Basaa
Mbene
ɓasaá, ɓàsàa
Native toCameroon
RegionCentre and Littoral Provinces
EthnicityBasaa people
Native speakers
300,000 (2005 SIL)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-2bas
ISO 639-3bas
Glottologbasa1284
A.43a[2]

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.

Background and Origin

Basaa is spoken by 230,000 speakers. They live in Nyong-et-Kelle (Central Region) and Sanaga Maritime (with the exception of the Edéa commune, which has a Bakoko majority) and most of Nkam commune (Littoral Region). In the western and northern parts of this department, the peripheral Basaa dialects are spoken: Yabasi in the commune of Yabassi, Diɓuum in the commune of Nkondjok (Diboum Canton), north of Ndemli and Dimbamban.

Similarly, Basaa Baduala is spoken in Wouri Department (Littoral Region), traditional Basaa territory that is being transformed by the growth of Douala. Basaa is also found in Océan Department (commune of Bipindi, Southern Region).

Hijuk is spoken only in the quarter of Niki in Batanga commune, in Yangben Canton (Ch. Paulian (1980)) by 400 people. Hijuk is a Basaa dialect, despite its geographical location in the southeast of Bokito arrondissement (Mbam-et-Inoubou department, Central Region).[3]

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
Plosive 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:[4]

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.

Further reading

  • Makasso, Emmanuel-Moselly and Lee, Seunghun J. (2015). "Basaá". Illustrations of the IPA. Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 45 (1): 71–79. doi:10.1017/S0025100314000383{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link), with supplementary sound recordings.

References

  1. ↑ Basaa at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ↑ Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
  3. ↑ Binam Bikoi, Charles, ed. (2012). Atlas linguistique du Cameroun (ALCAM) [Linguistic Atlas of Cameroon]. Atlas linguistique de l'Afrique centrale (ALAC) (in French). Vol. 1: Inventaire des langues. Yaoundé: CERDOTOLA. ISBN 9789956796069.
  4. ↑ 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. OCLC 35148690. OL 45066553M.

Bibliography

  • Hyman, Larry M. (2003). "Basaá (A.43)". In Nurse, Derek; Philippson, Gérard (eds.). The Bantu Languages (PDF). Routledge. pp. 257–282. ISBN 0-7007-1134-1.
Basaa language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator
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