Iyasa (Yasa, Yassa) is a
Bantu language 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 ...
and
Equatorial Guinea by the Iyasa and
Ndowe coastal fishing peoples. It is also spoken by
Pygmies
In anthropology, pygmy peoples are ethnic groups whose average height is unusually short. The term pygmyism is used to describe the phenotype of endemic short stature (as opposed to disproportionate dwarfism occurring in isolated cases in a pop ...
, perhaps
Babongo, 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 ...
. Approximately 3,000 people speak Iyasa, though some note that this number may be an overestimation.
Iyasa also goes by the names Bongwe, Lyaasa, and Maasa. Dialects are ''Bweko, Vendo, Bodele, Marry, One, Asonga, Bomui, Mogana, Mooma, Mapanga''. It may in turn be a dialect of
Kombe. Speakers report that Kombe and Iyasa are almost perfectly mutually intelligible.
Classification
Dieu and Renaud (1993) classify Iyasa as a Sawabantu language (A.30 in Guthrie classification).
[Dieu, Michel, and Patrick Renaud. 1993. ''Situation linguistique en Afrique centrale, inventaire pre@liminaire: Le Cameroun.'' In Atlas Linguistique du Cameroun. Yaounde@: ACCT-CERDOTOLA-DGRST.]
Geographic Distribution
Iyasa is spoken along the coast of Cameroon south of
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 ...
, including in the city of
Campo. It is also spoken across the Ntem River in Equatorial Guinea.
The northernmost Iyasa village is Lolabe, 31 km south of Kribi.
Phonology
Iyasa has a seven-vowel system:
It also has 22 phonemic consonants:
Grammar
Noun classes
Iyasa has 12
noun class
In linguistics, a noun class is a particular category of nouns. A noun may belong to a given class because of the characteristic features of its referent, such as gender, animacy, shape, but such designations are often clearly conventional. Some a ...
es, as outlined in the table below (adapted from Bôt 2011 and Bouh Ma Sitna 2004):
References
External links
Iyasa pageat the
Endangered Languages Project
The Endangered Languages Project (ELP) is a worldwide collaboration between indigenous language organizations, linguists, institutions of higher education, and key industry partners to strengthen endangered languages. The foundation of the proj ...
Homepage of the Iyasa language committeeEtomba a Iyasa Facebook group* Paradisec has an open access collection of
Roger Blench
Roger Marsh Blench (born August 1, 1953) is a British linguist, ethnomusicologist and development anthropologist. He has an M.A. and a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and is based in Cambridge, England. He researches, publishes, and work ...
's materials
RB5 that includes Yasa language materials
Definitely endangered languages
Languages of Cameroon
Languages of Equatorial Guinea
Languages of Gabon
Sawabantu languages
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