Bamum language

 ( Languages Of Cameroon ) 

Bamum (Shü Pamom , or Shümom ), also known as Shupamem, Bamun, or Bamoun, is an Eastern Grassfields language of Cameroon, with approximately 420,000 speakers. The language is well known for its Bamum script developed by Ibrahim Njoya and his palace circle in the Kingdom of Bamum around 1895. Cameroonian musician Claude Ndam was a native speaker of the language and sang it in his music.

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Phonology Bamum has tone, vowel length, diphthongs and syllable coda consonants.

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Vowels Nchare claims ten Monophthong, only eight of which (excluding and ) have a length distinction. Matateyou shows short and long examples of all ten vowel qualities. The orthography in angle brackets is based on the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages as used by Matateyou.

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Consonants The consonants are displayed as following:

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Tones Bamum has four or five tones. Mateteyou's analysis includes a mid tone, while Nchare's analysis includes downstep. Bamum distinguishes between lexical and grammatical tone.

low

high

mid

rising

falling

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Bibliography

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Further reading

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