Bata language

Bama is a Fãngra language spoken in the city of Bama and in Southern Fãngra (Fẽma), a region of the Fãngra Queendom.

History
After The Segregation, Bama was critically endangered inside cities where the standard variety prevailed for a long time in education. The southern dialect was also growing stronger in rural villages. Most villages were bilingual, speaking both Bata and the southern dialect.

However, as the lower class started to slowly grow again, the southern dialect, which never stopped being spoken in the main cities, prevailed, replacing the standard variety and making it a liturgical language. Bata was spoken in very few villages and by a minority of people in the city. The southern dialect grew in speakers when villagers started moving to the cities searching for a better life and were forced to assimilate and speak the dialect, as it was considered more important.

In 8750, a revival project to keep Bama alive was started, encouraged by Dablūma, a popular poet and author of many novels and history books. The book Dī Ublilwūn Lugat (About the Language of the Dead) written by him explores the status of the dialect and why its revival is necessary.

The revival of Bama slowly worked. It began to be taught in the city of Bama and schools were built in the rural villages as well. After a few decades, it was one of the official, standard languages of the city of Bama. However, it was not recognised in the country as a whole.