Basaa language

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
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 to
Littoral Provinces
EthnicityBasaa people
Native speakers
300,000 (2005 SIL)[1]
?
Language codes
ISO 639-2bas
ISO 639-3bas
Glottologbasa1284
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

Littoral
regions.

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

Background and Origin

Basaa is spoken by 230,000 speakers. They live in

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

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
 Uvular Glottal
Plosive
voiceless
 		p
t
 		tʃ dʒ k kʷ ɡʷ
prenasal ᵐb ⁿd ᶮdʒ ᵑɡ
implosive ɓ
Fricative ɸ β s x ɣ χ h ɦ
Nasal
 m
n
 		ɲ ŋ ŋʷ
Tap
ɾ̥ ɾ
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. ISBN 9789956796069
    .
  4. OL 45066553M
    .

Bibliography
Basaa language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator
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