| Mmen | |
| Nativename: | Bafmeng |
| States: | Cameroon |
| Speakers: | 35,000 |
| Date: | 2001 |
| Ref: | e18 |
| Familycolor: | Niger-Congo |
| Fam2: | Atlantic–Congo |
| Fam3: | Benue–Congo |
| Fam4: | Southern Bantoid |
| Fam5: | Grassfields |
| Fam6: | Ring |
| Fam7: | Center |
| Iso3: | bfm |
| Glotto: | mmen1238 |
| Glottorefname: | Mmen |
| Elp: | 547 |
| Elpname: | Fungom |
Mmen (Bafmeng) is a Grassfields Bantu language of Cameroon.
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).
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.
Mmen has 27 phonemic consonants.
| Labial | Alveolar | Palato-alveolar | Velar | Labial–velar | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Affricate | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Fricative | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Lateral | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
Mmen has 9 phonemic monophthongs.
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Close-mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| Open-mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| Open | pronounced as /link/ |
Mmen also has six phonemic diphthongs, all ending in pronounced as //i//.
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close-mid | pronounced as /əi̯/ | pronounced as /oi̯/ | ||
| Open-mid | pronounced as /ɛi̯/ | pronounced as /ɜi̯/ | pronounced as /ɔi̯/ | |
| Open | pronounced as /äi̯/ |
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).