To understand language is to uncover the distances a people have traveled.

Unlike most ethnic groups of the Senegambian region, the Jola do not have caste system of Jewels griots, slaves, nobility, leather workers, etc. Their communities are based on extended clan settlements normally large enough to be given independent names, including the Jola Karon, Jola Mlomp, Jola Elinnkin, Jola Caginol, Jola Huluf, Jola Jamat, Jola Joheyt, Jola Bayot, Jola Brin, Jola Seleky, Jola Kabrouse, Jola Jiwat, and Jola Foni.[17]

*We will be taking steps to help preserve this endangered language and it cultural traditions.

The primary branches of Jola proper and to some extent Central Jola are not mutually intelligible. The main varieties are:

Bayot
Jola proper
- Kwatay (Kuwaataay), spoken along the coast south of the Casamance River.
- Karon–Mlomp
  - Karon, spoken along the coast of Casamance south of Diouloulou.
  - Mlomp
- Central Jola
  - Jola-Fonyi (Kujamatay), spoken around Bignona. The official standard.
  - Bandial, spoken in a small area south of the Casamance River.
  - Gusilay, spoken in the village of Thionck Essyl.
  - Jola-Felupe (Ediamat), spoken in a handful of villages south of Oussouye in Oussouye Department. Kerak may be a dialect.
  - (Jola) Kasa, spoken around Oussouye.

Bayot

Bayot, spoken around Ziguinchor, is grammatically Jola, apart from a non-Jola pronominal system. However, perhaps half its vocabulary is non-Jola and even non-Atlantic. It may therefore be a language isolate with substantial Jola borrowing (relexification). In any case, Bayot is clearly distinct from (other) Jola languages.

Bayot language

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to navigation Jump to searchBayotNative toSenegal, Guinea-BissauNative speakers19,000 (2006)[1]Language family Niger–Congo?

Atlantic–Congo
- Bak
  - Jola
    - Bayot

Language codesISO 639-3bdaGlottologbayo1262ELP Bayot

Bayot (Bayot Si James, Baiote, Bayotte) is a language of southern Senegal, southwest of Ziguinchor in a group of villages near Nyassia, and in northwestern Guinea-Bissau, along the Senegalese border, and in the Gambia.

The Kugere and Kuxinge (Essin) dialects of Senegal and the Arame (Edamme) and Gubaare dialects of Guinea-Bissau are distinct enough to be sometimes considered different languages.

Bayot is the most divergent of the Jola languages, in the Senegambian branch of the Niger–Congo language family.

Languages of Guinea-Bissau

Official language