Basaa language

Basaa (also spelled Bassa, Basa, Bissa), or Mbene, is a Bantu language spoken in Cameroon by the Basaa people. It is spoken by about 300,000 people in the Centre and Littoral regions.

Maho (2009) lists North and South Kogo as dialects.

Background and Origin

Basaa is spoken by 230,000 speakers. They live in Nyong-et-Kelle (Central Region) and Sanaga Maritime (with the exception of the Edéa commune, which has a Bakoko majority) and most of Nkam commune (Littoral Region). In the western and northern parts of this department, the peripheral Basaa dialects are spoken: Yabasi in the commune of Yabassi, Diɓuum in the commune of Nkondjok (Diboum Canton), north of Ndemli and Dimbamban.

Similarly, Basaa Baduala is spoken in Wouri Department (Littoral Region), traditional Basaa territory that is being transformed by the growth of Douala. Basaa is also found in Océan Department (commune of Bipindi, Southern Region).

Hijuk is spoken only in the quarter of Niki in Batanga commune, in Yangben Canton (Ch. Paulian (1980)) by 400 people. Hijuk is a Basaa dialect, despite its geographical location in the southeast of Bokito arrondissement (Mbam-et-Inoubou department, Central Region).

Phonology

Vowels

	Front	Back
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Close-mid	Template:IPAlink Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink Template:IPAlink
Open-mid	Template:IPAlink Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink Template:IPAlink
Open	Template:IPAlink Template:IPAlink

Consonants

		Bilabial	Coronal	Palatal	Velar	Labial-velar	Uvular	Glottal
Plosive	voiceless	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlinkTemplate:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlinkTemplate:IPAlink
	prenasal	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink
	implosive	Template:IPAlink
Fricative		Template:IPA linkTemplate:IPA link	Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlinkTemplate:IPA link		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA linkTemplate:IPA link
Nasal		Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink
Tap			Template:IPA linkTemplate:IPA link
Lateral			Template:IPAlink
Approximant				Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink

• When not root-initial and not after a pause, the voiceless stops are realized as voiced stops or voiced fricatives.

Tone

Basaa contrasts four tones: high, low, high-to-low (falling) and low-to-high (rising).

Orthography

The language uses a Latin-based alphabet, with the addition of the letters Ɓɓ, Ɛɛ, Ŋŋ, Ɔɔ, ten multigraphs, as well as acute, grave, and circumflex accents:

Capital	Small
A	a
B	b
Ɓ	ɓ
C	c
D	d
E	e
Ɛ	ɛ
F	f
G	g
GW	gw
H	h
HY	hy
I	i
J	j
K	k
KW	kw
L	l
M	m
MB	mb
N	n
NJ	nj
NY	ny
ND	nd
Ŋ	ŋ
ŊG	ŋg
ŊGW	ŋgw
ŊW	ŋw
O	o
Ɔ	ɔ
P	p
R	r
S	s
T	t
U	u
V	v
W	w
Y	y

Macron and caron diacritics may be used for marking tone in reference works, for example the dictionary by Pierre Emmanuel Njock.

Further reading

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