Psikye (Psikya, Kapsiki) is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken in northern Cameroon and eastern Nigeria. Varieties include Psikyɛ and Zləngə. Blench (2006) classifies it as a dialect of Kamwe.[2]
Names
In Cameroon, Psikya speakers use the name Margi to refer to their own language and its three varieties. The prefix ka-, in Kapsiki 'people', marks the plural ethnonym. It is called Higi in Nigeria.[3]
Dialects
Psikyá covers the entire southwestern part of the arrondissement of Mokolo and Mogodé (department of Mayo-Tsanaga, Far North Region, Cameroon) along the Nigerian border, in the settlements of Roumzou, Mogode, and Roumsiki. The Sara people refer to them as Kamu.[3]
Zléŋé and Wula are spoken in only two neighborhoods in the border village of Oula in Cameroon.[3]
Writing system
A Psikyɛ spelling was developed by the Biblical Alliance of Cameroon and is used in the translation of the Bible into Psikyɛ, Ghena ta Shala, published in 1988.[4] This uses several additional letters including in particular ⟨ɓ, ɗ, ə, ɛ, ŋ, ’⟩.
van Beek, W. E. A. (2012). The dancing dead : ritual and religion among the Kapsiki/Higi of north Cameroon and northeastern Nigeria. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN9780199858163.
