Tuki New Testament (2024)

Overview

The Tuki New Testament is the first complete New Testament in the Tuki language, published in 2024 by CABTAL (Cameroon Association for Bible Translation and Literacy) and available via YouVersion/Bible.com (ID 4514). It is one of seven New Testaments dedicated by CABTAL in 2024, part of a sustained programme of NT translation across the Bantu and Adamawa-Ubangi languages of Cameroon's Centre Region.

The Tuki language attracted substantial academic attention from linguist Edmond Biloa (Professor of Linguistics, University of Yaoundé I), who published The Syntax of Tuki: A Cartographic Approach (John Benjamins, Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 203, 2013) — a 611-page syntactic analysis applying cartographic theory to Tuki clause structure. Biloa's earlier study (1995) also addressed Tuki syntax. A Tuki-French dictionary was compiled by Jacquis Kongne Welaze (2006), and a Tuki orthography (Précis d'orthographe pour la langue Tuki) was co-produced by Kongne Welaze and SIL linguist Ginger Boyd (2008) — the same linguist who produced the Yangben/Nuasue orthography (SIL, 2006) for the closely related Yangben people in the same division. A Tuki vocabulary database is maintained on SIL's Webonary platform.

Language and People

Tuki (ISO 639-3: bag; also Bacenga, Baki, Batchenga, Betsinga, Betzinga, Ki, Oki, Osa Nanga, Sanaga) is a Bantu language of the Beti group within the Niger-Congo family, spoken in Mbam-et-Inoubou Department, Centre Region, Cameroon. The language is distributed along the Sanaga River corridor north of Sa'a, between the towns of Ombessa and Ntui, with additional communities in parts of Mbam-et-Kim Department. The ISO code "bag" and the Guthrie zone A.62 classification place it adjacent to the Mbam/Yambassa cluster of languages (which includes the closely related Yangben (yav), Mmaala (mmu), and Elip (ekm) languages also in Mbam-et-Inoubou).

Tuki has approximately 26,000 speakers (1982 Ethnologue data; current figures are likely higher). The language is intergenerationally transmitted and Ethnologue classifies it as vigorous (EGIDS 6a) — not endangered. Speakers are predominantly Catholic and Protestant Christian, with traditional practices maintained alongside Christianity. The Tuki homeland along the Sanaga valley is an agricultural zone producing cassava, cocoa, and food crops for Yaoundé markets.

The name ambiguity around "Sanaga" is worth noting: the Sanaga River — Cameroon's longest river, flowing 900 km from the Adamawa Plateau to the Atlantic — shares a name with one of Tuki's alternate designations. The Tuki-speaking villages along the river are sometimes identified as "the Sanaga people" in French colonial-era ethnographic literature.

Publishing and Organizations

Published by CABTAL (Cameroon Association for Bible Translation and Literacy), Wycliffe Global Alliance member for Cameroon, established 26 October 1987. CABTAL is active in 116 language communities across all 10 Cameroon regions and has completed over 36 New Testaments. The Tuki NT is one of a coordinated set of CABTAL NTs for the Mbam-zone language cluster, alongside the Yangben NT (YAVCAB, 2025), Mmaala NT (MMUCAB), and Gavar NT (GOUCAB, 2024).

References