Bambalang language

Bambalang
Chrambo
Region	Cameroon
Ethnicity	Bamileke
Native speakers	29,000 (2008) [1]
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/
	Voiced						/d͡ʒː/		/gː/
Fricative	Voiceless	/f/	/fː/			/ʃ/	/ʃː/			/h/
	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]
	Voiced	[ b ] [b]	[ bʰ ]	[ d ] [c]	[ dʰ ]	[ d͡ʒ ] [d]	[ d͡ʒː ]	[ g ] [e]	[ gː ]
Fricative	Voiceless	[ f ]	[ fː ]			[ ʃ ]	[ ʃː ]			[ h ]
	Voiced	[ v ]	[ vː ]					[ ɣ ]
Tap				[ ɾ ] [f]
Nasal		[ m ]~[ ɱ ] [g]	[ mː ]	[ n ]	[ nː ]	[ ɲ ]		[ ŋ ]
Approximant				[ l ]	[ lː ]	[ j ]~[ ʒ ]	[ ɥ ] [h] ~[ w ]

1. [ ʔ ] is the allophone of /k/ in a CVCV structure.
2. [ b ] is an always prenasalized allophone of /p/.
3. [ d ] is an always prenasalized allophone of /l/.
4. [ d͡ʒ ] is an allophone of /j/ before /n/.
5. [ g ] is an allophone of /ɣ/ after a nasal.
6. [ ɾ ] is an allophone of /l/ in a consonant cluster or a CVCV structure.
7. [ ɱ ] is an allophone of /m/ before labiodental consonants.
8. [ 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

1. Bambalang at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. Binam Bikoi (2012)
3. Grove & Wright (2012 :5–8)
4. Grove & Wright (2012 :15)
5. Grove & Wright (2012 :16)
6. Grove & Wright (2012 :3)
7. 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.

Further reading

• Ayafor, Vera. The Structural Phonology of Cirambo (Thesis). Yaoundé: University of Yaoundé I.
• Luider, Jennifer (December 2009). "A Phonological Sketch of the Bambalang (Chrambo) Language" (PDF). SIL.
• Wright, Jennifer (2009). "The Noun and Verb Phrase in Chrambo (Bambalang)" (PDF). SIL.
• Wright, Jennifer (2011). "Tone in the Verb Phrase in Chrambo (Bambalang)" (PDF). SIL.
• Wright, Jennifer (June 2012). "Testing and Revising a Tone Orthography Proposal for Chrambo (Bambalang)" (PDF). SIL.