Kwasio language

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Not to be confused with Koya language or Ngom language.
Kwasio
Ngumba, Kola
Native to Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea
Region along and near the coast at the border between Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea
Ethnicity Kwasio, Gyele Pygmies
Native speakers
 unknown (26,000 cited 1982–2011)[1]
Dialects
Kwasio
Mvumbo
Mabi
Gyele
Kola
Language codes
ISO 639-3 Either:
nmg – Kwasio–Mvumbo
gyi – Gyele–Kola
A.81,801[2]

The Kwasio language, also known as Ngumba / Mvumbo, Bujeba, and Gyele / Kola, is a language of Cameroon, spoken in the south along the coast and at the border with Equatorial Guinea by some 70 000[citation needed] members of the Ngumba, Kwasio, Gyele and Mabi peoples. The Kwasio, Ngumba, and Mabi are village farmers; the Gyele (also known as the Kola or Koya) are nomadic Pygmy hunter-gatherers living in the rain forest.

Dialects are Kwasio (AKA Kwassio, Bisio), Mvumbo (AKA Ngumba, Ngoumba, Mgoumba, Mekuk), and Mabi (Mabea). The Gyele speak to subdialects of Mvumbo, Gyele in the north and Kola AKA Koya in the south, variously spelled Giele, Gieli, Gyeli, Bagiele, Bagyele, Bajele, Bajeli, Bogyel, Bogyeli, Bondjiel and Likoya, Bako, Bakola, Bakuele, also Bekoe. The local derogatory term for pygmies, Babinga, is also used.

Kwasio is a tonal language. As a Bantu language, it has noun class system. The Kwasio noun class system is somewhat reduced, having retained only 6 genders (a gender being a pairing of a singular and a plural noun class).

See also

The term Bakola is also used for the pygmies of the northern Congo–Gabon border region, which speak the Ngom language.

References

  1. ↑ Kwasio–Mvumbo reference at Ethnologue (17th ed., 2013)
    Gyele–Kola reference at Ethnologue (17th ed., 2013)
  2. ↑ Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
  • Serge BAHUCHET, 2006. "Languages of the African Rainforest « Pygmy » Hunter-Gatherers: Language Shifts without Cultural Admixture." In Historical linguistics and hunter-gatherers populations in global perspective. Leipzig.

External links

Official
  • French
  • English
National
  • 55 Afro-Asiatic languages, two Nilo-Saharan languages, and 173 Niger-Congo languages
Non-official
  • Gyele
Languages of Equatorial Guinea
Official
Indigenous
Pidgin/Creole
Migrant

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