Yasa language

{{Short description|Bantu language spoken in Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea}}

{{distinguish|Bongwe language}}

{{Infobox language

|name=Iyasa

|nativename=Bongwe

|states=Cameroon
Equatorial Guinea
Gabon

|region=

|ethnicity=Yasa and Pygmies

|speakers= 2,400 in Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea

|date=2000–2011

|ref=e18

|speakers2=unknown number in Gabon

|familycolor=Niger-Congo

|fam2=Atlantic–Congo

|fam3=Benue–Congo

|fam4=Bantoid

|fam5=Bantu (Zone A)

|fam6=Sawabantu (A.30)

|fam7=Kombe?

|map2=Lang Status 60-DE.svg

|mapcaption2={{center|{{small|Yasa is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger}}}}

|iso3=yko

|glotto=yasa1242

|glottorefname=Yasa

|guthrie=A.33a

}}

Iyasa (Yasa, Yassa) is a Bantu language spoken in Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea by the Iyasa and Ndowe coastal fishing peoples. It is also spoken by Pygmies, perhaps Babongo, in Gabon. Approximately 3,000 people speak Iyasa,{{Cite web|title=Did you know Iyasa is threatened?|url=http://www.endangeredlanguages.com/lang/558|access-date=2021-06-10|website=Endangered Languages|language=en}} though some note that this number may be an overestimation.{{Cite journal|last=Belew|first=Anna|date=2018|title=Discourses of speakerhood in Iyasa: Linguistic identity and authenticity in an endangered language|url=http://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/handle/10125/24769|journal=Language Documentation & Conservation|language=en-US|pages=339–358|hdl=10125/24769 |issn=1934-5275}}

Iyasa also goes by the names Bongwe, Lyaasa, and Maasa. Dialects are Bweko, Vendo, Bodele, Marry, One, Asonga, Bomui, Mogana, Mooma, Mapanga. It may in turn be a dialect of Kombe. Speakers report that Kombe and Iyasa are almost perfectly mutually intelligible.{{Cite book|title=Le Syntagme Nominal du Yasa|last=Bouh Ma Sitna|first=Charles Lwanga|publisher=University of Yaoundé I: Master's thesis|year=2004}}