From May 6 to June 6 Paulin Baraka Bose will be conducting fieldwork on Furu, a putative Sara-Bongo-Bagirmi (SBB) language (Central Sudanic) spoken in several villages to the northeast of Bosobolo along the left bank of the Ubangi River, in the province of Nord-Ubangi in the DRC. Back in 1986, the estimated number of Fulu speakers was 12,000. Fulu is believed to be the same language as Bagiro, a SBB languages spoken on the right bank of the Ubangi River, in the Central African Republic. However, while Bagiro relies on a full-fledged grammar, data available on Fulu consist of a 10-page phonological sketch, 75-item wordlist and 9 sentences dating back to 1940-1950.
Besides Furu, Paulin is also collecting linguistic and genetic data on several minority Ubangi languages spoken around Bosobolo, namely: Langbashe [lna], Gbanziri [gbg], Ngbugbu [lnl], Buraka [bkg] and Yakpa [bjo], as well Gezon, allegedly a dialect of Pagabete (Bantu C401).
