Bamum language

ꛀꛣꚧꚳRegionCameroon, NigeriaEthnicityBamum people420,000 (2005)^[1]Dialects

• Bapi

Latin script, Bamum syllabary (being revived)Language codesISO 639-3baxGlottologbamu1253

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]

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

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).