Yemba language
| Yemba | |
|---|---|
| Yɛmba | |
| Dschang | |
| Region | Cameroon |
| Ethnicity | Bamileke |
Native speakers | unknown (undated figure of 300,000)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | ybb |
Yɛmba or Yemba, also Yémba is a major Grassfields language of Cameroon. It is spoken by over 300 000 people in the Western Province.
Despite originally being a spoken language exclusively, Yemba writing was developed by Steven Bird (lead of the Natural Language Toolkit project) and Maurice Tadadjeu (co-creator of the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages). Their team developed a small Yemba - French Dictionary covering French translations of over 3000 Yemba words and expressions.[2] The Yemba alphabet is a subset of the International Phonetic Alphabet.
A machine backwards transformation of the dictionary was performed by independent scientists who created the French translation of Yemba words. The resulting dictionary was extended with French synonyms from the French version of the WordNet database. Furthermore over 6000 English, German, Czech, Spanish, Italian and Chinese words and expressions were translated into Yemba. A major outcome of this project is a collaborative online platform for extending Yemba translations and promoting Yemba learning. [3]
References
- ↑ Yemba reference at Ethnologue (17th ed., 2013)
- ↑ Bird, Steven; Maurice, Tadadjeu (1997). Petit Dictionnaire Yémba - Français. ANACLAC (Association Nationale des Comités de langues du Cameroun).
- ↑ "Yemba.net - Online Dictionaries and Learning Tools for the Yemba Language". Aleco. 2012-03-13. Retrieved 2012-03-13.