Awing Language
Awing, or Mbwe'wi, is a Grassfields language spoken in Cameroon. Alphabet The Awing alphabet was proposed by translation consultants for SIL International and the Cameroon Association For Bible Translation and Literacy (CABTAL) in 2005. It was since then used for publishing Bible translations, Awing folk stories, and other materials. The Awing alphabet is based on an adapted Latin script. It is made up of 9 vowel letters and 22 consonant letters. The letters H, Q, R, V, and X are dropped, and several special characters and digraphs, as well as the apostrophe are added to transcribe Awing phonetic sounds. The consonant phone varies freely with ľbetween vowels inside a root. Thus, the R-sound is denoted by the letter L. Long vowels are indicated by repeating the vowel letter. ⟨nâź©, ⟨mâź©, ⟨ŋ⟩, and ⟨nyâź© may be syllabic nasals ( Ě© Ě© ‹Ě© ˛Ě©. Tones are indicated using diacritics on the first vowel or nasal of the syllable. Both high and mid tone are marked ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Cameroon
Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: RĂ©publique du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Its coastline lies on the Bight of Biafra, part of the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean. Due to its strategic position at the crossroads between West Africa and Central Africa, it has been categorized as being in both camps. Its nearly 27 million people speak 250 native languages. Early inhabitants of the territory included the Sao civilisation around Lake Chad, and the Baka hunter-gatherers in the southeastern rainforest. Portuguese explorers reached the coast in the 15th century and named the area ''Rio dos Camarões'' (''Shrimp River''), which became ''Cameroon'' in English. Fulani soldiers founded the Adamawa Emirate ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ngemba Languages
The Ngemba languages are a group of Eastern Grassfields languages of the Western High Plateau of Cameroon. The languages are Awing (Mbwe'wi), Bafut– Beba, Bambili Mbeligi, Mbui Bambui, Mendankwe-Nkwen–Mankon– Mundum (Ngemba), Pinyin. In the West and North West regions of Cameroon, languages are often referred to by the name of the village or town where they are spoken. For example, Ghomálá is a Bamileke The Bamileke are a Central African people who inhabit the Western High Plateau of Cameroon. Languages The Bamileke languages belong to the Grassfields branch of the Niger-Congo language family, which is sometimes labeled as a " Bantuoid lang ... language spoken in BatiĂ©, in the West Province of Cameroon, and is referred to as BatiĂ©. References Languages of Cameroon Eastern Grassfields languages {{Cameroon-lang-stub ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Diaeresis (diacritic)
The diaeresis ( ; is a diacritical mark used to indicate the separation of two distinct vowels in adjacent syllables when an instance of diaeresis (or hiatus) occurs, so as to distinguish from a digraph or diphthong. It consists of two dots placed over a letter, generally a vowel; when that letter is an , the diacritic replaces the tittle: . The diaeresis diacritic indicates that two adjoining letters that would normally form a digraph and be pronounced as one sound, are instead to be read as separate vowels in two syllables. For example, in the spelling "coöperate", the diaeresis reminds the reader that the word has four syllables ''co-op-er-ate'', not three, ''*coop-er-ate''. In British English this usage has been considered obsolete for many years, and in US English, although it persisted for longer, it is now considered archaic as well. Nevertheless, it is still used by the US magazine ''The New Yorker''. In English language texts it is perhaps most familiar in the sp ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Tone (linguistics)
Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning – that is, to distinguish or to inflect words. All verbal languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information and to convey emphasis, contrast and other such features in what is called intonation (linguistics), intonation, but not all languages use tones to distinguish words or their inflections, analogously to consonants and vowels. Languages that have this feature are called tonal languages; the distinctive tone patterns of such a language are sometimes called tonemes, by analogy with ''phoneme''. Tonal languages are common in East and Southeast Asia, Africa, the Americas and the Pacific. Tonal languages are different from Pitch-accent language, pitch-accent languages in that tonal languages can have each syllable with an independent tone whilst pitch-accent languages may have one syllable in a word or morpheme that is more prominent than the others. Mechanics Mo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic transcription, phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standardized representation of speech sounds in written form.International Phonetic Association (IPA), ''Handbook''. The IPA is used by lexicography, lexicographers, foreign language students and teachers, linguistics, linguists, speech–language pathology, speech–language pathologists, singers, actors, constructed language creators, and translators. The IPA is designed to represent those qualities of speech that are part of wiktionary:lexical, lexical (and, to a limited extent, prosodic) sounds in oral language: phone (phonetics), phones, phonemes, Intonation (linguistics), intonation, and the separation of words and syllables. To represent additional qualities of speech—such as tooth wiktionary:gnash, gnashing, lisping, and sounds made wi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Cameroon Association For Bible Translation And Literacy
Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: RĂ©publique du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Its coastline lies on the Bight of Biafra, part of the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean. Due to its strategic position at the crossroads between West Africa and Central Africa, it has been categorized as being in both camps. Its nearly 27 million people speak 250 native languages. Early inhabitants of the territory included the Sao civilisation around Lake Chad, and the Baka hunter-gatherers in the southeastern rainforest. Portuguese explorers reached the coast in the 15th century and named the area ''Rio dos Camarões'' (''Shrimp River''), which became ''Cameroon'' in English. Fulani soldiers founded the Adamawa Emirate in th ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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SIL International
SIL International (formerly known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics) is an evangelical Christian non-profit organization whose main purpose is to study, develop and document languages, especially those that are lesser-known, in order to expand linguistic knowledge, promote literacy, translate the Christian Bible into local languages, and aid minority language development. Based on its language documentation work, SIL publishes a database, ''Ethnologue'', of its research into the world's languages, and develops and publishes software programs for language documentation, such as FieldWorks Language Explorer (FLEx) and Lexique Pro. Its main offices in the United States are located at the International Linguistics Center in Dallas, Texas. History William Cameron Townsend, a Presbyterian minister, founded the organization in 1934, after undertaking a Christian mission with the Disciples of Christ among the Kaqchikel Maya people in Guatemala in the early 1930s.George Thomas ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Grassfields Language
The Grassfields languages (or Wide Grassfields languages) are a branch of the Southern Bantoid languages spoken in the Western High Plateau of Cameroon and some parts of Taraba state, Nigeria. Better known Grassfields languages include the Eastern Grassfields languages Bamun, Yamba and the Ring language, Kom, Nso, Oku, Bali, Bafut. Almost all of these languages are closely related, sharing approximately half of their vocabulary. Classifications The Grassfields languages were previously known as ''Grassfields Bantu'' and ''Semi-Bantu.'' They are sometimes classified on two levels, ''Wide Grassfields,'' which includes all the languages, and ''Narrow Grassfields,'' which excludes Menchum, Ambele and sometimes the Southwest Grassfields languages. These may form a group of their own, which Nurse (2003) calls Peripheral Grassfields but rejects. Blench (2010) notes there is little evidence for the traditional assumption that the non-Western Momo languages belong in Grassfields a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mbam–Nkam Languages
The Eastern Grassfields languages, spoken in the Western High Plateau of Cameroon, are a branch of the Grassfields languages including Bamun, Yamba and Bamileke. There are four or five branches to the family: * Nkambe languages (north) * Mbam–Nkam ** Ngemba languages ** Bamileke languages ** Nun languages The Nun languages are a group of Eastern Grassfields languages spoken by the Bamum (Mum) and related peoples of the Western High Plateau of Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (fren ... Nurse (2003) reports that Bamileke might be two branches. References Languages of Cameroon Grassfields Bantu languages {{Cameroon-lang-stub ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Eastern Grassfields Languages
The Eastern Grassfields languages, spoken in the Western High Plateau of Cameroon, are a branch of the Grassfields languages including Bamun, Yamba and Bamileke. There are four or five branches to the family: * Nkambe languages (north) * Mbam–Nkam ** Ngemba languages ** Bamileke languages ** Nun languages The Nun languages are a group of Eastern Grassfields languages spoken by the Bamum (Mum) and related peoples of the Western High Plateau of Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (fren ... Nurse (2003) reports that Bamileke might be two branches. References Languages of Cameroon Grassfields Bantu languages {{Cameroon-lang-stub ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Grassfields Languages
The Grassfields languages (or Wide Grassfields languages) are a branch of the Southern Bantoid languages spoken in the Western High Plateau of Cameroon and some parts of Taraba state, Nigeria. Better known Grassfields languages include the Eastern Grassfields languages Bamun, Yamba and the Ring language, Kom, Nso, Oku, Bali, Bafut. Almost all of these languages are closely related, sharing approximately half of their vocabulary. Classifications The Grassfields languages were previously known as ''Grassfields Bantu'' and ''Semi-Bantu.'' They are sometimes classified on two levels, ''Wide Grassfields,'' which includes all the languages, and ''Narrow Grassfields,'' which excludes Menchum, Ambele and sometimes the Southwest Grassfields languages. These may form a group of their own, which Nurse (2003) calls Peripheral Grassfields but rejects. Blench (2010) notes there is little evidence for the traditional assumption that the non-Western Momo languages belong in Grassfields a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |