| Bamum | |
|---|---|
| Shüpamom | |
| ꚶꛉ꛰꛲ꚫꛦꚳ[citation needed] | |
| Region | Cameroon,Nigeria |
| Ethnicity | Bamum people |
Native speakers | 600,000 (2022[1])[2] |
| Dialects |
|
| Latin script,Bamum syllabary (being revived) | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | bax |
| Glottolog | bamu1253 |
 Page from a manuscript in theBamum script | |
Bamum (Shü Pamom[ʃŷpǎˑmə̀m]'language of the Bamum', orShümom'Mum language'), also known asShupamem,Bamun, orBamoun, is anEastern Grassfields language ofCameroon, with approximately 600,000-700,000 speakers in 2025.[3] The language is well known for itsoriginal script developed byKing Njoya and his palace circle in theKingdom of Bamum around 1895. Cameroonian musicianClaude Ndam was a native speaker of the language and sang it in his music.[4]
Bamum hastone, vowel length, diphthongs andcoda consonants.
Nchare claims tenmonophthongs, only eight of which (excluding/ɔ/ and/o/) have a length distinction.[5] Matateyou shows short and long examples of all ten vowel qualities. The orthography in angle brackets is based on theGeneral Alphabet of Cameroon Languages as used by Matateyou.[6]
| Front | Central | Back | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unrounded | Rounded | Unrounded | Unrounded | Rounded | |
| Close | i⟨i⟩iː⟨ii⟩ | y⟨ü⟩yː⟨üü⟩ | ɯ⟨ʉ⟩ɯː⟨ʉʉ⟩ | u⟨u⟩uː⟨uu⟩ | |
| Mid | e⟨e⟩eː⟨ee⟩ | ə⟨ə⟩əː⟨əə⟩ | o⟨o⟩oː⟨oo⟩ | ||
| Open-mid | ɛ⟨ɛ⟩ɛː⟨ɛɛ⟩ | ɔ⟨ɔ⟩ɔː⟨ɔɔ⟩ | |||
| Open | a⟨a⟩a⟨aa⟩ | ||||
The consonants are displayed as following:[7][6]
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labial- velar | Glottal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | Plain | Voiceless | p⟨p⟩ | t⟨t⟩ | k⟨k⟩ | k͡p⟨kp⟩ | ʔ⟨ʼ⟩[a] | ||
| Voiced | b⟨b⟩[b] | d⟨d⟩[c] | ɡ⟨g⟩[d] | g͡b⟨gb⟩ | |||||
| Prenasal | Voiceless | ᵐp⟨mp⟩ | ⁿt⟨nt⟩ | ᵑk⟨ŋk⟩ | ᵑ͡ᵐk͡p⟨ŋkp⟩ | ||||
| Voiced | ᵐb⟨mb⟩ | ⁿd⟨nd⟩ | ᵑɡ⟨ŋg⟩ | ᵑ͡ᵐg͡b⟨ŋgb⟩ | |||||
| Fricative | Plain | Voiceless | f⟨f⟩ | s⟨s⟩ | ʃ⟨sh⟩ | ||||
| Voiced | β[b]⟨ɓ⟩[e] | v⟨v⟩ | z⟨z⟩[f] | ʒ⟨j⟩[g] | ɣ⟨gh⟩ | ||||
| Prenasal | Voiceless | ᶬf⟨mf⟩ | ⁿs⟨ns⟩ | ᶮʃ⟨nsh⟩ | |||||
| Voiced | ᶬv⟨mv⟩ | ⁿz⟨nz⟩ | ᶮʒ⟨nzh⟩ | ||||||
| Nasal | m⟨m⟩ | n⟨n⟩ | ɲ⟨ny⟩ | ŋ⟨ŋ⟩ | ŋ͡m⟨ŋm⟩ | ||||
| Rhotic | r⟨r⟩ | ||||||||
| Approximant | Plain | l⟨l⟩ | j⟨y⟩ | w⟨w⟩ | |||||
| Prenasal | ⁿj⟨nj⟩ | ⁿw⟨nw⟩ | |||||||
Bamum has four[8] or five tones.[9] Mateteyou's analysis includes a mid tone, while Nchare's analysis includesdownstep.[8] Bamum distinguishes betweenlexical and grammatical tone.[10]
| Diacritic | Nchare | Matateyou |
|---|---|---|
| à | low | low |
| á | high | high |
| ā | ― | mid |
| ǎ | rising | rising |
| â | falling | falling |
| ꜜ | downstep | ― |
| National | |
|---|---|
| Other | |
