| Vengo | |
|---|---|
| Babungo | |
| gháŋ vəŋóo | |
| Native to | Cameroon |
| Region | North West Province |
Native speakers | 27,000 (2008)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | bav |
| Glottolog | veng1238 |
Vengo (Vəŋo), orBabungo, is aGrassfields language and the language of theVengo people from the village of Babungo in theCameroonianGrassfields. The spellingBamungo is also often found.
In their own language, the Vengo people call their villagevengo (vəŋóo), and their languageghang vengo (gháŋ vəŋóo), which means "language of the Vengo"; it is thus officially listed under the nameVengo orVengoo. Other names for the language areVengi, Pengo, Ngo, Nguu, Ngwa, Nge.
Vengo is spoken by about 14,000 people. Because the Babungo people all live closely together and concentrate only in and around Vengo village, there are only small dialectical variations in their speech.
The Vengo language uses different tone pitches, which form a distinctive feature for the meaning of the words. In the Vengo tone system, there are eight distinctive pitch types or pitch sequences on vowels: high, mid, low, high-mid, high-low, low-falling, low-high, low-high-mid.
The use of the language (and traditional Babungo customs) is decreasing among the Babungo people due to not insignificant socio-cultural problems in that region. In most cases, those people acquire English as mother tongue, if they stay predominantly in the anglophone Northwest of Cameroon, otherwise French if they orient themselves towards the francophone parts of Cameroon. Most of the people in Western Cameroon speakCameroonian Pidgin English anyway.
| Labial | Alveolar | Post-alveolar | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | voiceless | (p)[a] | t | k | ʔ | |
| voiced | b | d | g | |||
| Fricative/ Affricate | voiceless | f | s | ʃ | ||
| voiced | v | z | d͡ʒ | ɣ | ||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||
| Rhotic | (r)[a] | |||||
| Approximant | w | l | j | |||
Voiceless plosives/t/ and/k/ are lightly aspirated ([tʰ] and[kʰ]).[3] Some speakers alternate[ʃ] and[t͡ʃ] for/ʃ/, but/d͡ʒ/ is always voiced.[3]
/p/ and/r/ only occur in loanwords. Schaub does not describe/r/ but consistently uses[r]./p/ tends to become aspirated[pʰ] in Christian names and become[b] elsewhere.[4] On the other hand,/r/ tends to become[l], even in Christian names.[4]
Most of the stops and fricatives/affricates can beprenasalized.Nasals arehomorganic to the following consonant. As a result,/m/ becomes[ɱ] before/f/ and/v/.[5] The following examples show which consonants can be prenasalized and the phonemic status of prenasalization.[6] Note that/wjvɣ/ become/gwd͡ʒbg/ when prenasalized.
| Plain | Gloss | Prenasalized | Gloss |
|---|---|---|---|
| [bɪ́] | 'goat' | [mbɪ́] | 'world' |
| [dɪ̌ˑ] | 'to celebrate' | [ndɪ̌ˑ] | 'to take' |
| [gɨ̞̏] | 'voice' | [ŋgɨ̞̏] | 'type of calabash' |
| [fɪ́] | 'to take' | [ɱfɪ́] | 'sorcerer' |
| [séː] | 'to split' | [nséː] | 'elephant' |
| [ʃə́] | 'to cover' | [nʃə́] | 'mother of newborn' |
| [vɨ̌ˑʔ] | 'to fan' | [ɱvɨ̏ʔ] | 'fan (n)' |
| [zwɪ́] | 'to kill' | [nzwɪ́] | 'killer' |
| [d͡ʒɨ̀ː] | 'road' | [nd͡ʒɨ̀ː] | 'room, side' |
| [wɪ̂] | 'that (class 1 & 3)' | [ŋgwîː] | 'that-emphatic' |
| [jɪ̂] | 'that (class 4, 5, & 9)' | [nd͡ʒîː] | 'that-emphatic' |
| [vɪ̂] | 'those (class 2 & 8)' | [mbîː] | 'those-emphatic' |
| [ɣɪ̂] | 'those (class 6)' | [ŋgîː] | 'those-emphatic' |
/vwɣʔ/ cannot be labialized. Consonants can be both prenasalized and labialized.[7]
Vengo has nine phonemic vowels and five diphthongs or vowel-glide sequences.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i[a] | ɨ[b] | u[c] |
| Mid | e | ə[d] | o |
| Open | ɛ | a[e] | ɔ[f] |
Vengo's diphthongs are/ɨə/,/ei/,/ia/,ai, and/au/.[8]
Any consonant may occur word-initially or syllable-initially, but only/ʔ/ and/ŋ/ can occur finally.[9]
 | This article aboutGrassfields Bantu languages is astub. You can help Wikipedia byexpanding it. |
