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Lamnso
Nso (''Lamnso'', ''Lamnsɔ’'') is the Grassfields language of the Nso people of western Cameroon. A few may remain in Nigeria. It has ten major noun classes. The ISO 639-3 code is lns. Nso is spoken by over 100,000 people. Phonology Consonants * Stop sounds /b, t, d, k, ɡ/ may have affricated phonetic variants as ͡v, t͡s, d͡z~ɖ͡ʐ, k͡f, ɡ͡vwhen occurring before /ə/. Sounds /ɣ, m/ may have variants as �͡v, ᶬvwhen in the same position. * Sounds /p/ and /h/ only occur in interjections, ideophones or loanwords. * /p, t, k/ may also have aspirated allophones ʰ, tʰ, kʰin word-initial positions. * Prenasal fricative sounds /ᶬf, ⁿs, ᶮʃ/ may also have allophones as prenasal affricate ��p͡f, ⁿt͡s, ᶮt͡ʃsounds. * Sounds /d͡ʒ, ʃ, k, ɡ, m, ŋ/ may be labialized as ͡ʒʷ, ʃʷ, kʷ, ɡʷ, mʷ, ŋʷwhen before a vowel, and occurring only in the first syllable. Vowels * Vowels are lengthened as /iː, eː, əː, aː, oː, uː/. * Sounds /ɛ, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nso People
The Nso people are from the Bamenda grass fields Northwest Region (Cameroon), Northwest Region of Cameroon. Their traditional language is Lamnso (language of Nso) and their capital is Kumbo – where the Palace of the Fon is found. Summary History The Nso’ people migrated from Tikari in the Adamawa Region of Cameroon when there was a bloody succession after the death of Chief Tinki in 1387. The enthronement of Mveing as successor of Tinki sent all rivals to the throne away from Kimi. Ngonnso’, the founder of the Nso’ dynasty, left Kimi with a few followers together with her brothers Nchare Yen and Mbombam and their respective followers. After parting company with her brothers, Ngonnso’ and her followers first settled in Mbo’nso’, then later to Ndzennso’, Kovifem, Taavisa (for security), back to Koovifem, then to Kimbo (Kumbo). The tribe got its name from Ngonnso’, and is one of the largest tribes of Cameroon.Cfr. Robert Hedinger's Introduction to "Lamnso' - Engli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Southern Bantoid
Southern Bantoid (or South Bantoid) is a branch of the Bantoid language family. It consists of the Bantu languages along with several small branches and isolates of eastern Nigeria and west-central Cameroon (though the affiliation of some branches is uncertain). Since the Bantu languages are spoken across most of Sub-Saharan Africa, Southern Bantoid comprises 643 languages as counted by ''Ethnologue'', though many of these are mutually intelligible. History Southern Bantoid was first introduced by Williamson in a proposal that divided Bantoid into North and South branches. The unity of the North Bantoid group was subsequently called into question, and Bantoid itself may be polyphyletic A polyphyletic group is an assemblage that includes organisms with mixed evolutionary origin but does not include their most recent common ancestor. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as Homoplasy, homoplasies ..., but the work did establish Southern Banto ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grassfields Languages
The Grassfields languages (or Wide Grassfields languages) are a branch of the Southern Bantoid languages spoken in the Western High Plateau of Cameroon and some parts of Taraba state, Nigeria. Better known Grassfields languages include the Eastern Grassfields languages, Bamun, Yamba, Bali, and Bafut and the Ring languages, Kom, Nso, and Oku. Almost all of these languages are closely related, sharing approximately half of their vocabulary. Classifications The Grassfields languages were previously known as ''Grassfields Bantu'' and ''Semi-Bantu.'' They are sometimes classified on two levels, ''Wide Grassfields,'' which includes all the languages, and ''Narrow Grassfields,'' which excludes Menchum, Ambele and sometimes the Southwest Grassfields languages. These may form a group of their own, which Nurse (2003) calls Peripheral Grassfields but rejects. Blench (2010) notes there is little evidence for the traditional assumption that the non-Western Momo languages belong ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ring Languages
The Ring or Ring Road languages, spoken in the Western Grassfields of Cameroon, form a branch of the Narrow Grassfields languages. The best-known Ring language is Kom language (Cameroon), Kom. The family is named after the old Ring Road (Cameroon), Ring Road of central Cameroon. Languages *Centre: Babanki language, Babanki, Mmen language, Mmen, Kom language (Cameroon), Kom, Mbessa language, Mbessa, Bum language, Bum, Kung language (Cameroon), Kung, Kuk language, Kuk, Oku language, Oku *East: Nso language, Nso (Lamnso') *South: Vengo language, Vengo, Wushi language, Wushi, Bamunka language, Bamunka, Kenswei Nsei language, Kenswei Nsei *West: Aghem language, Aghem, Isu language, Isu, Laimbue language, Laimbue, Weh language, Weh, Zhoa language, Zhoa See also *Wiktionary:Appendix:List of Proto-Ring reconstructions, List of Proto-Ring reconstructions (Wiktionary) References External links *Ethnographic information on the Bum peopl Ring languages, Grassfields Bantu languages ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grassfields Language
The Grassfields languages (or Wide Grassfields languages) are a branch of the Southern Bantoid languages spoken in the Western High Plateau of Cameroon and some parts of Taraba state, Nigeria. Better known Grassfields languages include the Eastern Grassfields languages, Bamun, Yamba, Bali, and Bafut and the Ring languages, Kom, Nso, and Oku. Almost all of these languages are closely related, sharing approximately half of their vocabulary. Classifications The Grassfields languages were previously known as ''Grassfields Bantu'' and ''Semi-Bantu.'' They are sometimes classified on two levels, ''Wide Grassfields,'' which includes all the languages, and ''Narrow Grassfields,'' which excludes Menchum, Ambele and sometimes the Southwest Grassfields languages. These may form a group of their own, which Nurse (2003) calls Peripheral Grassfields but rejects. Blench (2010) notes there is little evidence for the traditional assumption that the non-Western Momo languages belong i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Back Vowel
