Kung | |
---|---|
Native to | Cameroon |
Native speakers | The Nzonko dialect was spoken during the 2000s, but now probably extinct. The Nkam dialect is originated from the frontier with Nigeria, today spoken a undated number of 12. The Zoro dialect was discovered in 2003, now at least 1 person remember words of this dialect.Contents(2019) [1] |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | kfl |
Glottolog | kung1260 |
ELP | Kung |
Kung is a Grassfields Bantu language of Cameroon.
Tatang enumerates 24 plain consonants, 9 prenasalized consonants, 7 labialized consonants, and 6 palatalized consonants, for a total of 46. [2]
Labial | Alveolar | Post-alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labial-velar | Glottal | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Stop | /b//ᵐb//bʷ//bʲ/ | /t//ⁿt//d//ⁿd//tʲ/ | /k//ᵑk//ᵑg//kʷ//kʲ/ | /k͡p//g͡b/ | /ʔ/ | ||
Affricate | /ᵐb͡v/ | /t͡s//ⁿd͡z/ | /t͡ʃ//d͡ʒ/ | ||||
Fricative | /fʷ//fʲ/ | /s//z//ⁿz/ | /ʃ//ʒ//ⁿʒ//ʃʷ//ʒʲ/ | /ɣ/ | |||
Nasal | /m//mʷ/ | /n/ | /ɲ/ | /ŋʷ/ | |||
Trill | /ʙ/ | ||||||
Approximant | /l//lʷ//lʲ/ | /j/ | /w/ |
Tatang counts 10 vowel phonemes. [2]
Front | Central | Back | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Close | /i/ | /ɨ/ | /ʉ/ | /u/ |
Close-mid | /e/ | /o/ | ||
Open-mid | /ɛ/ | /ɔ/ | ||
Open | /ä/ |
In addition, Kung contrasts six tones--three level tones (high, mid, low) and three contour tones (rising, high-mid, and falling). Tatang argues that the contour tones are combinations of register tones. [2]
Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning—that is, to distinguish or to inflect words. All oral languages use pitch to express emotional and other para-linguistic information and to convey emphasis, contrast and other such features in what is called intonation, but not all languages use tones to distinguish words or their inflections, analogously to consonants and vowels. Languages that have this feature are called tonal languages; the distinctive tone patterns of such a language are sometimes called tonemes, by analogy with phoneme. Tonal languages are common in East and Southeast Asia, Africa, the Americas and the Pacific.
There are hundreds of local Chinese language varieties forming a branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family, many of which are not mutually intelligible. Variation is particularly strong in the more mountainous southeast part of mainland China. The varieties are typically classified into several groups: Mandarin, Wu, Min, Xiang, Gan, Hakka and Yue, though some varieties remain unclassified. These groups are neither clades nor individual languages defined by mutual intelligibility, but reflect common phonological developments from Middle Chinese.
Dzongkha is a Sino-Tibetan language that is the official and national language of Bhutan. It is written using the Tibetan script.
The KhoekhoeKOY-koy language, also known by the ethnic terms Nama (Namagowab) NAH-mə, Damara (ǂNūkhoegowab), or Nama/Damara and formerly as Hottentot, is the most widespread of the non-Bantu languages of Southern Africa that make heavy use of click consonants and therefore were formerly classified as Khoisan, a grouping now recognized as obsolete. It belongs to the Khoe language family, and is spoken in Namibia, Botswana, and South Africa primarily by three ethnic groups: Namakhoen, ǂNūkhoen, and Haiǁomkhoen.
Benue–Congo is a major branch of the Volta-Congo languages which covers most of Sub-Saharan Africa.
Gǀui or Gǀwi is a Khoe dialect of Botswana with 2,500 speakers. It is part of the Gǁana dialect cluster, and is closely related to Naro. It has a number of loan words from ǂʼAmkoe. Gǀui, ǂʼAmkoe, and Taa form the core of the Kalahari Basin sprachbund, and share a number of characteristic features, including extremely large consonant inventories.
