Basaa language

Basaa

ɓasaá

Spoken in Cameroon

Region Centre and Littoral Provinces

Native speakers 230,000 (date missing)

Language family

Niger–Congo

Atlantic–Congo
- Benue–Congo
  - Bantoid
    - Bantu (Zone A)
      - Basaa languages (A.40)
        
        Basaa

Language codes

ISO 639-2 bas

ISO 639-3 bas

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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.

1 Phonology
2 References
3 External links

Phonology

Vowels

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

Consonants

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

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

Tone

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

References

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

External links

Basaa language at Ethnologue