Pongo is a dialect of the Duala language, spoken on the coast of Cameroon, in the district of Dibombari, by the Pongo tribe. It belongs to the

Bantu languages The Bantu languages (English: , Proto-Bantu language, Proto-Bantu: *bantʊ̀), or Ntu languages are a language family of about 600 languages of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern, East Africa, Eastern and Southeast Africa, South ...

, Code A26 according to Guthrie classification.

Description

The Pongo language is, according to dialectometrics data, closest to the

Douala Douala is the largest city in Cameroon and its economic capital. It is also the capital of Cameroon's Littoral Region (Cameroon), Littoral Region. It was home to Central Africa's largest port, now being replaced by Kribi port. It has the country ...

standard, with which it seems to share nearly 95% of its basic vocabulary. Both languages are mutually intelligible despite some difficulties on the Douala side due to limited exposure to the Pongo dialect. The Douala dialect is used as a ''

lingua franca A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, link language or language of wider communication (LWC), is a Natural language, language systematically used to make co ...

'' in the Littoral region between members of the Sawabantu ethnic group. The standard Douala has been used to evangelize in the region and is the preferred language of the Makossa musical genre.

Geography

The town of Dibombari is the centre of Pongo. This area is located north of the city of

, above the Bonabéri district. The term "Pongo" is also used to designate the north cardinal point in Douala. There, the Pongo tribe coexists with other ethnic groups such as the Bankon and the Mpoo. Duala ethnic groups

Grammar

Pongo differs from Duala in the use of the verb ''èndè'' instead of the verb ''wala ''(to go), unusual in Douala, which serves as an

auxiliary verb An auxiliary verb ( abbreviated ) is a verb that adds functional or grammatical meaning to the clause in which it occurs, so as to express tense, aspect, modality, voice, emphasis, etc. Auxiliary verbs usually accompany an infinitive verb or ...

in the

future tense In grammar, a future tense ( abbreviated ) is a verb form that generally marks the event described by the verb as not having happened yet, but expected to happen in the future. An example of a future tense form is the French ''achètera'', mea ...

in both languages. Another noticeable difference is the use of the conjunction ''ndi'' ("but") instead of ''ndé'' and a tendency to favor the

phoneme A phoneme () is any set of similar Phone (phonetics), speech sounds that are perceptually regarded by the speakers of a language as a single basic sound—a smallest possible Phonetics, phonetic unit—that helps distinguish one word fr ...

''/ d /'' over / l /. For example: Ekwali, written Ekwadi ("History") in Douala, becomes systematically Ekwadi in Pongo. In addition, the Douala prefix ''ma'', usually placed before the basic form of the verb, is replaced by an'' n', ''in Pongo. An example is the Douala sentence "di ma topo, ndé ba bato si ma senga", which becomes in Pongo "''di n'topo Di , ndi ba bato n'senga"'' "we talk, but people do not listen."

Vocabulary

Comparative glossary of Douala and Pongo dialects. Boxes with two words indicate that these words are both present in the dialect and that they are interchangeable.

References

{{Languages of Cameroon Languages of Cameroon Sawabantu languages Subject–verb–object languages Tonal languages Bantu languages