Kakabe, an understudied language in Guinea (Mokole < Western Mande < Mande < Niger-Congo), is spoken by several ethnic groups, mainly of inferior social status and bilingual in Pular. Four dialects of Kakabe can be singled out: Northwestern (the Kankalabe area), Central (villages to the east and south of Timbo), Kuru-Maninka (or Western) and Wurekaba Maninka (or Southern). Two former dialects are close to each other linguistically, their speakers refer to themselves as "Kakabe", these dialects can be regarded as "core Kakabe"; the speakers of Kuru-Maninka and Wurekaba Maninka do not accept to be called "Kakabe", and their varieties have much less loans from Pular. A lexicostatistic study based on Swadesh 100-wordlist has been carried out. It confirmed a preliminary hypothesis of a particular closeness between the "core dialects" and showed that two other dialects are further remote from them, but not as much as the Mogofin (Mixifore) language spoken to the south of Boke (extreme NW part of the Guinean Republic). Therefore, from linguistic viewpoint, Wurekaba Maninka and Kuru-Maninka varieties can be regarded as dialects of Kakabe, notwithstanding different identities of their speakers.
