The Kwasio language, also known as Ngumba / Mvumbo, Bujeba, and Gyele / Kola, is a 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 Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...
, spoken in the south along the coast and at the border with
Equatorial Guinea by some 70,000 members of the
Ngumba,
Kwasio
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 members of the Ngumba, Kwasio, Gyele and Ma ...
,
Gyele and
Mabi peoples. Many authors view Kwasio and the Gyele/Kola language as distinct. In the Ethnologue, the languages therefore receive different codes: Kwasio has the ISO 639-3 code ''nmg'', while Gyele has the code ''gyi.'' 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
Dialects are Kwasio (also known as Kwassio, Bisio), Mvumbo (also known as Ngumba, Ngoumba, Mgoumba, Mekuk), and Mabi (Mabea).
The Gyele speak the subdialects of Mvumbo and Gyele in the north ''Giele, Gieli, Gyeli, Bagiele, Bagyele (Bagyɛlɛ), Bagielli,
[Blench, Roger]
Bagyɛlɛ mammal names
/ref> Bajele, Bajeli, Bogyel, Bogyeli, Bondjiel''.
In the south, the Gyele speak Kola, also known as Koya, in the south, also spelled as ''Likoya, Bako, Bakola, Bakuele'', also ''Bekoe''. The local derogatory term for pygmies, ''Babinga,'' is also used.
''Glottolog'' adds Shiwa.
ALCAM (2012)
Non-Pygmy varieties
According to ALCAM (2012), the non-Pygmy Kwasio people speak two language varieties, Mvumbo and Mabi, which have moderate mutual intelligibility. They are spoken in Océan
Océan is a department of South Province in Cameroon. The department covers an area of 11,280 km and as of 2001 had a total population of 133,062. The capital of the department lies at Kribi.
Subdivisions
The department is divided adminis ...
Department, Southern Region. The Bisio group of Kwasio people live in Equatorial Guinea, as well as in Gabon
Gabon (; ; snq, Ngabu), officially the Gabonese Republic (french: République gabonaise), is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. Located on the equator, it is bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the nort ...
where they is known under the ethnonym Shiwo.
Kwasio is geographically the most western of the languages of the A80-A90 Bantu linguistic continuum. It is closely related to Mbwa (Békol) and Bajwe'e, and more distantly to Méka and Béti.
Mabi, the more western dialect, is spoken on the Atlantic coast around Kribi
Kribi is a beach resort and sea port in Cameroon.
Location
The coastal town of Kribi lies on the Gulf of Guinea, in Océan Department, South Province, at the mouth of the Kienké River. This location, lies approximately , by road, south of ...
, among Batanga-speaking populations.
Mvumbo is spoken immediately to the east, along the road from Kribi
Kribi is a beach resort and sea port in Cameroon.
Location
The coastal town of Kribi lies on the Gulf of Guinea, in Océan Department, South Province, at the mouth of the Kienké River. This location, lies approximately , by road, south of ...
to Lolodorf
Lolodorf is a small town-centred region in the south province of the Republic of Cameroon, near the western coast of Africa. It is between Ngoumou and Bipindi, in a zone of the Atlantic Littoral Evergreen Forest.
It is notable for being the h ...
, in the communes of these two towns, where speakers are mixed mainly with Fang and Ewondo (Beti Fang)-speaking populations.
Pygmy varieties
According to ALCAM (2012), Gyáli and Kola are very close to each other and coexist in the same camps and settlements. On the other hand, they are not in contact with the Baka, the eastern Pygmies.
There are also close linguistic relationships between Bagyáli and the Meka group, although the non-Pygmy Mabi and Mvumbo peoples do not typically like to admit that their language, Kwasio, is closely related to the Pygmy language varieties.
The Bagyáli traditionally inhabit the forests of Océan
Océan is a department of South Province in Cameroon. The department covers an area of 11,280 km and as of 2001 had a total population of 133,062. The capital of the department lies at Kribi.
Subdivisions
The department is divided adminis ...
Department (Southern Region), around Kribi
Kribi is a beach resort and sea port in Cameroon.
Location
The coastal town of Kribi lies on the Gulf of Guinea, in Océan Department, South Province, at the mouth of the Kienké River. This location, lies approximately , by road, south 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 ...
and Lolodorf
Lolodorf is a small town-centred region in the south province of the Republic of Cameroon, near the western coast of Africa. It is between Ngoumou and Bipindi, in a zone of the Atlantic Littoral Evergreen Forest.
It is notable for being the h ...
(in the communes of Kribi, Akom II, Bipindi, and Lolodorf), and are estimated at 4,250 people.
The Bagyáli are also found in Equatorial Guinea.
Features
Like the other Niger-Congo languages of Cameroon, Kwasio is a tonal language
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 emph ...
.
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
*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
Bakola documentation project
DoBeS
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kwasio language
Kwasio,
Makaa-Njem languages
Languages of Cameroon
Languages of Equatorial Guinea
African Pygmies
de:Gyele