It is a member of the Leko branch of Savanna languages, and is spoken across the northern Nigerian–Cameroonian border.
Chamba is also spelled 'Samba', Leko also 'Leeko', 'Lego' or 'Lekon'.
Samba, also called Samba Leeko, is highly distinct from Chamba Daka, also called Daga Mumi ('language of the Daka'), spoken in Nigeria by another subgroup of the Chamba people.
These two languages are respectively classified in groups 2 and 3 of the Adamawa branch by Joseph Greenberg (see Adamawa languages).
[2] In Cameroon, the two main groups of dialects are:[2]