| Bamum | |
|---|---|
| Shüpamom | |
| ꛀꛣꚧꚳ | |
| Region | Cameroon, Nigeria |
| Ethnicity | Bamum people |
Native speakers | 420,000 (2005)[1] |
| Dialects |
|
| Latin script, Bamum syllabary (being revived) | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | bax |
| Glottolog | bamu1253 |
 Page from a manuscript in the Bamum script | |
Bamum (Shü Pamom [ʃŷpǎˑmə̀m] 'language of the Bamum', or Shümom 'Mum language'), also known as Shupamem, Bamun, or Bamoun, is an Eastern Grassfields language of Cameroon, with approximately 420,000 speakers.[1] The language is well known for its original script developed by King Njoya and his palace circle in the Kingdom of Bamum around 1895. Cameroonian musician Claude Ndam was a native speaker of the language and sang it in his music.[2]
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Transcription
Phonology
Bamum has tone, vowel length, diphthongs and coda consonants.
Vowels
Nchare claims ten diphthongs, only eight of which (excluding /ɔ/ and /o/) have a length distinction.[3] Matateyou shows normal and long examples of all ten vowel qualities. The orthography in angle brackets was based on the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages as used by Matateyou.[4]
| Front | Central | Back | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unrounded | Rounded | Unrounded | Unrounded | Rounded | |
| Close | i ⟨i⟩ iː ⟨ii⟩ | y ⟨ü⟩ yː ⟨üü⟩ | ɯ ⟨ʉ⟩ ɯː ⟨ʉʉ⟩ | u ⟨u⟩ uː ⟨uu⟩ | |
| Mid | e ⟨e⟩ eː ⟨ee⟩ | ə ⟨ə⟩ əː ⟨əə⟩ | o ⟨o⟩ oː ⟨oo⟩ | ||
| Open-mid | ɛ ⟨ɛ⟩ ɛː ⟨ɛɛ⟩ | ɔ ⟨ɔ⟩ ɔː ⟨ɔɔ⟩ | |||
| Open | a ⟨a⟩ a ⟨aa⟩ | ||||
Consonants
The consonants are displayed as following:[5][4]
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labial- velar |
Glottal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | Plain | Voiceless | p ⟨p⟩ | t ⟨t⟩ | k ⟨k⟩ | k͡p ⟨kp⟩ | ʔ ⟨ʼ⟩[a] | ||
| Voiced | b ⟨b⟩[b] | d ⟨d⟩[c] | ɡ ⟨g⟩[d] | g͡b ⟨gb⟩ | |||||
| Prenasal | Voiceless | ᵐp ⟨mp⟩ | ⁿt ⟨nt⟩ | ᵑk ⟨ŋk⟩ | ᵑ͡ᵐk͡p ⟨ŋkp⟩ | ||||
| Voiced | ᵐb ⟨mb⟩ | ⁿd ⟨nd⟩ | ᵑɡ ⟨ŋg⟩ | ᵑ͡ᵐg͡b ⟨ŋgb⟩ | |||||
| Fricative | Plain | Voiceless | f ⟨f⟩ | s ⟨s⟩ | ʃ ⟨sh⟩ | ||||
| Voiced | β[b] ⟨ɓ⟩[e] | v ⟨v⟩ | z ⟨z⟩[f] | ʒ ⟨j⟩[g] | ɣ ⟨gh⟩ | ||||
| Prenasal | Voiceless | ᶬf ⟨mf⟩ | ⁿs ⟨ns⟩ | ᶮʃ ⟨nsh⟩ | |||||
| Voiced | ᶬv ⟨mv⟩ | ⁿz ⟨nz⟩ | ᶮʒ ⟨nzh⟩ | ||||||
| Nasal | m ⟨m⟩ | n ⟨n⟩ | ɲ ⟨ny⟩ | ŋ ⟨ŋ⟩ | ŋ͡m ⟨ŋm⟩ | ||||
| Rhotic | r ⟨r⟩ | ||||||||
| Approximant | Plain | l ⟨l⟩ | j ⟨y⟩ | w ⟨w⟩ | |||||
| Prenasal | ⁿj ⟨nj⟩ | ⁿw ⟨nw⟩ | |||||||
Tones
Bamum has four[6] or five tones.[7] Mateteyou's analysis includes a mid tone, while Nchare's analysis includes downstep.[6] Bamum distinguishes between lexical and grammatical tone.[8]
| Diacritic | Nchare | Matateyou |
|---|---|---|
| à | low | low |
| á | high | high |
| ā | ― | mid |
| ǎ | rising | rising |
| â | falling | falling |
| ꜜ | downstep | ― |
References
- ^ a b Bamum at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ Kell, Cathy (14 September 2005). "Cameroon: Claude Ndam : Committed To Culture". Cameroon Tribune. Archived from the original on 2012-07-28. Retrieved 28 August 2015 – via AllAfrica.
- ^ Nchare 2012, pp. 39–40.
- ^ a b Matateyou 2002, pp. 37–38.
- ^ Nchare 2012, pp. 44, 46.
- ^ a b Nchare 2012, p. 63.
- ^ Matateyou 2002, p. 38.
- ^ Nchare 2012, p. 64.
Bibliography
- Matateyou, Emmanuel (2002). Parlons Bamoun. Paris: L'Harmattan. p. 38.
- Nchare, Abdoulaye Laziz (2012). The Grammar of Shupamem (PhD dissertation). New York University. ProQuest 996252918.
Further reading
- Bamum Scripts and Archives Project; Riley, Charles (2006-01-08). Towards the Encoding of the Bamum Script in the UCS (PDF) (Report).
