| Ngiemboon | |
| Nativename: | Ngiembɔɔn |
| States: | Cameroon |
| Region: | Province de l'Ouest, Bamboutos |
| Speakers: | 250,000 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| Ref: | [1] |
| 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: | Bamiléké |
| Fam11: | West Bamileke |
| Fam12: | Bamboutos |
| Iso3: | nnh |
| Glotto: | ngie1241 |
| Glottorefname: | Ngiemboon |
The Ngiemboon language, (autonym: Ngiembɔɔn), is one of a dozen Bamileke languages spoken in Cameroon. Its speakers are located primarily within the department of Bamboutos in the West Region of Cameroon.
Dialects are Batcham (Basham), Balatchi (Balaki) and Bamoungong (Bamongoun).
The alphabet is based on the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages[1]
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | K | L | M | N | Ŋ | O | Ɔ | P | R | S | T | Ts | U | Ʉ | V | Ẅ | Z | ʼ | |||||||||||||||||
| Lowercase | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| a | b | c | d | e | ɛ | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | ŋ | o | ɔ | p | r | pf | s | sh | t | ts | u | ʉ | v | w | ẅ | y | ÿ | z | ʼ | ||||||||||
| Labial | Coronal | Palatal | Dorsal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||
| Plosive | unvoiced | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||
| voiced | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||
| Affricate | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||
| Fricative | unvoiced | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | (pronounced as /ink/) | |
| voiced | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||
| Approximant | (pronounced as /ink/) | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||
| labialized | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||
Phonemes pronounced as //b d g k// are pronounced pronounced as /[p l ɣ k]/ when word initial, pronounced as /[β l ʁ ʔ]/ intervocalically, and pronounced as /[p t q ʔ]/ before the -te suffix and word finally. When word final, those are unreleased, as well as pronounced as //m ŋ//. pronounced as //s z ts// are pronounced pronounced as /[ʃ ʒ tʃ]/ before pronounced as /[u ɯ]/. The other coronals, pronounced as //t d n// are normally dental, but become retroflex pronounced as /[ʈ ɖ~ɭ ɳ]/ in that environment.
Obstruents become "aspirated" before both a semivowel and either pronounced as //e// or pronounced as //o// in an open syllable. This is realized as a "homorganic voiceless fricative offglide", causing the voiceless fricatives and affricates to become geminate, as well as voiced sounds to form a cluster with the unvoiced sound; for example, pronounced as /[ts]/ becomes pronounced as /[ts:]/, and pronounced as /[dz]/ becomes pronounced as /[dzs]/. However, a number of words also show this "aspiration" in positions without a following semivowel, all with the previous sounds being pronounced as /[bv]/, pronounced as /[f]/, pronounced as /[v]/, pronounced as /[dz]/, pronounced as /[s]/, or pronounced as /[z]/.
pronounced as //ɥ ɰ// are spelled as (ẅ ÿ). pronounced as /[ɾ h]/ are only present in loanwords. Additionally, certain allophones have separate letters assigned to them, namely pronounced as /[ʔ]/ ('), pronounced as /[p]/ (p), pronounced as /[l~ɭ]/ (l), pronounced as /[tʃ]/ (c), pronounced as /[ʃ]/ (sh), pronounced as /[ʒ~dʒ]/ (j). Consonants are otherwise spelled as in IPA, except pronounced as /[j]/ spelled as (y).
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||
| Close-mid | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||
| Open-mid | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||
| Open | pronounced as /ink/ |
Diphthongs pronounced as //ie iε ia oe ʉe ʉa ue ua uɔ// occur and are spelled as sequences of the two vowels would be. Nasalized vowels are not marked; they are simply implied by the following (ŋ), or by the long vowel spelling followed by (n), consistent with the analyses of these being from a phonemic pronounced as //n//.
Ngiembɔɔn is a tonal language, and uses the high tone pronounced as //˦//, the low tone pronounced as //˨//, the falling tone pronounced as //˥˩//, and the rising tone pronounced as //˩˥//.[3] Anderson suggests a fifth tone/˨˩/, low falling. These are marked (using as an example) as <á a â ǎ ȁ>. It is marked on the first letter of long vowels and diphthongs.