Cultural Ecologies of Endangered Languages: The Cases of Wawa and Njanga

The study of endangered languages can reveal interesting information about how languages adapt to changes in the environment of their speakers and particularly to changes in their culture. This article introduces two understudied Cameroonian languages at different stages of endangerment: Wawa (endangered) and Njanga (moribund). Njanga has been replaced by a related dialect (Sundani) and Wawa is threatened by the dominant Fulfulde language and is undergoing gradual and unexpected changes in reaction to the threat. A language ecology perspective is employed to examine data on numerals, color terms, and days of the week.