Ewondo language
| Ewondo | |
|---|---|
| Beti | |
| Region | Cameroon |
Native speakers | (580,000 cited 1982)[1] |
Niger–Congo?
| |
| Official status | |
Recognised minority language in | Cameroon |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | ewo |
| ISO 639-3 | ewo |
| Glottolog | ewon1239 |
A.72[2] | |
Ewondo or Beti is the language of the
South Region
.
Ewondo is a
Bantu language. It is a language of the Beti people , and is intelligible with Eton
.
In 2011 there was a concern among Cameroonian linguists that the language was being displaced in the country by French.[3]
Distribution
Ewondo (Beti) covers the whole of the departments of
Mefou-et-Akono, Nyong-et-So'o, Nyong-et-Mfoumou (Central Region), and part of Océan Department (Southern Region).[4]
History
The Ewondo language originated in the forests south of the Sanaga river.
Phonology
Consonants
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labio- velar |
Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t
|
k | k͡p | ||
| voiced | b | d
|
ɡ | ɡ͡b | |||
| prenasal | ᵐb | ⁿd | ᵑɡ | ᵑᵐɡ͡b | |||
| Affricate | voiceless | t͡s | |||||
| voiced | d͡z | ||||||
| prenasal | ⁿd͡z | ||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | h | |||
| voiced | v | z | |||||
| prenasal | ᶬv | ||||||
| Nasal | m | n
|
ɲ | ŋ | |||
| Lateral | l
|
||||||
| Rhotic | r
|
||||||
| Approximant | j | w | |||||
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Close-mid | e | ə | o |
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɔ | |
| Open | a |
Alphabet system
| Uppercase | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | B | D | Dz | E | Ə | Ɛ |
F | G | Gb
|
H | I | K | Kp |
L | M | Mb |
Mgb |
Mv |
N | Nd |
Ndz | Ng |
Ny | Ŋ
|
O | Ɔ |
P | R | U | T | Ts |
S | V | W | Y | Z |
| Lowercase | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| a | b | d | dz | e | ə | ɛ | f | g | gb | h | i | k | kp | l | m | mb | mgb | mv | n | nd | ndz | ng | ny | ŋ | o | ɔ | p | r | u | t | ts | s | v | w | y | z |
| Phonemes | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| a | b | d | d͡z | e | ə | ɛ | f | ɡ | ɡ͡b | h | i | k | k͡p | l | m | m͡b | mɡ͡b | ɱ͡v | n | n͡d | nd͡z | ŋ͡ɡ | ɲ | ŋ | o | ɔ | p | r | u | t | t͡s | s | v | w | j | z |
The tones are indicated with diacritics on the vowels:
- the high tone is indicated with an acute accent: á é ə́ ɛ́ í ó ɔ́ ú;
- the mid tone is indicated with a macron: ā ē ə̄ ɛ̄ ī ō ɔ̄ ū;
- the low tone, the most frequent tone, is indicated by the absence of diacritics: a e ə ɛ i o ɔ u;
- the rising tone is indicated with a caron: ǎ ě ə̌ ɛ̌ ǐ ǒ ɔ̌ ǔ;
- the falling tone is indicated with a circumflex: â ê ə̂ ɛ̂ î ô ɔ̂ û.
See also
References
- ^ Ewondo at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
- ^ http://quotidien.mutations-multimedia.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2962:patrimoine-la-langue-ewondo-a-son-dictionnaire&catid=58:news&Itemid=415[permanent dead link]
- ISBN 9789956796069.
- ^ Owona, Antoine (2004). L'orthographe harmonisée de l'ewondo. Université de Yaoundé.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
