{"id":"SILCAM2003-001","label":"The Ngomba name that cannot be given","people_or_site":"Ngomba (Nda’a); southeast Mbouda language area","country_current":"Cameroon","historic_region":"Bamboutos Division, West Province","macroregion":"Africa","local_name":"","source_term":"bullroarer","source_language":"English; Ngomba; French","object_description":"A bullroarer recorded in a Ngomba–French–English lexicon from the Bamboutos highlands of western Cameroon; no material, dimensions or cord are described.","function_summary":"Not recorded; the lexicon states only that the instrument's name is secret.","attestation_type":"lexical_attestation","source_key":"silcam_ngomba_lexicon_2003","source_type":"institutional_lexicon","source_url":"https://media.ipsapps.org/jgo/oda/02-en.html","page_or_plate":"English index, online line 686","map_confidence":"low","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Southeast-Mbouda/Bamboutos Ngomba language-area anchor from SIL archive metadata; not an object findspot","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Ngomba, or Nda'a, is spoken in the highlands southeast of Mbouda, in the Bamboutos massif of Cameroon's western grassfields. When the lexicon's compilers reached the bullroarer they did the opposite of what a dictionary does: they entered the instrument and withheld the word. The definition reads simply that the secret name cannot be given. No rite, no material, no cord — only the fact that among Ngomba speakers this instrument's name is not something an outsider gets to write down.","pull_quote":"bullroarer. Secret name cannot be given","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"SIL Cameroon, Ngomba – French – English lexicon (2003), English index, online line 686.","term_gloss":"bullroarer; secret vernacular name withheld","cls":"restricted","class_label":"Restricted","color":"#A43C2F","is_candidate":false,"flags":[],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"SIL Cameroon, Ngomba – French – English lexicon, 2003","url":"https://media.ipsapps.org/jgo/oda/02-en.html","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20261013035521/https://media.ipsapps.org/jgo/oda/02-en.html"}],"source_citations":"SIL Cameroon, Ngomba – French – English lexicon, 2003","source_display":"SIL Cameroon, Ngomba – French – English lexicon, 2003","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"A bullroarer recorded in a Ngomba–French–English lexicon from the Bamboutos highlands of western Cameroon; no material, dimensions or cord are described.","function_display":"Not recorded; the lexicon states only that the instrument's name is secret.","confidence_display":"low","attestation_label":"lexical attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"ngomba","display_name":"The Ngomba name that cannot be given","image":{"full":"assets/objects/SUBSAH-008_maa_1921_382_rig.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/SUBSAH-008_maa_1921_382_rig_thumb.jpg","alt":"Bagam N’kwi’i bullroarer rig: a short tapered wooden blade joined by looped cord to a long slender whirling stick.","credit":"Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology, Cambridge, 1921.382","license":"© Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology, University of Cambridge — rehosted low-res for non-commercial research","source_page":"https://collections.maa.cam.ac.uk/objects/528246/","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"Bagam N’kwi’i bullroarer with its cord and whirling stick.","pool_id":"cameroon-bagam","auto_assigned":true,"last_modified":"2026-09-06"},"slug":"silcam2003-001-ngomba-nda-a-southeast-mbouda-language-area"}