Awing language
Awing, or Mbwe'wi, is a Grassfields Bantu language spoken in Cameroon.
Awing | |
---|---|
Mbwe'wi | |
Native to | Cameroon |
Native speakers | 19,000 (2001)[1] |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | azo |
Glottolog | awin1248 |
Alphabet
The Awing alphabet was proposed by experts from SIL International and the Cameroon Association For Bible Translation and Literacy (CABTAL) in 2005. It was since then used for publishing Bible translations, Awing folk stories, and other materials.
The Awing alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet. The letters H, Q, R, V, and X are not used, and several special characters and digraphs, as well as the apostrophe are added.
Uppercase | A | B | Ch | D | E | Ɛ | Ə | F | G | Gh | I | Ɨ | J | K | ʼ | L | M | N | Ny | Ŋ | O | Ɔ | P | S | Sh | T | Ts | U | W | Y | Z |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Lowercase | a | b | ch | d | e | ɛ | ə | f | g | gh | i | ɨ | j | k | ʼ | l | m | n | ny | ŋ | o | ɔ | p | s | sh | t | ts | u | w | y | z |
IPA | [a] | [b] | [tʃ] | [d] | [e] | [ɛ] | [ə] | [f] | [ɡ] | [ɣ] | [i] | [ɨ] | [ʒ], [dʒ] | [k] | [ʔ] | [l], [ɾ] | [m] | [n] | [ɲ] | [ŋ] | [o] | [ɔ] | [p] | [s] | [ʃ] | [t], [tʰ] | [ts] | [u] | [w], [ɥ] | [j] | [z], [dz] |
Long vowels are indicated by repeating the vowel letter.
⟨n⟩, ⟨m⟩, ⟨ŋ⟩, and ⟨ny⟩ may be syllabic nasals ([n̩], [m̩], [ŋ̩], [ɲ̩]).
Tones are indicated using diacritics on the first vowel or nasal of the syllable. Both high and mid tone are marked with the acute accent, and the low tone is not explicitly written:
Tone | IPA | Grapheme |
---|---|---|
High | á | á |
Mid | ā | |
Low | à | a |
Rising | ǎ | ǎ |
Falling | â | â |
Diaeresis on the vowel before the verb marks the habitual aspect.
External links
- Alomofor, Christian; Anderson, Stephen C. (2005). Awing Orthography Guide (PDF). Cameroon: SIL Cameroon. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-11-22. Retrieved 2017-09-03.