Alternate Names: Aage, Age, Bogen, Bogue, Eshimbi, Essimbi, Isimbi, Mburugam, Simpi
Dialects: Lower Esimbi, Upper Esimbi. 100% mutual intelligibility between Upper and Lower Esimbi. Lexical similarity: 35% with Balo ,, Ipulo ,, Iceve-Maci ,, Caka ,, Eman ,, and Osatu ,.
Genealogy:
Demographics: 20,000 in Cameroon (1982 SIL), increasing.
Language Use: Vigorous, but children growing up in English- or French-speaking areas do not learn L1 well. Home, neighborhood, market, work, church. All ages. Positive attitudes.
Language Development: Literacy rate in L1: Below 1%. Literacy rate in L2: 10%. Radio programs. Bible portions: 2007.
Typology: SVO; prepositions; noun head initial; 14 noun classes; content question word in sentence-final position; up to 3 prefixes; up to 1 suffix; no passives; 30 consonant phonemes; 8 vowel phonemes; 5 tones.
Writing System: Latin
Nation of Origin: Cameroon
Other Comments: Traditional religion, Christian, Muslim.