Kwasio language

The Kwasio language, also known as Ngumba / Mvumbo, Bujeba, and Gyele / Kola, is a language of Cameroon, spoken in the south along the coast and at the border with Equatorial Guinea by some 70,000 members of the Ngumba, Kwasio, Gyele and Mabi peoples. Many authors[4][5][6] view Kwasio and the Gyele/Kola language as distinct. In the Ethnologue, the languages therefore receive different codes: Kwasio has the ISO 639-3 code nmg,[7] while Gyele has the code gyi.[8] The Kwasio, Ngumba, and Mabi are village farmers; the Gyele (also known as the Kola or Koya) are nomadic Pygmy hunter-gatherers living in the rain forest.

Not to be confused with Koya language or Ngom language.
Kwasio
Ngumba, Kola
Native toCameroon, Equatorial Guinea
Regionalong and near the coast at the border between Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea
EthnicityKwasio, Gyele Pygmies
Native speakers
(26,000 cited 1982–2012)[1]
Dialects
  • Kwasio
  • Mvumbo
  • Mabi
  • Gyele
  • Kola
Language codes
ISO 639-3Either:
nmg – Kwasio–Mvumbo
gyi – Gyele–Kola
Glottologmvum1239[2]
A.81,801[3]

Dialects

Dialects are Kwasio (also known as Kwassio, Bisio), Mvumbo (also known as Ngumba, Ngoumba, Mgoumba, Mekuk), and Mabi (Mabea).

The Gyele speak the subdialects of Mvumbo and Gyele in the north Giele, Gieli, Gyeli, Bagiele, Bagyele (Bagyɛlɛ), Bagielli,[9] Bajele, Bajeli, Bogyel, Bogyeli, Bondjiel.

In the south, the Gyele speak Kola, also known as Koya, in the south, also spelled as Likoya, Bako, Bakola, Bakuele, also Bekoe. The local derogatory term for pygmies, Babinga, is also used.

Glottolog adds Shiwa.

Features

Like the other Niger-Congo languages of Cameroon, Kwasio is a tonal language.

As a Bantu language, it has noun class system. The Kwasio noun class system is somewhat reduced, having retained only 6 genders (a gender being a pairing of a singular and a plural noun class).

gollark: THAT'S QUITE HARD TO DO AND WOULD TAKE A WHILE
gollark: OKAY THEN
gollark: Which is wasteful.
gollark: However, if it doesn't toggle instantly it might be turned on when the buffer is full.
gollark: The buffered power won't affect efficiently.

See also

The term Bakola is also used for the pygmies of the northern Congo–Gabon border region, which speak the Ngom language.

References
  1. Kwasio–Mvumbo at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
    Gyele–Kola at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Mvumboic". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
  4. Rénaud, Patrick (1976). Le bajeli. Phonologie, morphologie nominale. Vol. 1 et 2. Yaoundé: Les Dossiers de l'ALCAM. p. 27.
  5. Grimm, Nadine (2015). A Grammar of Gyeli. Humboldt University Berlin: PhD thesis. p. 8.
  6. Maho, Jouni F. (2009). "New Updated Guthrie List" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on February 3, 2018. Retrieved March 3, 2017.
  7. "Ethnologue: Kwasio". Retrieved March 3, 2017.
  8. "Ethnologue: Gyele". Retrieved March 3, 2017.
  9. Blench, Roger. Bagyɛlɛ mammal names
  • Serge BAHUCHET, 2006. "Languages of the African Rainforest « Pygmy » Hunter-Gatherers: Language Shifts without Cultural Admixture." In Historical linguistics and hunter-gatherers populations in global perspective. Leipzig.
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