Yambeta or Nigi[3] is a Southern Bantoid language of Cameroon.
| Yambeta | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Cameroon |
Native speakers | (3,700 cited 1982)[1] |
Niger–Congo?
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | yat |
| Glottolog | yamb1252 |
A.462[2] | |
Phonology
editThere are 20 contrastive consonants in Yambeta.
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | p | t | t͡ʃ | k | ʔ | |
| Prenasalized | Voiceless | ⁿt | ⁿk | |||
| Voiced | ⁿb | ⁿd | ⁿg | |||
| Fricatives | f | s | h | |||
| Nasals | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||
| Approximants | l | j | w | |||
The glottal stop occurs only in word-final position and is elided intervocalically. All other consonants, except /t͡ʃ/ and /w/ as well as the prenasalized stops, may be word-final. All stops are voiceless word-initial and word-final, and voiced intervocalically or following a nasal.
There are two vowel sets in Yambeta. The most common noun syllable structure is CVC.[4]
| +ATR | -ATR | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front | Mid | Back | Front | Mid | Back | |||||||
| Short | Long | Short | Long | Short | Long | Short | Long | Short | Long | Short | Long | |
| Close | ɪ | ɪː | ʊ | ʊː | i | iː | u | uː | ||||
| Close-mid | ə | əː | o | oː | ||||||||
| Open-mid | ɔ | ɔː | ||||||||||
| Open | a | aː | ||||||||||
References
edit- ^ Yambeta at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
- ^ Binam Bikoi, Charles, ed. (2012). Atlas linguistique du Cameroun (ALCAM) [Linguistic Atlas of Cameroon]. Atlas linguistique de l'Afrique centrale (ALAC) (in French). Vol. 1: Inventaire des langues. Yaoundé: CERDOTOLA. ISBN 9789956796069.
- ^ Boyd, V. L. (2015). The phonological systems of the Mbam languages of Cameroon with a focus on vowels and vowel harmony (pp. XVIII+-394). Utrecht: LOT.
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