Naki language

Not to be confused with Naki language (Papuan).

Naki
Munkaf
Region	Cameroon, Nigeria
Native speakers	(2,000 cited 1993) [1]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Southern Bantoid Eastern Beboid Naki
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either: mff  – Naki (Cameroon) jms  – Mashi
Glottolog	naki1240
ELP	Naki

Naki, or Munkaf, is an Eastern Beboid language of Cameroon and Nigeria. There is no name for the language; it is known by the villages it is spoken in, including Naki and Mekaf (Munkaf) in Cameroon and Mashi in Nigeria, the latter listed as a separate language by Ethnologue, though it is not distinct.

Phonology

Naki is a tonal language. It has a high tone /á/, a low tone /à/, a rising tone /ǎ/, and a falling tone /â/.

Naki has eight phonemic vowels. These are as follows:

Vowel Phonemes

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Close-mid	e	ə	o
Open-mid	ɛ		ɔ
Open	a

The consonants are as follows.

Consonants

		Labial	Coronal	Palatal	Velar
Plosive	voiceless	p	t tʷ	c cʷ	k kʷ
	voiced	b bʷ bʲ	d		g gʷ
Affricate	voiceless	f fʷ fʲ	t͡s t͡sʷ t͡sʲ
	voiced		d͡z	d͡ʒ d͡ʒʷ
Fricative	voiceless		s	ʃ ʃʷ ʃʲ
	voiced			ʒ
Nasal		m mʷ	n	ɲ	ŋ
Approximant		w	l	j jʷ

There are also the labio-velar plosives k͡p and g͡b. ^[2]

References

1. Naki (Cameroon) at Ethnologue (16th ed., 2009)
   Mashi at Ethnologue (16th ed., 2009)
2. Kum Nang, Julius (2002). A sketch phonology and a step towards the standardization of Naki (masters thesis). Université de Yaoundé.

Sources

• Blench, Roger, 2011. 'The membership and internal structure of Bantoid and the border with Bantu'. Bantu IV, Humboldt University, Berlin.