Bambalang language

Bambalang
Bambalang
Chrambo
Region	Cameroon
Ethnicity	Bamileke
Native speakers	29,000 (2008)
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta-Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Grassfields Eastern Grassfields Mbam-Nkam Nun Bambalang; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	bmo
Glottolog	bamb1265

The Bambalang language, also called Chrambo (Chirambo, Tshirambo) or Mbawyakum (Mboyakum),^[2] is a Grassfields Bantu language of Cameroon.

Phonology

Consonants

These phones and phonemes were enumerated by Grove in 2007 and refined by Wright in 2012.^[3]

Phonemes
		Labial		Alveolar		Palatal		Velar		Glottal
Stop/Affricate	Voiceless	/p/	/pː/	/t/	/tː/	/t͡ʃ/	/t͡ʃː/	/k/	/kː/
Stop/Affricate	Voiced						/d͡ʒː/		/gː/
Fricative	Voiceless	/f/	/fː/			/ʃ/	/ʃː/			/h/
Fricative	Voiced	/v/	/vː/					/ɣ/
Nasal		/m/	/mː/	/n/	/nː/	/ɲ/		/ŋ/
Approximant				/l/	/lː/	/j/		/w/

Phones
		Labial		Alveolar		Palatal		Velar		Glottal
Stop/Affricate	Voiceless	[p]	[pʰ]	[t]	[tʰ]	[t͡ʃ]	[t͡ʃː]	[k]	[kʰ]	[ʔ]^[a]
Stop/Affricate	Voiced	[b]^[b]	[bʰ]	[d]^[c]	[dʰ]	[d͡ʒ]^[d]	[d͡ʒː]	[g]^[e]	[gː]
Fricative	Voiceless	[f]	[fː]			[ʃ]	[ʃː]			[h]
Fricative	Voiced	[v]	[vː]					[ɣ]
Tap				[ɾ]^[f]
Nasal		[m]~[ɱ]^[g]	[mː]	[n]	[nː]	[ɲ]		[ŋ]
Approximant				[l]	[lː]	[j]~[ʒ]	[ɥ]^[h]~[w]

^ [ʔ] is the allophone of /k/ in a CVCV structure.
^ [b] is an always prenasalized allophone of /p/.
^ [d] is an always prenasalized allophone of /l/.
^ [d͡ʒ] is an allophone of /j/ before /n/.
^ [g] is an allophone of /ɣ/ after a nasal.
^ [ɾ] is an allophone of /l/ in a consonant cluster or a CVCV structure.
^ [ɱ] is an allophone of /m/ before labiodental consonants.
^ [ɥ] is an allophone of /w/ before /i/.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	/i/ /ĩ/	/ɨ/ /ɨ̃/	/u/ /ũ/
Close-mid	/e/		/o/ /õ/
Mid		/ə/ /ə̃/
Open-mid	/ɛ/ /ɛ̃/		/ɔ/
Open	/a/ /ã/

Diphthongs

In addition to simple oral and nasal vowels, Bambalang also has oral and nasal diphthongs and vowel sequences.^[4] Grove and Wright do not specify whether nasal diphthongs are truly diphthongs or vowel sequences.

Orthographic	Phonemic	Phonetic
ei	/ei/	[ei̯]
ou	/ou/	[ou̯]
ao	/ao/	[ao̯]
əɨ	/əɨ/	[ə.ɨ]
ie	/ie/	[i.e]
ia	/ia/	[i.a]
ua	/ua/	[u.a]
uo	/uo/	[u.o]
aoŋ	/aõ/
ɛiŋ	/ɛĩ/
ieŋ	/iẽ/
iɛŋ	/iɛ̃/
iaŋ	/iã/
uoŋ	/uõ/

Tone

In addition, Bambalang has both lexical and grammatical tone.^[5]

Tones in Bambalang


Tone	High (H)	Low (L)*		Rising (LH)	Falling (HL)
Diacritic	á	à	ā	ǎ	a

*ā for verbs; à for other types of words^[5]

Orthography

A segmental orthography was created for Bambalang in 2007 and revised in 2012.^[6]

Orthography^[7]
Upper	Lower	Phone
A	a	[a]
B	b	[b]
Ch	ch	[t͡ʃ]
D	d	[d]
E	e	[e]
Ɛ	ɛ	[ɛ]
Ə	ə	[ə]
F	f	[f]
G	g	[g]
Gh	gh	[ɣ]
H	h	[h]
I	i	[i]
Ɨ	ɨ	[ɨ]
J	j	[d͡ʒ]
K	k	[k]
L	l	[l]
M	m	[m], [ɱ]
N	n	[n]
Ŋ	ŋ	[ŋ], [◌̃]
O	o	[ɔ]
Ɔ	ɔ	[ɔ]
P	p	[p]
R	r	[ɾ]
Sh	sh	[ʃ]
T	t	[t]
U	u	[u], [y]
V	v	[v]
W	w	[w], [y]
Y	y	[ʒ]~[j]
’		[ʔ]

References

^ Bambalang at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^ Binam Bikoi (2012)
^ Grove & Wright (2012:5–8)
^ Grove & Wright (2012:15)
^ ^a ^b Grove & Wright (2012:16)
^ Grove & Wright (2012:3)
^ Grove & Wright (2012:5–7)

Works Cited

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.
Grove, Dan; Wright, Jennifer (June 2012). "Bambalang (Chrambo) Orthography Guide" (PDF) (Revised ed.). SIL.