Bamum language

Bamum (Bamun: Shü Pamom [ʃŷpǎˑmə̀m] "language of the Bamum", or Shümom "Mum language"), also spelled Bamun or in its French spelling Bamoun, is an Eastern Grassfields language of Cameroon, with approximately 420,000 speakers.[1] The language is well known for its original script developed by King Njoya and his palace circle around 1895. Cameroonian musician Claude Ndam is a native speaker of the language and uses it in his music.[3]

Bamum
Shüpamom
ꛀꛣꚧꚳ
Region	Cameroon, Nigeria
Ethnicity	Bamum people
Native speakers	420,000 (2005)[1]
Language family	Niger–Congo Atlantic–Congo Volta-Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Grassfields Eastern Grassfields Mbam-Nkam Nun Bamum
Writing system	Latin script, Bamum syllabary (being revived)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	bax
Glottolog	bamu1253[2]
Page from a manuscript in the Bamum script

Phonology

Bamum has tone, vowel length, diphthongs and coda consonants.

Vowels

The simple vowels are:

	Front		Central	Back
	Unrounded	Rounded	Unrounded	Unrounded	Rounded
Close	i	y	ɨ	ɯ	u
Mid	e		ə		o
Open-mid	ɛ				ɔ
Open			a

Bamum vowels can be normal or half-long /ˑ/.

Consonants

The consonants are:

			Labial	Alveolar	Post- alveolar/ Palatal	Velar	Labialized velar	Labial- velar	Glottal
Plosive	Plain	Voiceless	p	t		k	kʷ	k͡p	ʔ
		Voiced	b	d		ɡ	ɡʷ	g͡b
	Prenasalized	Voiceless	ᵐp	ⁿt		ᵑk	ᵑkʷ	ᵑ͡ᵐk͡p
		Voiced	ᵐb	ⁿd		ᵑɡ	ᵑɡʷ	ᵑ͡ᵐg͡b
Fricative	Plain	Voiceless	f	s	ʃ	x	xʷ
		Voiced	v	z	ʒ	ɣ	ɣʷ
	Prenasalized	Voiceless	ᶬf	ⁿs	ᶮʃ
		Voiced	ᶬv	ⁿz	ᶮʒ
Nasal			m	n	ɲ	ŋ	ŋʷ	ŋ͡m
Rhotic				r	ɹ̠
Approximant				l	j		w

Tones

Bamum has five tones[4]

Tone	IPA
à	low
á	mid
ā	high
ǎ	rising
â	falling

References

1. Bamum at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Bamun". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
3. Cathy Kell (14 September 2005). "Cameroon: Claude Ndam : Committed To Culture". Retrieved 28 August 2015.
4. https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2007/07023-bamum-report.pdf