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Kemezung language

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Kemezung
Native toCameroon
RegionNorthwest 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 codes
ISO 639-3dmo
Glottologkeme1240

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 Laryngeal
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/
  1. ^ /t͡s/ becomes [t͡ʃ] before /i/.
  2. ^ /d͡z/ becomes [d͡ʒ] before /i/.
  3. ^ /s/ becomes [ʃ] before /i/. It becomes [s̬] or [ɾ] between vowels root-medially.
  4. ^ /l/ optionally becomes [d] in many words before /i/ root-medially.
  5. ^ /j/ optionally becomes [ʒ] before /i/ root-medially.

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/
  1. ^ Cox uses ⟨ɨ⟩, which normally represents the close central unrounded vowel /ɨ/.
  2. ^ Cox uses ⟨ə⟩, which normally represents the mid central unrounded vowel /ə/.

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

  1. ^ a b Kemezung at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ Cox (2005:2)
  3. ^ Cox (2005:2–4)
  4. ^ Cox (2005:5)
  5. ^ Cox (2005:7–8)

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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