Sandawe is a language spoken by about 60,000 Sandawe people in the Dodoma Region of Tanzania. Sandawe's use of click consonants, a rare feature shared with only two other languages of East Africa – Hadza and Dahalo, had been the basis of its classification as a member of the defunct Khoisan family of Southern Africa since Albert Drexel in the 1920s. Recent investigations however suggest that Sandawe may be related to the Khoe family regardless of the validity of Khoisan as a whole. A discussion of Sandawe's linguistic classification can be found in Sands (1998).
The phonology of Vietnamese features 19 consonant phonemes, with 5 additional consonant phonemes used in Vietnamese's Southern dialect, and 4 exclusive to the Northern dialect. Vietnamese also has 14 vowel nuclei, and 6 tones that are integral to the interpretation of the language. Older interpretations of Vietnamese tones differentiated between "sharp" and "heavy" entering and departing tones. This article is a technical description of the sound system of the Vietnamese language, including phonetics and phonology. Two main varieties of Vietnamese, Hanoi and Saigon, which are slightly different to each other, are described below.
Nenqayni Chʼih is a Northern Athabaskan language spoken in British Columbia by the Tsilhqotʼin people.
The nearly thirty Palaungic or Palaung–Wa languages form a branch of the Austroasiatic languages.
The Majang language is spoken by the Majangir people of Ethiopia. Although it is a member of the Surmic language cluster, it is the most isolated one in the group. A language survey has shown that dialect variation from north to south is minor and does not seriously impede communication. The 2007 Ethiopian Census lists 6,433 speakers for Majang (Messengo), but also reports that the ethnic group consists of 32,822 individuals. According to the census, almost no speakers can be found in Mezhenger Zone of Gambela Region; a total of eleven speakers are listed for the zone, but almost 10,000 ethnic Mejenger or Messengo people.
Mpur is a language isolate spoken in and around Mpur and Amberbaken Districts in Tambrauw Regency of the Bird's Head Peninsula, New Guinea. It is not closely related to any other language, and though Ross (2005) tentatively assigned it to the West Papuan languages, based on similarities in pronouns, Palmer (2018), Ethnologue, and Glottolog list it as a language isolate.
Medumba is a Bamileke language of Cameroon. The people who speak it originate from the Nde division of the West Region of the country, with their main settlements in Bangangté, Bakong, Bangoulap, Bahouoc, Bagnoun and Tonga. It is a major Bamileke language, and is located in an area where sacred kingship played a pivotal role in government, justice, and diplomacy. The modern history of the Bamileke area, which was a German colony placed under French trusteeship by the League of Nations in 1919, is closely associated with the nationalist movement of the Union des Populations du Cameroun (UPC), which developed primarily in the coastal hinterland (Bassa) and the western highlands (Bamileke). From 1956 to the late 1960s, this area of Cameroon experienced a period of unrest; this episode continues to shape Bamileke political culture, and has an impact on language identity and the linguistic landscape.
Jita is a Bantu language of Tanzania, spoken on the southeastern shore of Lake Victoria/Nyanza and on the island of Ukerewe.
Mmen (Bafmeng) is a Grassfields Bantu language of Cameroon.
The Bamunka language, ŊgieməkɔʼkəBamunka pronunciation:[ˈŋgiěꜜmə́ˌkɔ̀ʔkə̌], is a Grassfields Bantu language of Cameroon.
Kenswei Nsei (Kensense), also Nsei or Mesing (Bamessing), is a Grassfields Bantu language of Cameroon.
The Babanki, or Kejom, language is a Bantoid language that is spoken by the Babanki people of the Western Highlands of Cameroon.
The Mainland Southeast Asia linguistic area is a sprachbund including languages of the Sino-Tibetan, Hmong–Mien, Kra–Dai, Austronesian and Austroasiatic families spoken in an area stretching from Thailand to China. Neighbouring languages across these families, though presumed unrelated, often have similar typological features, which are believed to have spread by diffusion. James Matisoff referred to this area as the "Sinosphere", contrasted with the "Indosphere", but viewed it as a zone of mutual influence in the ancient period.
Situ is a Rgyalrong language spoken in Sichuan, China. The name "Situ", literally "four Tusi", comes from a historical name of the Ma'erkang region.