Molengue language - Definition and Overview

The Molengue language (also called Balengue, Molendji) is a language of southern Equatorial Guinea, spoken between Bata and the Gabon border near the coast. The speakers have come under increasing Fang influence. The Ethnologue describes it as unclassified, while Cusack describes it as Bantu, citing "Quilis and Casado-Fresnillo 1995: 28-30". Echegaray is more specific, saying that it is linguistically a member of the Sheke group (B21 of Guthrie's Bantu subclassification):

"Los balengues - lingüisticamente al menos - están emparentados con el grupo sheke en general, y especialmente con itemus y nvikos." (p. 51)

He lists their main settlements as being located south of Bata between Punta Nguba and the Benito River, as well as three before the Ndote River, and a few further south or inland.

Links

• Ethnologue (http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=BXC)
• Equatorial Guinea: Culture and Environment (http://www.orgitecture.com/guinea/event1390/event_show.htm?doc_id=2715)

Bibliography

• Carlos Gonzalez Echegaray. Estudios Guineos: Vol. II. Madrid:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas 1959.
• Igor Cusack. "Hispanic and Bantu Inheritance, Trauma, Dispersal and Return: Some Contributions to a Sense of National Identity in Equatorial Guinea". Nations and Nationalism, Volume 5 Issue 2 Page 207 - April 1999.
• Quilis, Antonio y Celia Casado-Fresnillo. 1995. La lengua española en Guinea Ecuatorial. Madrid: Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia.