Kpwe | |
---|---|
Mokpwe | |
Native to | Cameroon |
Ethnicity | Kpwe, Mboko |
Native speakers | (25,000 cited 2000–2014) [1] |
Dialects |
|
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | Variously: bri – Kpwe bqm – Mboko (Wumboko) kme – Kole (Bakole) |
Glottolog | mokp1239 Mokpwe wumb1241 Wumboko bako1250 Bakole |
A.21,22,231 [2] | |
ELP | Bakole |
People | Bekpak |
---|---|
Language | Rikpa |
Kpwe (Mokpwe) is a Bantu language of Cameroon. It is mutually intelligible with Kole, and probably with Mboko (Wumboko) as well.
There are multiple variants of the name: based on 'Kpwe' (Bakpwe, Mokpwe), on 'Kpe' (Mokpe), on 'Kweɾi' (Kwedi, Kweli, Kwili, Kwiri, Bakwedi, Bakwele, Bakweri, Vakweli, Bekwiri), as well as Ujuwa and Vambeng.
The Kpwe phonological inventory is as follows, [3]
Front | Back | |
---|---|---|
Close | i | u |
Close-mid | e | o |
Open-mid | ɛ | ɔ |
Open | a |
Bilabial | Coronal | Palatal | Velar | Labiovelar | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋʷ · ŋm | ||
Plosive | prenasal | ᵐb | ⁿd | ᶮdʒ | ᵑɡ | ᵑɡb |
voiced | ( b ) | dʒ | ( ɡ ) | ɡb | ||
voiceless | ( p ) | t | k | kp | ||
Fricative | voiceless | ɸ | ||||
voiced | β | |||||
Rhotic | zr§ | |||||
Lateral | l | |||||
Approximant | j | w |
§/zr/, the 'liquidized alveolar fricative', may be realized as [zr], [ʒr], [rz] or [rʒ]. This sound is rendered /s/ in some sources, and is cognate to /s/ in Bubia.
/p/ and /ɡ/ in parentheses are only found in loans, while /b/ is very uncommon and in many inflections freely alternates as [w].
Kpwe contrasts five tones on short syllables: high, downstepped high, low, rising and falling.