A back vowel is any in a class of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the highest point of the tongue is positioned relatively back in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark vowels because they are perceived as sounding darker than the front vowels. Near-back vowels are essentially a type of back vowels; no language is known to contrast back and near-back vowels based on backness alone. The category "back vowel" comprises both raised vowels and retracted vowels. Articulation In their articulation, back vowels do not form a single category, but may be either raised vowels such as or retracted vowels such as .Scott Moisik, Ewa Czaykowska-Higgins, & John H. Esling (2012"The Epilaryngeal Articulator: A New Conceptual Tool for Understanding Lingual-Laryngeal Contrasts"/ref> Partial list The back vowels that have dedicated symbols in the I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trill Consonant
In phonetics, a trill is a consonantal sound manner of articulation, produced by vibrations between the active articulator and passive articulator. Standard Spanish as in , for example, is an alveolar trill. A trill is made by the articulator being held in place and the airstream causing it to vibrate. Usually a trill vibrates for 2–3 contacts, but may be up to 5, or even more if geminate consonant, geminate. However, trills may also be produced with only one contact. While single-contact trills are similar to Flap consonant, taps and flaps, a tap or flap differs from a trill in that it is made by a muscular contraction rather than airstream. Individuals with ankyloglossia may have issues producing the trill sound. Phonemic trills Trill consonants included in the International Phonetic Alphabet: * – Voiced alveolar trill * – Voiceless alveolar trill * – Voiced bilabial trill * – Voiceless bilabial trill * – Voiced retroflex trill * – Voiced uvular trill * ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Approximant Consonant
Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough nor with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a turbulent airstream, and vowels, which produce no turbulence. This class is composed of sounds like (as in ''rest'') and semivowels like and (as in ''yes'' and ''west'', respectively), as well as lateral approximants like (as in ''less''). Terminology Before Peter Ladefoged coined the term ''approximant'' in the 1960s, the terms ''frictionless continuant'' and ''semivowel'' were used to refer to non-lateral approximants. In phonology, ''approximant'' is also a distinctive feature that encompasses all sonorants except nasals, including vowels, taps, and trills. Semivowels Some approximants resemble vowels in acoustic and articulatory properties and the terms ''semivowel'' and ''glide'' are often used for these non-syllabi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Front Vowel
A front vowel is a class of vowel sounds used in some spoken languages, its defining characteristic being that the highest point of the tongue is positioned approximately as far forward as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would otherwise make it a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also called bright vowels because they are perceived as sounding brighter than the back vowels. Near-front vowels are essentially a type of front vowel; no language is known to contrast front and near-front vowels based on backness alone. Rounded front vowels are typically centralized, that is, near-front in their articulation. This is one reason they are written to the right of unrounded front vowels in the IPA vowel chart. Partial list The front vowels that have dedicated symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet are: * close front unrounded vowel * close front compressed vowel * near-close front unrounded vowel * near-close front compressed vowel * clos ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Central Vowel
A central vowel, formerly also known as a mixed vowel, is any in a class of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a central vowel is that the tongue is positioned approximately halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel. (In practice, unrounded central vowels tend to be further forward and rounded central vowels further back.) List The central vowels that have dedicated symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet are: * close central unrounded vowel * close central protruded vowel * close-mid central unrounded vowel (older publications may use ) * close-mid central rounded vowel (older publications may use ) * mid central vowel with ambiguous rounding * open-mid central unrounded vowel (older publications may use ) * open-mid central rounded vowel (older publications may use ) * near-open central vowel with ambiguous rounding (typically used for an unrounded vowel; if precision is desired, may be used for an unrounded ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Open Vowel
An open vowel is a vowel sound in which the tongue is positioned approximately as far as possible from the roof of the mouth. Open vowels are sometimes also called low vowels (in U.S. terminology ) in reference to the low position of the tongue. In the context of the phonology of any particular language, a ''low vowel'' can be any vowel that is more open than a mid vowel. That is, open-mid vowels, near-open vowels, and open vowels can all be considered low vowels. Partial list The open vowels with dedicated symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet are: * open front unrounded vowel * open front rounded vowel This vowel is not known to occur as a phoneme distinct from in any language. * open back unrounded vowel * open back rounded vowel There also are central vowels that do not have dedicated symbols in the IPA: * open central unrounded vowel or (commonly written as if it were front vowel, front) * open central rounded vowel There is no unambiguous way of transc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
