Mmen language

Mmen (Bafmeng) is a Grassfields Bantu language of Cameroon.

Mmen
Bafmeng
Native to	Cameroon
Native speakers	35,000 (2001)[1]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Southern Bantoid Grassfields Ring Center Mmen
Language codes
ISO 639-3	bfm
Glottolog	mmen1238
ELP	Fungom

As a Centre Ring language of Narrow Grassfields, a subdivision of Wide Grassfields within the Southern Bantoid languages, Mmen is part of a cluster including six other languages i.e. Babanki, Bum, Kom, Kuk, Kung and Oku (Lewis 2009).

Etymology

The name Mmen ([mɛn]) comes from the verb sé mwɛ̀yn [sémɣɛ̀yn] ‘to open up thick bush-covered land’ and is used by the speakers referring to both their language and their land.

Ethnologue (Lewis 2009) and ALCAM, Atlas Linguistique du Cameroon (Dieu and Renaud 1983) use the name and spelling Mmen.

Bafumen is the name of the village where the largest number of speakers is found i.e. 30 000 (Troyer, et al. 1995:8) and the name adopted by German colonizers for the area and formerly used for the language. Other villages where Mmen is spoken are Cha’, Yemgeh, Nyos, Ipalim among others.

Phonology

Consonants

Mmen has 27 phonemic consonants.^[2]

		Labial	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Velar	Labial–velar
Plosive	voiceless	/p/	/t/		/k/[a]	/k͡p/
	voiced	/ᵐb/	/ⁿd/		/ᵑg/
Affricate	voiceless	/p͡f/	/t͡s/	/t͡ʃ/
	voiced	/ᵐb͡v/	/ⁿd͡z/	/ⁿd͡ʒ/
Fricative	voiceless	/f/	/s/	/ʃ/
	voiced	/v/	/z/	/ʒ/	/ɣ/
Nasal		/m/	/n/	/ɲ/[b]	/ŋ/
Lateral			/l/
Approximant				/j/		/w/

1. [k] is in complementary distribution with [ʔ]. [ʔ] appears root medially and root finally, and [k] appears elsewhere.^[3]
2. /ɲ/ sometimes depalatalizes to [n] between vowels.^[4]

Vowels

Monophthongs

Mmen has 9 phonemic monophthongs.^[5]

	Front	Central	Back
Close	/i/		/u/
Close-mid	/e/[a][b]	/ə/[c]	/o/[d]
Open-mid	/ɛ/	/ɜ/	/ɔ/
Open		/ä/

1. /e/ optionally diphthongizes to [ei̯].^[6]
2. /e/ optionally becomes [i] at the beginning of a word.^[6]
3. [ɨ] is an optional allophone of /ə/.^[7]
4. [ʊ] is an optional allophone of /o/.^[8]

Diphthongs

Mmen also has six phonemic diphthongs, all ending in /i/.^[9]

	Front	Central	Back
Close-mid		əi̯	oi̯
Open-mid	ɛi̯	ɜi̯	ɔi̯
Open		äi̯

Tone

Mmen has 9 phonemic tones. There are three level tones (high, mid, and low) and six contour tones (high-low, high-mid, mid-low, mid-high, low-mid, and low-falling).^[10]

References

1. Mmen at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. Björkestedt (2010:9)
3. Björkestedt (2010:11)
4. Björkestedt (2010:52)
5. Björkestedt (2010:31)
6. Björkestedt (2010:32)
7. Björkestedt (2010:32–33)
8. Björkestedt (2010:33)
9. Björkestedt (2010:36)
10. Björkestedt (2010:44)

Bibliography

• Agha-ah, Chiatoh Blasius (April 1993). The Noun Class System of Mmen (post-graduate diploma thesis). University of Yaoundé.
• Agha, Grace Beh (September 1987). The Phonology of Mmen (post-graduate diploma thesis). University of Yaoundé.
• Bangha, George F. (2003). The Mmen Noun Phrase (Thesis). hdl:11858/00-001M-0000-0012-7FC1-6.
• Björkestedt, Lena (2010). A Phonological Sketch of the Mmen Language (PDF). CABTAL. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-03-16.
• Björkestedt, Lena (2011). Mmen Orthography Guide. SIL.
• Huey, Paul; Mbongue, Joseph; Troyer, Duane (May 1995). A rapid appraisal survey of Mmen (ALCAM 821) and Aghem dialects (ALCAM 810), Menchum Division, Northwest Province (Report). SIL Cameroon.