Kung language (Cameroon)

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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.

Consonants

Tatang enumerates 24 plain consonants, 9 prenasalized consonants, 7 labialized consonants, and 6 palatalized consonants, for a total of 46. [2]

LabialAlveolarPost-alveolarPalatalVelarLabial-velarGlottal
Stop/b//ᵐb//////t//ⁿt//d//ⁿd////k//ᵑk//ᵑg//////k͡p//g͡b//ʔ/
Affricate/ᵐb͡v//t͡s//ⁿd͡z//t͡ʃ//d͡ʒ/
Fricative/////s//z//ⁿz//ʃ//ʒ//ⁿʒ//ʃʷ//ʒʲ//ɣ/
Nasal/m////n//ɲ//ŋʷ/
Trill/ʙ/
Approximant/l//////j//w/


Vowels

Tatang counts 10 vowel phonemes. [2]

FrontCentralBack
Close/i//ɨ//ʉ//u/
Close-mid/e//o/
Open-mid/ɛ//ɔ/
Open/ä/

Tones

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]

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References

  1. Kung at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. 1 2 3 Tatang, Joyce Yasho (November 2016). Aspects of Kung Grammar (PDF) (MA thesis). University of Buea. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 June 2022. Retrieved 12 December 2023.

Further reading