Basaa language

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For a Kru language spoken in Liberia and Sierra Leone, see Bassa language. For a Kainji language spoken in Nigeria, see Basa language.
Basaa
Mbene
ɓasaá, ɓàsàa
Native toCameroon
RegionCentre and Littoral Provinces
Native speakers
300,000 (2005 SIL)[1]
Language family
Niger–Congo?
Language codes
ISO 639-2bas
ISO 639-3bas
Glottologbasa1284
Guthrie code
A.43a[2]
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Basaa (also spelled Bassa, Basa, Bissa), or Mbene, is a Bantu language spoken in Cameroon by the Basaa people. It is spoken by about 300,000 people in the Centre and Littoral regions.

Maho (2009) lists North and South Kogo as dialects.

Phonology[]

Vowels[]

Front Back
Close i, iː u, uː
Close-mid e, eː o, oː
Open-mid ɛ, ɛː ɔ, ɔː
Open a, aː

Consonants[]

Bilabial Coronal Palatal Velar Labial-velar
Stop p t c, ɟ k kʷ, ɡʷ
Implosive ɓ
Fricative s x
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ ŋʷ
Prenasalized stop ᵐb ⁿd ᶮɟ ᵑɡ
Lateral l
Approximant j w
  • When not root-initial and not after a pause, the voiceless stops /p t k/ are realized as voiced stops or voiced fricatives.

Tone[]

Basaa contrasts four tones: high, low, high-to-low (falling) and low-to-high (rising).

Orthography[]

The language uses a Latin-based alphabet, with the addition of the letters Ɓɓ, Ɛɛ, Ŋŋ, Ɔɔ, ten multigraphs, as well as acute, grave, and circumflex accents:[3]

Capital Small
A a
B b
Ɓ ɓ
C c
D d
E e
Ɛ ɛ
F f
G g
GW gw
H h
HY hy
I i
J j
K k
KW kw
L l
M m
MB mb
N n
NJ nj
NY ny
ND nd
Ŋ ŋ
ŊG ŋg
ŊGW ŋgw
ŊW ŋw
O o
Ɔ ɔ
P p
R r
S s
T t
U u
V v
W w
Y y

Macron and caron diacritics may be used for marking tone in reference works, for example the dictionary by Pierre Emmanuel Njock.

References[]

  1. ^ Basaa at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. ^ Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
  3. ^ Hartell, Rhonda L. (1993). Alphabets of Africa. Dakar, Senegal: Regional Office for Education in Africa, Summer Institute of Linguistics, Unesco-Dakar Regional Office. p. 66. ISBN 9290910203 Check |isbn= value: checksum (help). OCLC 35148690.CS1 maint: date and year (link)

Bibliography[]

  • Hyman, Larry M. (2003). "Basaá (A.43)". In Nurse, Derek; Philippson, Gérard (eds.). The Bantu Languages. Routledge. pp. 257–282. ISBN 0-7007-1134-1.
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