Ewondo language

Ewondo also known as Beti or Cameroonian is a Bantu language spoken by the Beti people (more precisely Beti be Nanga, the people of the forest, or simply Beti) of Cameroon. The language had 577,700 native speakers in 1982. Ewondo is a trade language. Dialects include Badjia (Bakjo), Bafeuk, Bemvele (Mvele, Yezum, Yesoum), Bane, Beti, Enoah, Evouzom, Mbida-Bani, Mvete, Mvog-Niengue, Omvang, Yabekolo (Yebekolo), Yabeka, and Yabekanga. Ewondo speakers live primarily in Cameroon's Centre Region and the northern part of the Océan division in the South Region.

Ewondo is a Bantu language. It is a language of the Beti people, and is intelligible with Eton.

In 2011, there was a concern among Cameroonian linguists that the language was being displaced in the country by French.

Distribution

Ewondo (Beti) covers the whole of the departments of Mfoundi, Mefou-et-Afamba, Mefou-et-Akono, Nyong-et-So'o, Nyong-et-Mfoumou (Central Region), and part of Océan Department (Southern Region).

History

The Ewondo language originated in the forests south of the Sanaga river.

Phonology

Consonants

Ewondo consonants
	Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Labio- velar	Glottal
Plosive	voiceless	p	t		k	k͡p
voiced	b	d		ɡ	ɡ͡b
prenasal	ᵐb	ⁿd		ᵑɡ	ᵑᵐɡ͡b
Affricate	voiceless		t͡s
voiced		d͡z
prenasal		ⁿd͡z
Fricative	voiceless	f	s				h
voiced	v	z
prenasal	ᶬv
Nasal	m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Lateral		l
Rhotic		r
Approximant			j		w

Vowels

Ewondo vowels
	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Close-mid	e	ə	o
Open-mid	ɛ	ɔ
Open		a

Alphabet system

Alphabet in Ewondo
Uppercase
A	B	D	Dz	E	Ə	Ɛ	F	G	Gb	H	I	K	Kp	L	M	Mb	Mgb	Mv	N	Nd	Ndz	Ng	Ny	Ŋ	O	Ɔ	P	R	U	T	Ts	S	V	W	Y	Z
Lowercase
a	b	d	dz	e	ə	ɛ	f	g	gb	h	i	k	kp	l	m	mb	mgb	mv	n	nd	ndz	ng	ny	ŋ	o	ɔ	p	r	u	t	ts	s	v	w	y	z
Phonemes
a	b	d	d͡z	e	ə	ɛ	f	ɡ	ɡ͡b	h	i	k	k͡p	l	m	m͡b	mɡ͡b	ɱ͡v	n	n͡d	nd͡z	ŋ͡ɡ	ɲ	ŋ	o	ɔ	p	r	u	t	t͡s	s	v	w	j	z

The tones are indicated with diacritics on the vowels:

the high tone is indicated with an acute accent: áéə́ɛ́íóɔ́ú;
the mid-high tone is indicated with a grave accent: àèə̀ɛ̀ìòɔ̀ù;
the mid tone is indicated with a macron: āēə̄ɛ̄īōɔ̄ū;
the low tone the most frequent tone, is indicated by the absence of diacritics: aeəɛioɔu;
the mid-low tone, is also indicated by the absence of diacritics: aeəɛioɔu;
the rising tone is indicated with a caron: ǎěə̌ɛ̌ǐǒɔ̌ǔ;
the falling tone is indicated with a circumflex: âêə̂ɛ̂îôɔ̂û.

External links

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