Basaa language

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Basaa ɓasaá
Spoken in:	Cameroon
Region:	Centre and Littoral Provinces
Total speakers:	230,000
Language family:	Niger-Congo  Atlantic-Congo   Volta-Congo    Benue-Congo     Bantoid      Southern       Bantu        Bantu A         Basaa
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	bas
ISO 639-3:	bas
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-​based pronunciation key.

Basaa (also spelled Bassa, Basa, Bissa) is a Bantu language spoken in Cameroon. It is spoken by about 230,000 people in Centre and Littoral provinces.

Contents 1 Phonology 1.1 Vowels 1.2 Consonants 1.3 Tone 2 References 3 External links

[edit] Phonology

[edit] Vowels

	Front	Back
Close	i, iː	u, uː
Close-mid	e, eː	o, oː
Open-mid	ɛ, ɛː	ɔ, ɔː
Open	a, aː

[edit] Consonants

	Bilabial	Coronal	Palatal	Velar	Labial-velar
Stop	p	t	c, ɟ	k	kʷ, gʷ
Implosive	ɓ
Fricative		s		x
Nasal	m	n	ɲ	ŋ	ŋʷ
Prenasalized stop	mb	nd	ɲɟ	ŋg
Lateral		l
Approximant			j		w

• When not root-initial and not occur after a pause, the voiceless stops /p t k/ are realized as voiced stops or voiced fricatives.

[edit] Tone

Basaa contrasts four tones: high, low, high-to-low (falling) and low-to-high (rising).

[edit] References

• Hyman, Larry M. (2003). "Basaá (A.43)", in Nurse, Derek and Philippson, Gérard (ed.): The Bantu Languages. Routledge, 257–282. ISBN 0-7007-1134-1. 

[edit] External links

• Basaa language at Ethnologue