Vengo language
Page Module:Infobox/styles.css has no content.
Page Template:Infobox/styles-images.css has no content.Script error: No such module "Check for conflicting parameters".
Vengo (Script error: No such module "Lang".), 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 (Script error: No such module "Lang".), and their language ghang vengo (Script error: No such module "Lang".), 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
| Labial | Alveolar | Post-alveolar | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | voiceless | (p)[a] | t | k | ʔ | |
| voiced | b | d | g | |||
| Fricative/ Affricate |
voiceless | f | s | ʃ | ||
| voiced | v | z | d͡ʒ | ɣ | ||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||
| Rhotic | (r)[a] | |||||
| Approximant | w | l | j | |||
Page Template:Reflist/styles.css has no content.
Voiceless plosives /t/ and /k/ are lightly aspirated ([tʰ] and [kʰ]).Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. Some speakers alternate [ʃ] and [t͡ʃ] for /ʃ/, but /d͡ʒ/ is always voiced.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
/p/ and /r/ only occur in loanwords. Schaub does not describe /r/ but consistently uses [r]. /p/ tends to become aspirated [pʰ] in Christian names and become [b] elsewhere.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. On the other hand, /r/ tends to become [l], even in Christian names.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
Prenasalization
Most of the stops and fricatives/affricates can be prenasalized. Nasals are homorganic to the following consonant. As a result, /m/ becomes [ɱ] before /f/ and /v/.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. The following examples show which consonants can be prenasalized and the phonemic status of prenasalization.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. Note that Script error: No such module "IPA". become Script error: No such module "IPA". when prenasalized.
| Plain | Gloss | Prenasalized | Gloss |
|---|---|---|---|
| Script error: No such module "IPA". | 'goat' | Script error: No such module "IPA". | 'world' |
| Script error: No such module "IPA". | 'to celebrate' | Script error: No such module "IPA". | 'to take' |
| Script error: No such module "IPA". | 'voice' | Script error: No such module "IPA". | 'type of calabash' |
| Script error: No such module "IPA". | 'to take' | Script error: No such module "IPA". | 'sorcerer' |
| Script error: No such module "IPA". | 'to split' | Script error: No such module "IPA". | 'elephant' |
| Script error: No such module "IPA". | 'to cover' | Script error: No such module "IPA". | 'mother of newborn' |
| Script error: No such module "IPA". | 'to fan' | Script error: No such module "IPA". | 'fan (n)' |
| Script error: No such module "IPA". | 'to kill' | Script error: No such module "IPA". | 'killer' |
| Script error: No such module "IPA". | 'road' | Script error: No such module "IPA". | 'room, side' |
| Script error: No such module "IPA". | 'that (class 1 & 3)' | Script error: No such module "IPA". | 'that-emphatic' |
| Script error: No such module "IPA". | 'that (class 4, 5, & 9)' | Script error: No such module "IPA". | 'that-emphatic' |
| Script error: No such module "IPA". | 'those (class 2 & 8)' | Script error: No such module "IPA". | 'those-emphatic' |
| Script error: No such module "IPA". | 'those (class 6)' | Script error: No such module "IPA". | 'those-emphatic' |
Labialization
Script error: No such module "IPA". cannot be labialized. Consonants can be both prenasalized and labialized.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
Vowels
Vengo has nine phonemic vowels and five diphthongs or vowel-glide sequences.
Monophthongs
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i[a] | ɨ[b] | u[c] |
| Mid | e | ə[d] | o |
| Open | ɛ | a[e] | ɔ[f] |
Page Template:Reflist/styles.css has no content.
- ^ /i/ becomes [ɪ] before [ŋ] and in short open syllables.
- ^ /ɨ/ becomes [ɨ̞] before [ŋ] and in short open syllables.
- ^ /u/ becomes [ʊ] before [ŋ] and in short open syllables.
- ^ ə becomes [ɨ̞] before [ʔ] and with lengthened vowels.
- ^ /a/ becomes [a] is raised to [a̝] in Script error: No such module "IPA". and backed to [ɒ] in Script error: No such module "IPA"..
- ^ /ɔ/ becomes [ɔ̝ː] when lengthened.
Diphthongs
Vengo's diphthongs are Script error: No such module "IPA"., Script error: No such module "IPA"., Script error: No such module "IPA"., Script error: No such module "IPA"., and Script error: No such module "IPA"..Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
Phonotactics
Any consonant may occur word-initially or syllable-initially, but only /ʔ/ and /ŋ/ can occur finally.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
References
Page Template:Reflist/styles.css has no content.
- ^ Vengo at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
Bibliography
- Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Schaub, Willi (1985). Babungo. Croom Helm Descriptive Grammars. London: Croom Helm. ISBN 0-7099-3352-5.
Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Navbox/configuration' not found. Template:Grassfields Bantu languages Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Authority control/config' not found.
