"Some of the groups had the perception that the young people were mixing more French and Fulfulde in the language than their elders did. However, they felt that their children would continue to speak Mambay well. We did not see any signs of language loss, and in general the situation seemed to be stable, with no language shifting to other domains."

Only Mambay is used in the home, in the fields, and with Mambay friends.

"Recently, the use of Mambay has expanded into several new domains: religious services and conversation, radio and writing... Older speakers of Mambay know the names of many large mammals, and have seen and eaten some of these animals; in contrast, younger speakers of the language know only the names of a few large mammals which appear in folk tales, but have not seen or consumed them... COLAMA (Comité de Langue Mambay) has sponsored a weekly radio program in Mambay since mid-2005."

"Most Mambay speakers are proficient in at least one other language. The most common languages of multilingualism are (in order of decreasing frequency) Fulfulde (the language of the Fulbe), French and Mundang. Proficiency in Hausa and Arabic, two other languages of multilingualism, is limited to a small minority of men... In the Mambay language area, as throughout most of Northern Cameroon, the dominance of Fulfulde is an inescapable part of the sociolinguistic equilibrium ... it has steadily increased among the Mambay, with the possible exception of the last decade, since the ethnic community has begun to show interest in the preservation of their language... Even in interethnic encounters involving groups other than Fulbe, Fulfulde is almost always used as a language of wider communication. Proficiency in French is, unsurprisingly, correlated to level of education in the Frenchlanguage school systems of Cameroon and Chad. ... Interestingly, proficiency in additional languages is also correlated to religious adherence. The Mambay view Fulfulde as an Islamic language, and while Arabic is used for prayer, imams in the area use Fulfulde for religious teaching; use of Mambay (or any language other than Arabic or Fulfulde) is discouraged for Muslims in religious contexts. Because of this, Mambay who are Muslim tend to be more proficient in Fulfulde than those who are Christian... In contrast, Mambay who consider themselves Christian (particularly those who are Protestant) generally have a higher level of proficiency in Mundang than those who are Muslim. This is particularly true of Mambay Christians living on the Chad side of the border because until recently, Mundang was the primary language used there in Christian celebrations. Finally, geographic proximity to other language areas is related to multilingualism: proficiency in Mundang is more common in Chad, where the Mambay and Mundang language areas are adjacent to one another... Languages other than Mambay are used primarily in situations where members of other ethnic groups are present, and in domains where written languages are used. Among Mambay speakers, the only place where another language is used in an oral domain is in conversation in and around the mosque."

"The most important expansion of Mambay has been the development of a writing system... It has opened a major avenue for the Mambay to assert themselves as a people, and has acted as a catalyst for the expansion of the other domains... To date, numerous written materials have appeared in Mambay... The first publication in Mambay was a probably a catechism and prayer service, which the Catholic Church produced. A recent revision of the prayer service has been reproduced by COLAMA [Comité de Langue Mambay] in conjunction with the Catholic Church and SIL... On its own, COLAMA has published a calendar, and for the past few years has regularly produced schedules, reports and minutes for language committee meetings. Oral texts [are] transcribed by COLAMA in conjunction with SIL in the context of narrative discourse workshops... Editions published by COLAMA in conjunction with the Église des Frères Luthériennes include a hymnbook and a pre-primer."