Basaa language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Basaa ɓasaá |
||
|---|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Cameroon | |
| Region: | Centre and Littoral Provinces | |
| Total speakers: | 230,000 | |
| Language family: | Niger-Congo Atlantic-Congo Volta-Congo Benue-Congo Bantoid Southern Bantu Bantu A Basaa |
|
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | none | |
| ISO 639-2: | bas | |
| ISO 639-3: | bas | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. | ||
Basaa (also spelled Bassa, Basa, Bissa) is a Bantu language spoken in Cameroon. It is spoken by about 230,000 people in Centre and Littoral provinces.
Contents |
[edit] Phonology
[edit] Vowels
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Close | i, iː | u, uː |
| Close-mid | e, eː | o, oː |
| Open-mid | ɛ, ɛː | ɔ, ɔː |
| Open | a, aː | |
[edit] Consonants
| Bilabial | Coronal | Palatal | Velar | Labial-velar | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | p | t | c, ɟ | k | kʷ, gʷ |
| Implosive | ɓ | ||||
| Fricative | s | x | |||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ŋʷ |
| Prenasalized stop | mb | nd | ɲɟ | ŋg | |
| Lateral | l | ||||
| Approximant | j | w |
- When not root-initial and not occur after a pause, the voiceless stops /p t k/ are realized as voiced stops or voiced fricatives.
[edit] Tone
Basaa contrasts four tones: high, low, high-to-low (falling) and low-to-high (rising).
[edit] References
- Hyman, Larry M. (2003). "Basaá (A.43)", in Nurse, Derek and Philippson, Gérard (ed.): The Bantu Languages. Routledge, 257–282. ISBN 0-7007-1134-1.
