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Mmen language

Grassfields language spoken in Cameroon From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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

Quick Facts Native to, Native speakers ...

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).

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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.

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Phonology

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Consonants

Mmen has 27 phonemic consonants.[2]

More information Labial, Alveolar ...
  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]

More information Front, Central ...
  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]

More information Front, Central ...

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]

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References

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