Basaa (also spelled ''Bassa, Basa, Bissa''), or Mbene, is a
Bantu language
The Bantu languages (English: , Proto-Bantu: *bantʊ̀) are a large family of languages spoken by the Bantu people of Central, Southern, Eastern africa and Southeast Africa. They form the largest branch of the Southern Bantoid languages.
The t ...
spoken in
Cameroon
Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République 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 C ...
by the
Basaa people. It is spoken by about 300,000 people in the
Centre
Center or centre may refer to:
Mathematics
*Center (geometry), the middle of an object
* Center (algebra), used in various contexts
** Center (group theory)
** Center (ring theory)
* Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...
and
Littoral
The littoral zone or nearshore is the part of a sea, lake, or river that is close to the shore. In coastal ecology, the littoral zone includes the intertidal zone extending from the high water mark (which is rarely inundated), to coastal areas ...
regions.
Maho (2009) lists
North and South Kogo as dialects.
Background and Origin
Basaa is spoken by 230,000 speakers. They live in
Nyong-et-Kelle (Central Region) and
Sanaga Maritime (with the exception of the
Edéa
Edéa is a city located along the Sanaga River in Cameroon's Littoral Region (Cameroon), Littoral Region. It lies on the Cameroon National Railways Authority, Douala–Yaoundé railway line. Its population was estimated at 122,300 in 2001. Th ...
commune, which has a
Bakoko majority) and most of
Nkam commune (
Littoral Region). In the western and northern parts of this department, the peripheral Basaa dialects are spoken: Yabasi in the commune of
Yabassi, Diɓuum in the commune of
Nkondjok
Nkondjock is a town and commune in Cameroon.
See also
*Communes of Cameroon
The Arrondissements of Cameroon are the third-level units of administration in Cameroon. The arrondissements are organised by divisions and sub divisions of each provin ...
(Diboum Canton), north of
Ndemli and
Dimbamban.
Similarly, Basaa Baduala is spoken in
Wouri Department
Wouri is a department of the Littoral Province in Cameroon. It forms the area around the major city of Douala
Douala is the largest city in Cameroon and its economic capital. It is also the capital of Cameroon's Littoral Region. Home to Ce ...
(Littoral Region), traditional Basaa territory that is being transformed by the growth of
Douala. Basaa is also found in
Océan Department (commune of
Bipindi
Bipindi is a town and commune in Cameroon.
Gallery
File:ASC Leiden - van Achterberg Collection - 1 - 016 - Marché à Bipindi - Bipindi, Cameroun - 6-12 février 1997.tif, Market, Bipindi, 1997
File:ASC Leiden - van Achterberg Collection - 1 - 0 ...
, Southern Region).
Hijuk is spoken only in the quarter of Niki in
Batanga Batanga may refer to:
Ethnography
* , of Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea, related to the Duala of Cameroon
* Batanga language, spoken by the Bataga
Places
* Batanga, Burkina Faso, a village in Bam Province, Burkina Faso
* Batanga, Ghana, a ...
commune, in
Yangben
Central Yambasa or Nuasua (Nuaswa) is a Southern Bantoid language of Cameroon
Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Afri ...
Canton (Ch. Paulian (1980)) by 400 people. Hijuk is a Basaa dialect, despite its geographical location in the southeast of
Bokito arrondissement (
Mbam-et-Inoubou
Mbam-et-Inoubou is a department of Centre Province in Cameroon. The department covers an area of 7,125 km and as of 2001 had a total population of 153,020. The capital of the department lies at Bafia.
Subdivisions
The department is divided admi ...
department, Central Region).
Phonology
Vowels
Consonants
*When not root-initial and not after a pause, the voiceless stops are realized as voiced stops or voiced fricatives.
Tone
Basaa contrasts four
tones: high, low, high-to-low (falling) and low-to-high (rising).
Orthography
The language uses a Latin-based alphabet, with the addition of the letters Ɓɓ, Ɛɛ, Ŋŋ, Ɔɔ, ten
multigraphs, as well as
acute
Acute may refer to:
Science and technology
* Acute angle
** Acute triangle
** Acute, a leaf shape in the glossary of leaf morphology
* Acute (medicine), a disease that it is of short duration and of recent onset.
** Acute toxicity, the adverse eff ...
,
grave
A grave is a location where a dead body (typically that of a human, although sometimes that of an animal) is buried or interred after a funeral. Graves are usually located in special areas set aside for the purpose of burial, such as grave ...
, and
circumflex
The circumflex () is a diacritic in the Latin and Greek scripts that is also used in the written forms of many languages and in various romanization and transcription schemes. It received its English name from la, circumflexus "bent around"a ...
accents:
and
caron diacritics may be used for marking tone in reference works, for example the dictionary by Pierre Emmanuel Njock.
References
Bibliography
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Basaa language
Basaa languages
Languages of Cameroon