ABSTRACT
Nen (Tunen, Tun‡n, Tunin) is spoken by over 35,000 speakers (Grimes 2000, based on figures from 1982) in and around the town of Ndikinimeki in Cameroon where the forest becomes savannah. The people are known as Ba-nen, which is an adaptation of mùn[nì ‘man in power and rich’. The language has the code A44 in Guthrie’s system but, together with its closest relatives Nyokon or Nyo’o (A45), Maande (A46) and Bonek, it is closer to the A60 languages, such as Gunu and Yambasa, than it is to its neighbor Basaá A43 (Mous and Breedveld 1986). In a number of lexicostatistic classifications, Nen and its relatives often appear as a group separate from the other zone A languages and separate from central Bantu languages (Bastin and Piron 1999:153-5). Among the many influences that Nen underwent, one possible influence can be attributed to the influx of slaves (Abwa 1995). Ndiki, Ali˘a or Eling, Ndogbiakat are names for dialects. A large community of speakers reside in Duala, which can be reached by a path through the forest. Education by the Protestants here used to be in Duala, which explains the Duala loans. Other loans come from Pidgin English, which at one time was actively used in Ndikinimeki and is still remembered by older men. Nen has an official orthography. Some of the older publications in Duala deviate from this orthography. The development of a written tradition is still incipient.
