Kwasio language

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Not to be confused with Koya language or Kele language (Gabon).
Kwasio
Ngumba, Kola
Native toCameroon, Equatorial Guinea
Regionalong and near the coast at the border between Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea
EthnicityKwasio, Gyele Pygmies
Native speakers
(26,000 cited 1982–2012)[1]
Language family
Niger–Congo?
Dialects
  • Kwasio
  • Mvumbo
  • Mabi
  • Gyele
  • Kola
Language codes
ISO 639-3Either:
nmg – Kwasio–Mvumbo
gyi – Gyele–Kola
Glottologmvum1239
Guthrie code
A.81,801[2]
ELPGyele
Map of the Gyeli/Kwasio area in Cameroon (dots) with neighbouring languages/peoples [3]

The Kwasio language, also known as Ngumba / Mvumbo, Bujeba, and Gyele / Kola, is a language of Cameroon, spoken in the south along the coast and at the border with Equatorial Guinea by some 70,000[citation needed] members of the , Kwasio, Gyele and peoples.[citation needed] Many authors[4][5][6] view Kwasio and the Gyele/Kola language as distinct. In the Ethnologue, the languages therefore receive different codes: Kwasio has the ISO 639-3 code nmg,[7] while Gyele has the code gyi.[8] The Kwasio, Ngumba, and Mabi are village farmers; the Gyele (also known as the Kola or Koya) are nomadic Pygmy hunter-gatherers living in the rain forest.

Dialects[]

Dialects are Kwasio (also known as Kwassio, Bisio), Mvumbo (also known as Ngumba, Ngoumba, Mgoumba, Mekuk), and Mabi (Mabea).

The Gyele speak the subdialects of Mvumbo and Gyele in the north Giele, Gieli, Gyeli, Bagiele, Bagyele (Bagyɛlɛ), Bagielli,[9] Bajele, Bajeli, Bogyel, Bogyeli, Bondjiel.

In the south, the Gyele speak Kola, also known as Koya, in the south, also spelled as Likoya, Bako, Bakola, Bakuele, also Bekoe. The local derogatory term for pygmies, Babinga, is also used.

Glottolog adds Shiwa.

Features[]

Like the other Niger-Congo languages of Cameroon, Kwasio is a tonal language.


As a Bantu language, it has noun class system. The Kwasio noun class system is somewhat reduced, having retained only 6 genders (a gender being a pairing of a singular and a plural noun class).

See also[]

The term Bakola is also used for the pygmies of the northern Congo–Gabon border region, which speak the Ngom language.

References[]

  1. ^ Kwasio–Mvumbo at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
    Gyele–Kola at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. ^ Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
  3. ^ Grimm N (2021). A grammar of Gyeli (pdf). Berlin: Language Science Press. p. 11. doi:10.5281/zenodo.4737370. ISBN 978-3-98554-007-5.
  4. ^ Rénaud, Patrick (1976). Le bajeli. Phonologie, morphologie nominale. Vol. 1 et 2. Yaoundé: Les Dossiers de l'ALCAM. p. 27.
  5. ^ Grimm, Nadine (2015). A Grammar of Gyeli. Humboldt University Berlin: PhD thesis. p. 8.
  6. ^ Maho, Jouni F. (2009). "New Updated Guthrie List" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on February 3, 2018. Retrieved March 3, 2017.
  7. ^ "Ethnologue: Kwasio". Retrieved March 3, 2017.
  8. ^ "Ethnologue: Gyele". Retrieved March 3, 2017.
  9. ^ Blench, Roger. Bagyɛlɛ mammal names
  • Serge BAHUCHET, 2006. "Languages of the African Rainforest « Pygmy » Hunter-Gatherers: Language Shifts without Cultural Admixture."[1] In Historical linguistics and hunter-gatherers populations in global perspective. Leipzig.

External links[]

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