| Bamum | |
| Also Known As: | Shüpamom |
| Region: | Cameroon, Nigeria |
| Ethnicity: | Bamum people |
| Speakers: | 420,000 |
| Date: | 2005 |
| 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 |
| Dia1: | Bapi |
| Script: | Latin script, Bamum syllabary (being revived) |
| Map: | Shumom-text.jpg |
| Mapcaption: | Page from a manuscript in the Bamum script |
| Iso3: | bax |
| Glotto: | bamu1253 |
| Glottorefname: | Bamum |
Bamum (Shü Pamom pronounced as /ʃŷpǎˑmə̀m/, or Shümom), also known as Shupamem, Bamun, or Bamoun, is an Eastern Grassfields language of Cameroon, with approximately 420,000 speakers. The language is well known for its original script developed by King Njoya and his palace circle in the Kingdom of Bamum around 1895. Cameroonian musician Claude Ndam was a native speaker of the language and sang it in his music.[1]
Bamum has tone, vowel length, diphthongs and coda consonants.
Nchare claims ten diphthongs, only eight of which (excluding pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/) have a length distinction. Matateyou shows normal and long examples of all ten vowel qualities. The orthography in angle brackets was based on the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages as used by Matateyou.
| Front | Central | Back | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | pronounced as /ink/ (i) pronounced as /ink/ (ii) | pronounced as /ink/ (ü) pronounced as /ink/ (üü) | pronounced as /ink/ (ʉ) pronounced as /ink/ (ʉʉ) | pronounced as /ink/ (u) pronounced as /ink/ (uu) | ||
| Mid | pronounced as /ink/ (e) pronounced as /ink/ (ee) | pronounced as /ink/ (ə) pronounced as /ink/ (əə) | pronounced as /ink/ (o) pronounced as /ink/ (oo) | |||
| Open-mid | pronounced as /ink/ (ɛ) pronounced as /ink/ (ɛɛ) | pronounced as /ink/ (ɔ) pronounced as /ink/ (ɔɔ) | ||||
| Open | pronounced as /ink/ (a) pronounced as /ink/ (aa) | |||||
The consonants are displayed as following:
| Colspan=3 | Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labial- velar | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | pronounced as /ink/ (p) | pronounced as /ink/ (t) | pronounced as /ink/ (k) | pronounced as /ink/ (kp) | pronounced as /ink/ (ʼ) | ||||
| pronounced as /ink/ (b) | pronounced as /ink/ (d) | pronounced as /ink/ (g) | pronounced as /ink/ (gb) | ||||||
| pronounced as /ᵐp/ (mp) | pronounced as /ⁿt/ (nt) | pronounced as /ᵑk/ (ŋk) | pronounced as /ᵑ͡ᵐk͡p/ (ŋkp) | ||||||
| pronounced as /ᵐb/ (mb) | pronounced as /ⁿd/ (nd) | pronounced as /ᵑɡ/ (ŋg) | pronounced as /ᵑ͡ᵐg͡b/ (ŋgb) | ||||||
| Fricative | pronounced as /ink/ (f) | pronounced as /ink/ (s) | pronounced as /ink/ (sh) | ||||||
| pronounced as /ink/ (ɓ) | pronounced as /ink/ (v) | pronounced as /ink/ (z) | pronounced as /ink/ (j) | pronounced as /ink/ (gh) | |||||
| pronounced as /ᶬf/ (mf) | pronounced as /ⁿs/ (ns) | pronounced as /ᶮʃ/ (nsh) | |||||||
| pronounced as /ᶬv/ (mv) | pronounced as /ⁿz/ (nz) | pronounced as /ᶮʒ/ (nzh) | |||||||
| Nasal | pronounced as /ink/ (m) | pronounced as /ink/ (n) | pronounced as /ink/ (ny) | pronounced as /ink/ (ŋ) | pronounced as /ink/ (ŋm) | ||||
| Rhotic | pronounced as /ink/ (r) | ||||||||
| Approximant | Plain | pronounced as /ink/ (l) | pronounced as /ink/ (y) | pronounced as /ink/ (w) | |||||
| Prenasal | pronounced as /ink/ (nj) | pronounced as /ink/ (nw) | |||||||
Bamum has four or five tones. Mateteyou's analysis includes a mid tone, while Nchare's analysis includes downstep. Bamum distinguishes between lexical and grammatical tone.
| Diacritic | Nchare | Matateyou | |
|---|---|---|---|
| à | low | low | |
| á | high | high | |
| ā | ― | mid | |
| ǎ | rising | rising | |
| â | falling | falling | |
| ꜜ | downstep | ― |