Ewondo language
Ewondo | |
---|---|
Beti | |
Region | Cameroon |
Native speakers | (580,000 cited 1982)[1] |
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 a Bantu language spoken by the Beti people (more precisely Beti be Nanga, the people of the forest, or simply Beti) of Cameroon. The language had 577,700 native speakers in 1982. Ewondo is a trade language. Dialects include Badjia (Bakjo), Bafeuk, Bemvele (Mvele, Yezum, Yesoum), Bane, Beti, Enoah, Evouzom, Mbida-Bani, Mvete, Mvog-Niengue, Omvang, Yabekolo (Yebekolo), Yabeka, and Yabekanga. Ewondo speakers live primarily in Cameroon's Centre Region and the northern part of the Océan division in 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 Mfoundi, Mefou-et-Afamba, 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]
- ^ 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.
- ^ Owona, Antoine (2004). L'orthographe harmonisée de l'ewondo. Université de Yaoundé.
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External links
- Language articles citing Ethnologue 25
- All articles with dead external links
- Articles with dead external links from August 2019
- Articles with permanently dead external links
- CS1: long volume value
- CS1 French-language sources (fr)
- CS1 maint: location missing publisher
- Articles with short description
- Short description is different from Wikidata
- Language articles with old speaker data
- Languages with ISO 639-2 code
- Pages with plain IPA
- Articles with dead external links from March 2024
- Articles with BNF identifiers
- Articles with BNFdata identifiers
- Articles with J9U identifiers
- Articles with NDL identifiers
- Articles with SUDOC identifiers
- Beti languages
- Languages of Cameroon