Ndemli language
Ndemli, or Bandem, is a language of Cameroon spoken primarily in the Nkam department of the Littoral Region; between Yabassi, Yingui and Nkondjock. Recent classifications such as Nurse (2003)[2] place it in with the Narrow Grassfields languages, though Ethnologue does not reflect this. Ethnologue states that it is "related to Tikar" and that "the Bandobo dialect of Tikar is very similar to Ndemli", though it is not clear if Bandobo actually is Tikar.
| Ndemli | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Cameroon |
Native speakers | 10,000 (1999)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | nml |
| Glottolog | ndem1249 |
Phonology
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | voiceless | p | t | c | k | ʔ |
| voiced | b | d | ɟ | g | ||
| prenasalized | ⁿt | ᶮc | ᵑk | |||
| prenasalized | ᵐb | ⁿd | ᶮɟ | ᵑg | ||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||
| Affricate | voiceless | ts | t̠ʃ | |||
| voiced | d̠ʒ | |||||
| Trill | r | |||||
| Fricative | f | s | ɣ | h | ||
| Approximant | w | l | j | |||
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unrounded | Rounded | |||
| Close | i(ː) | ʉ(ː) | u(ː) | |
| Close-mid | e(ː) | ø(ː) | o(ː) | |
| Open-mid | ɛ(ː) | ɔ(ː) | ||
| Open | a(ː) | |||
There are five tones; high, mid, low, rising, and falling.[3]
References
- Ndemli at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- Derek Nurse & Gérard Philippson, 2003, The Bantu Languages, p 227
- Ngoran, Lenaka Loveline. 1999. A Sketch Outline of the Phonology of Ndemli. (MA thesis, University of Yaounde I).
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