Vengo language

Vengo (), or Babungo, is a Grassfields language and the language of the Vengo people from the village of Babungo in the Cameroonian Grassfields. The spelling Bamungo is also often found.

In their own language, the Vengo people call their village vengo (), and their language ghang vengo (), which means "language of the Vengo"; it is thus officially listed under the name Vengo or Vengoo. Other names for the language are Vengi, Pengo, Ngo, Nguu, Ngwa, Nge.

Vengo is spoken by about 14,000 people. Because the Babungo people all live closely together and concentrate only in and around Vengo village, there are only small dialectical variations in their speech.

The Vengo language uses different tone pitches, which form a distinctive feature for the meaning of the words. In the Vengo tone system, there are eight distinctive pitch types or pitch sequences on vowels: high, mid, low, high-mid, high-low, low-falling, low-high, low-high-mid.

The use of the language (and traditional Babungo customs) is decreasing among the Babungo people due to not insignificant socio-cultural problems in that region. In most cases, those people acquire English as mother tongue, if they stay predominantly in the anglophone Northwest of Cameroon, otherwise French if they orient themselves towards the francophone parts of Cameroon. Most of the people in Western Cameroon speak Cameroonian Pidgin English anyway.

Phonology

Consonants

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Post-alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	voiceless	(Template:IPAlink)Template:Efn	Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink
	voiced	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink
Fricative/ Affricate	voiceless	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink
	voiced	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink
Nasal		Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink
Rhotic			(Template:IPAlink)Template:Efn
Approximant		Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink

Voiceless plosives Template:IPAslink and Template:IPAslink are lightly aspirated (Template:IPAblink and Template:IPAblink). Some speakers alternate Template:IPAblink and Template:IPAblink for Template:IPAslink, but Template:IPAslink is always voiced.

Template:IPAslink and Template:IPAslink only occur in loanwords. Schaub does not describe Template:IPAslink but consistently uses Template:IPAblink. Template:IPAslink tends to become aspirated Template:IPAblink in Christian names and become Template:IPAblink elsewhere. On the other hand, Template:IPAslink tends to become Template:IPAblink, even in Christian names.

Prenasalization

Most of the stops and fricatives/affricates can be prenasalized. Nasals are homorganic to the following consonant. As a result, Template:IPAslink becomes Template:IPAblink before Template:IPAslink and Template:IPAslink. The following examples show which consonants can be prenasalized and the phonemic status of prenasalization. Note that become when prenasalized.

Plain	Gloss	Prenasalized	Gloss
	Template:Gloss		Template:Gloss
	Template:Gloss		Template:Gloss
	Template:Gloss		Template:Gloss
	Template:Gloss		Template:Gloss
	Template:Gloss		Template:Gloss
	Template:Gloss		Template:Gloss
	Template:Gloss		Template:Gloss
	Template:Gloss		Template:Gloss
	Template:Gloss		Template:Gloss
	Template:Gloss		Template:Gloss
	Template:Gloss		Template:Gloss
	Template:Gloss		Template:Gloss
	Template:Gloss		Template:Gloss

Labialization

cannot be labialized. Consonants can be both prenasalized and labialized.

Vowels

Vengo has nine phonemic vowels and five diphthongs or vowel-glide sequences.

Monophthongs

Monophthongs

	Front	Central	Back
Close	Template:IPAlinkTemplate:Efn	Template:IPAlinkTemplate:Efn	Template:IPAlinkTemplate:Efn
Mid	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlinkTemplate:Efn	Template:IPAlink
Open	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlinkTemplate:Efn	Template:IPAlinkTemplate:Efn

Diphthongs

Vengo's diphthongs are , , , , and .

Phonotactics

Any consonant may occur word-initially or syllable-initially, but only Template:IPAslink and Template:IPAslink can occur finally.

Bibliography

Template:Gras-lang-stub