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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:The Lost Script of the Bagam
Author:Tuchscherer, KonradISNI
Year:1999
Periodical:African Affairs: The Journal of the Royal African Society
Volume:98
Issue:390
Period:January
Pages:55-77
Language:English
Geographic term:Cameroon
Subjects:writing systems
Bamileke
History and Exploration
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/723684
Abstract:This article presents new information on one of Africa's lesser known scripts, the Bagam script of Cameroon, which has now fallen into extinction. Details of the script were first reported almost eighty years ago by L.W.G. Malcolm, an officer in the Nigeria Regiment of the West African Frontier Force. While stationed in the town of Bagam in 1917-1918, Malcolm recorded that the Eghap (as they refer to themselves) or Bagam, a Bamileke people of the grassfield area, employed a syllabic script to write their language, which they call Mengaka. No characters of the script were ever published. This article reproduces, from Malcolm's Cambridge master's thesis, the Bagam characters he collected. Included with the characters are Malcolm's phonetic identifications for the characters in Mengaka, along with a translation of their meanings in English. The present author relates information on the history of the Bagam script and his own investigation to locate information on the 'lost' script. Notes, ref., sum.
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