Kemezung language
Bantoid language spoken in Cameroon
Kemezung | |
---|---|
Native to | Cameroon |
Region | Northwest Province, Donga-Mantung Division, Southwest corner of Ako Subdivision, Northwest of Nkambé, town of Dumbu and village of Kwei. |
Native speakers | 3,540 (2008)[1] |
Language family | Niger–Congo?
|
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | dmo |
Glottolog | keme1240 |
Kemezung (Dumbo, Dumbu, Dzumbo, Kumaju) is a Southern Bantoid (Eastern Beboid) language of Cameroon. According to Ethnologue, it's 85% lexically similar to Bebe.[1]
Consonants
Kemezung has 19 "unmodified" consonants.[2] Cox also claims Kemezung has labialized, palatalized, and prenasalized consonants but does not list all of them.[3]
Labial | Coronal | Palatal | Velar | Labial–velar | Glottalic | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Plosive | voiceless | t | k | k͡p | |||
voiced | b | d | g | g͡b | |||
Affricate | voiceless | t͡s[a] | |||||
voiced | d͡z[b] | ||||||
Fricative | f | s[c] | h | ||||
Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | |||
Approximant | l[d] | j[e] | w |
Vowels
Kemezung has 9 phonemic vowels.[4]
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | i | u | |
Close-mid | e | ɘ[a] | o |
Open-mid | ɛ | ɜ[b] | ɔ |
Open | ä |
Tone
Kemezung also has 7 (or possibly 8) tones.[5] There are three level tones (high, mid, and low), three falling tones (high-low, mid-low, and long mid-low), and one or two rising tones (low-mid and possibly mid-high).
Notes
References
- Blench, Roger (2011). The membership and internal structure of Bantoid and the border with Bantu (PDF). Bantu IV, Humboldt University, Berlin.
- Brye, Edward; Brye, Elizabeth (2004). "Intelligibility testing survey of Bebe and Kemezung and synthesis of sociolinguistic research of the Eastern Beboid cluster" (PDF). SIL. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-09-07.
- Cox, Bruce (2005). "Notes on the Phonology of Kemezung" (PDF). Yaoundé: SIL. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2023-11-06.
- Smoes, Christopher L. "A Sketch Grammar of the Kemezung language" (PDF). SIL. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2023-12-08.
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