Ewondo language

Ewondo or Kolo is the language of the Ewondo people (more precisely Beti be Kolo or simply Kolo-Beti) of Cameroon. The language had 577,700 native speakers in 1982. Ewondo is a trade language. Dialects include Badjia (Bakjo), Bafeuk, Bamvele (Mvele, Yezum, Yesoum), Bane, Beti, Enoah, Evouzok, Fong, Mbida-Bani, Mvete, Mvog-Niengue, Omvang, Yabekolo (Yebekolo), Yabeka, and Yabekanga. Ewondo speakers live primarily in Cameroon's Centre Region and the northern part of the Océan division in the South Region.

Ewondo
Kolo
RegionCameroon
Native speakers
(580,000 cited 1982)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-2ewo
ISO 639-3ewo
Glottologewon1239
A.72[2]

Ewondo is a Bantu language. It is a dialect of the Beti language (Yaunde-Fang), and is intelligible with Bulu, Eton, and Fang.

In 2011 there was a concern among Cameroonian linguists that the language was being displaced in the country by French.[3]

Alphabet and phonology

Alphabet in Ewondo
Uppercase
ABDDzE ƏƐFGGb HIKKpL MMbMgbMvN NdNdzNgNyŊ OƆPRU TSVWY Z
Lowercase
abddze əɛfggb hikkpl mmbmgbmvn ndndzngnyŋ oɔpru tsvwy z
Phonemes
a b d d͡z e ə ɛ f ɡ ɡ͡b h i k k͡p l m m͡b mɡ͡b ɱ͡v n n͡d nd͡z ŋ͡ɡ ɲ ŋ o ɔ p r u t s v w j z

[4]The tones are indicated with diacritics on the vowels:

  • the high tone is indicated with an acute accent: á é ə́ ɛ́ í ó ɔ́ ú;
  • the mid tone is indicated with a macron: ā ē ə̄ ɛ̄ ī ō ɔ̄ ū;
  • the low tone, the most frequent tone, is indicated by the absence of diacritics: a e ə ɛ i o ɔ u;
  • the rising tone is indicated with a caron: ǎ ě ə̌ ɛ̌ ǐ ǒ ɔ̌ ǔ;
  • the falling tone is indicated with a circumflex: â ê ə̂ ɛ̂ î ô ɔ̂ û.

See also

References

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