Kemezung language

Kemezung
Native toCameroon
RegionNorthwest Province, Donga-Mantung Division, Southwest corner of Ako Subdivision, Northwest of Nkambé, town of Dumbu and village of Kwei.
Native speakers
3,540 (2008)
Language codes
ISO 639-3dmo
Glottologkeme1240

Kemezung (Dumbo, Dumbu, Dzumbo, Kumaju) is a Southern Bantoid (Eastern Beboid) language of Cameroon. According to Ethnologue, it's 85% lexically similar to Bebe.

Consonants

Kemezung has 19 "unmodified" consonants. Cox also claims Kemezung has labialized, palatalized, and prenasalized consonants but does not list all of them.

LabialCoronalPalatalVelarLabial–velarGlottalic
Plosive voiceless tkk͡p
voiced bdgg͡b
Affricate voiceless t͡s
voiced d͡z
Fricative fsh
Nasal mnɲŋ
Approximant ljw
  1. ↑ /t͡s/ becomes [t͡ʃ] before /i/.
  2. ↑ /d͡z/ becomes [d͡ʒ] before /i/.
  3. ↑ /s/ becomes [ʃ] before /i/. It becomes [s̬] or [ɾ] between vowels root-medially.
  4. ↑ /l/ optionally becomes [d] in many words before /i/ root-medially.
  5. ↑ /j/ optionally becomes [ʒ] before /i/ root-medially.

Vowels

Kemezung has 9 phonemic vowels.

Front CentralBack
Close i u
Close-mid eɘo
Open-mid ɛɜɔ
Open ä
  1. ↑ Cox uses ⟨ɨ⟩, which normally represents the close central unrounded vowel /ɨ/.
  2. ↑ Cox uses ⟨ə⟩, which normally represents the mid central unrounded vowel /ə/.

Tone

Kemezung also has 7 (or possibly 8) tones. There are three level tones (high, mid, and low), three falling tones (high-low, mid-low, and long mid-low), and one or two rising tones (low-mid and possibly mid-high).

Notes

  1. 1 2 Kemezung at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ↑ Cox (2005:2)
  3. ↑ Cox (2005:2–4)
  4. ↑ Cox (2005:5)
  5. ↑ Cox (2005:7–8)

References