Bamum language

Bamum
Shüpamom
ꛀꛣꚧꚳ
Region	Cameroon,Nigeria
Ethnicity	Bamum people
Native speakers	420,000 (2005)
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta-Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Grassfields Eastern Grassfields Mbam-Nkam Nun Bamum
Dialects	Bapi
Writing system	Latin script,Bamum syllabary(being revived)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	bax
Glottolog	bamu1253
Page from a manuscript in theBamum script

Bamum(Shü Pamom[ʃŷpǎˑmə̀m]'language of the Bamum',orShümom'Mum language'), also known asShupamem,Bamun,orBamoun,is anEastern Grassfields languageofCameroon,with approximately 420,000 speakers.The language is well known for itsoriginal scriptdeveloped byKing Njoyaand his palace circle in theKingdom of Bamumaround 1895. Cameroonian musicianClaude Ndamwas a native speaker of the language and sang it in his music.

Phonology

Bamum hastone,vowel length, diphthongs andcodaconsonants.

Vowels

Nchare claims ten diphthongs, only eight of which (excluding/ɔ/and/o/) have a length distinction.Matateyou shows normal and long examples of all ten vowel qualities. The orthography in angle brackets was based on theGeneral Alphabet of Cameroon Languagesas used by Matateyou.

	Front		Central	Back
	Unrounded	Rounded	Unrounded	Unrounded	Rounded
Close	i⟨i⟩iː⟨ii⟩	y⟨ü⟩yː⟨üü⟩		ɯ⟨ʉ⟩ɯː⟨ʉʉ⟩	u⟨u⟩uː⟨uu⟩
Mid	e⟨e⟩eː⟨ee⟩		ə⟨ə⟩əː⟨əə⟩		o⟨o⟩oː⟨oo⟩
Open-mid	ɛ⟨ɛ⟩ɛː⟨ɛɛ⟩				ɔ⟨ɔ⟩ɔː⟨ɔɔ⟩
Open			a⟨a⟩a⟨aa⟩

Consonants

The consonants are displayed as following:

			Labial		Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Labial- velar	Glottal
Plosive	Plain	Voiceless	p⟨p⟩		t⟨t⟩		k⟨k⟩	k͡p⟨kp⟩	ʔ⟨ʼ⟩
		Voiced	b⟨b⟩		d⟨d⟩		ɡ⟨g⟩	g͡b⟨gb⟩
	Prenasal	Voiceless	ᵐp⟨mp⟩		ⁿt⟨nt⟩		ᵑk⟨ŋk⟩	ᵑ͡ᵐk͡p⟨ŋkp⟩
		Voiced	ᵐb⟨mb⟩		ⁿd⟨nd⟩		ᵑɡ⟨ŋg⟩	ᵑ͡ᵐg͡b⟨ŋgb⟩
Fricative	Plain	Voiceless	f⟨f⟩		s⟨s⟩	ʃ⟨sh⟩
		Voiced	β⟨ɓ⟩	v⟨v⟩	z⟨z⟩	ʒ⟨j⟩	ɣ⟨gh⟩
	Prenasal	Voiceless	ᶬf⟨mf⟩		ⁿs⟨ns⟩	ᶮʃ⟨nsh⟩
		Voiced	ᶬv⟨mv⟩		ⁿz⟨nz⟩	ᶮʒ⟨nzh⟩
Nasal			m⟨m⟩		n⟨n⟩	ɲ⟨ny⟩	ŋ⟨ŋ⟩	ŋ͡m⟨ŋm⟩
Rhotic					r⟨r⟩
Approximant	Plain				l⟨l⟩	j⟨y⟩		w⟨w⟩
	Prenasal					ⁿj⟨nj⟩		ⁿw⟨nw⟩

Tones

Bamum has fouror five tones.Mateteyou's analysis includes a mid tone, while Nchare's analysis includesdownstep.Bamum distinguishes betweenlexical and grammatical tone.

Diacritic	Nchare	Matateyou
à	low	low
á	high	high
ā	―	mid
ǎ	rising	rising
â	falling	falling
ꜜ	downstep	―

Bibliography

• Matateyou, Emmanuel (2002).Parlons Bamoun.Paris: L'Harmattan. p. 38.
• Nchare, Abdoulaye Laziz (2012).The Grammar of Shupamem(PhD dissertation). New York University.ProQuest996252918.
• Pawou Molu, Solange (2018).Problèmes de morphophonologie nominale en Bamun-Shüpamom(PhD dissertation). Paris Cité University.

Further reading

• Bamum Scripts and Archives Project; Riley, Charles (2006-01-08).Towards the Encoding of the Bamum Script in the UCS(PDF)(Report).