Bambalang language

Bambalang
Chrambo
Region	Cameroon
Ethnicity	Bamileke
Native speakers	29,000 (2008)
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta-Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Grassfields Eastern Grassfields Mbam-Nkam Nun Bambalang
Language codes
ISO 639-3	bmo
Glottolog	bamb1265

The Bambalang language, also called Chrambo (Chirambo, Tshirambo) or Mbawyakum (Mboyakum), is a Grassfields Bantu language of Cameroon.

Phonology

Consonants

These phones and phonemes were enumerated by Grove in 2007 and refined by Wright in 2012.

Phonemes

		Labial		Alveolar		Palatal		Velar		Glottal
Stop/Affricate	Voiceless	/p/	/pː/	/t/	/tː/	/t͡ʃ/	/t͡ʃː/	/k/	/kː/
	Voiced						/d͡ʒː/		/gː/
Fricative	Voiceless	/f/	/fː/			/ʃ/	/ʃː/			/h/
	Voiced	/v/	/vː/					/ɣ/
Nasal		/m/	/mː/	/n/	/nː/	/ɲ/		/ŋ/
Approximant				/l/	/lː/	/j/		/w/

Phones

		Labial		Alveolar		Palatal		Velar		Glottal
Stop/Affricate	Voiceless	[p]	[pʰ]	[t]	[tʰ]	[t͡ʃ]	[t͡ʃː]	[k]	[kʰ]	[ʔ]
	Voiced	[b]	[bʰ]	[d]	[dʰ]	[d͡ʒ]	[d͡ʒː]	[g]	[gː]
Fricative	Voiceless	[f]	[fː]			[ʃ]	[ʃː]			[h]
	Voiced	[v]	[vː]					[ɣ]
Tap				[ɾ]
Nasal		[m]~[ɱ]	[mː]	[n]	[nː]	[ɲ]		[ŋ]
Approximant				[l]	[lː]	[j]~[ʒ]	[ɥ]~[w]

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	/i/ /ĩ/	/ɨ/ /ɨ̃/	/u/ /ũ/
Close-mid	/e/		/o/ /õ/
Mid		/ə/ /ə̃/
Open-mid	/ɛ/ /ɛ̃/		/ɔ/
Open	/a/ /ã/

Diphthongs

In addition to simple oral and nasal vowels, Bambalang also has oral and nasal diphthongs and vowel sequences. Grove and Wright do not specify whether nasal diphthongs are truly diphthongs or vowel sequences.

Orthographic	Phonemic	Phonetic
ei	/ei/	[ei̯]
ou	/ou/	[ou̯]
ao	/ao/	[ao̯]
əɨ	/əɨ/	[ə.ɨ]
ie	/ie/	[i.e]
ia	/ia/	[i.a]
ua	/ua/	[u.a]
uo	/uo/	[u.o]
aoŋ	/aõ/
ɛiŋ	/ɛĩ/
ieŋ	/iẽ/
iɛŋ	/iɛ̃/
iaŋ	/iã/
uoŋ	/uõ/

Tone

In addition, Bambalang has both lexical and grammatical tone.

Tones in Bambalang

Tone	High (H)	Low (L)*		Rising (LH)	Falling (HL)
Diacritic	á	à	ā	ǎ	a

*ā for verbs; à for other types of words

Orthography

A segmental orthography was created for Bambalang in 2007 and revised in 2012.

Orthography

Upper	Lower	Phone
A	a	[a]
B	b	[b]
Ch	ch	[t͡ʃ]
D	d	[d]
E	e	[e]
Ɛ	ɛ	[ɛ]
Ə	ə	[ə]
F	f	[f]
G	g	[g]
Gh	gh	[ɣ]
H	h	[h]
I	i	[i]
Ɨ	ɨ	[ɨ]
J	j	[d͡ʒ]
K	k	[k]
L	l	[l]
M	m	[m], [ɱ]
N	n	[n]
Ŋ	ŋ	[ŋ], [◌̃]
O	o	[ɔ]
Ɔ	ɔ	[ɔ]
P	p	[p]
R	r	[ɾ]
Sh	sh	[ʃ]
T	t	[t]
U	u	[u], [y]
V	v	[v]
W	w	[w], [y]
Y	y	[ʒ]~[j]
’		[ʔ]

Works cited

• Binam Bikoi, Charles, ed. (2012). Atlas linguistique du Cameroun (ALCAM) [Linguistic Atlas of Cameroon]. Atlas linguistique de l'Afrique centrale (ALAC) (in French). Vol. 1: Inventaire des langues. Yaoundé: CERDOTOLA. ISBN 9789956796069.
• Grove, Dan; Wright, Jennifer (June 2012). "Bambalang (Chrambo) Orthography Guide" (PDF) (Revised ed.). SIL.

Further reading

• Ayafor, Vera. The Structural Phonology of Cirambo (Thesis). Yaoundé: University of Yaoundé I.
• Luider, Jennifer (December 2009). "A Phonological Sketch of the Bambalang (Chrambo) Language" (PDF). SIL.
• Wright, Jennifer (2009). "The Noun and Verb Phrase in Chrambo (Bambalang)" (PDF). SIL.
• Wright, Jennifer (2011). "Tone in the Verb Phrase in Chrambo (Bambalang)" (PDF). SIL.
• Wright, Jennifer (June 2012). "Testing and Revising a Tone Orthography Proposal for Chrambo (Bambalang)" (PDF). SIL.