| Bambalang | |
| Also Known As: | Chrambo |
| Region: | Cameroon |
| Ethnicity: | Bamileke |
| Speakers: | 29,000 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| Ref: | e18 |
| Familycolor: | Niger-Congo |
| Fam2: | Atlantic–Congo |
| Fam3: | Volta-Congo |
| Fam4: | Benue–Congo |
| Fam5: | Bantoid |
| Fam6: | Southern Bantoid |
| Fam7: | Grassfields |
| Fam8: | Eastern Grassfields |
| Fam9: | Mbam-Nkam |
| Fam10: | Nun |
| Iso3: | bmo |
| Glotto: | bamb1265 |
| Glottorefname: | Bambalang |
The Bambalang language, also called Chrambo (Chirambo, Tshirambo) or Mbawyakum (Mboyakum), is a Grassfields Bantu language of Cameroon.
These phones and phonemes were enumerated by Grove in 2007 and refined by Wright in 2012.
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop/Affricate | Voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||||
| Fricative | Voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| Voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||||
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop/Affricate | Voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| Voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Fricative | Voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| Voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||||
| Tap | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||||||
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/~pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/~pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/~pronounced as /link/ | |||||||
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ | |
| Close-mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Mid | pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Open-mid | pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Open | pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ |
In addition to simple oral and nasal vowels, Bambalang also has oral and nasal diphthongs and vowel sequences. Grove and Wright do not specify whether nasal diphthongs are truly diphthongs or vowel sequences.
| Orthographic | Phonemic | Phonetic | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ei | pronounced as //ei// | pronounced as /link/ | |
| ou | pronounced as //ou// | pronounced as /link/ | |
| ao | pronounced as //ao// | pronounced as /link/ | |
| əɨ | pronounced as //əɨ// | pronounced as /[ə.ɨ]/ | |
| ie | /ie/ | pronounced as /[i.e]/ | |
| ia | pronounced as //ia// | pronounced as /[i.a]/ | |
| ua | pronounced as //ua// | pronounced as /[u.a]/ | |
| uo | pronounced as //uo// | pronounced as /[u.o]/ | |
| aoŋ | pronounced as //aõ// | ||
| ɛiŋ | pronounced as //ɛĩ// | ||
| ieŋ | pronounced as //iẽ// | ||
| iɛŋ | pronounced as //iɛ̃// | ||
| iaŋ | pronounced as //iã// | ||
| uoŋ | pronounced as //uõ// |
In addition, Bambalang has both lexical and grammatical tone.
Tones in Bambalang
| Diacritic | á | à | ā | ǎ | a |
A segmental orthography was created for Bambalang in 2007 and revised in 2012.
| Upper | Lower | Phone | |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | a | pronounced as /link/ | |
| B | b | pronounced as /link/ | |
| Ch | ch | pronounced as /link/ | |
| D | d | pronounced as /link/ | |
| E | e | pronounced as /link/ | |
| Ɛ | ɛ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| Ə | ə | pronounced as /link/ | |
| F | f | pronounced as /link/ | |
| G | g | pronounced as /link/ | |
| Gh | gh | pronounced as /link/ | |
| H | h | pronounced as /link/ | |
| I | i | pronounced as /link/ | |
| Ɨ | ɨ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| J | j | pronounced as /link/ | |
| K | k | pronounced as /link/ | |
| L | l | pronounced as /link/ | |
| M | m | pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/ | |
| N | n | pronounced as /link/ | |
| Ŋ | ŋ | pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/ | |
| O | o | pronounced as /link/ | |
| Ɔ | ɔ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| P | p | pronounced as /link/ | |
| R | r | pronounced as /link/ | |
| Sh | sh | pronounced as /link/ | |
| T | t | pronounced as /link/ | |
| U | u | pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/ | |
| V | v | pronounced as /link/ | |
| W | w | pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/ | |
| Y | y | pronounced as /link/~pronounced as /link/ | |
| ’ | pronounced as /link/ | ||