapuku. Language development is ongoing in Banɔhɔ. Bapuku speakers claim that their speech variety is so different from Banɔhɔ that they need separate materials in Bapuku. A sociolinguistic survey was conducted to identify whether the three Batanga varieties are dialects of the same language or different languages, based on linguistic and social factors. Information was gathered in several speech communities through participatory group interviews with community leaders, gram-matical questionnaires and comprehension testing in primary schools. Lexical and phonological differences between the three varieties are minor, but Bapuku shows some significant grammatical differences from the other two varieties. Whether these differences prevent comprehension by speakers without previous contact, could not be established, as it was impossible to find school students who understood record-ings of their home variety. All three varieties face the problem of declining numbers of speakers and domains of language use. Keywords: Batanga (A32), language development, sociolinguistic survey, dialect, language, participatory methods, language ecology, grammar, comprehension, con-tact, attitudes