| Vengo | |
| Also Known As: | Babungo |
| Nativename: | gháŋ vəŋóo |
| States: | Cameroon |
| Region: | North West Province |
| Speakers: | 27,000 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| Ref: | e18 |
| Familycolor: | Niger-Congo |
| Fam2: | Atlantic–Congo |
| Fam3: | Benue–Congo |
| Fam4: | Southern Bantoid |
| Fam5: | Grassfields |
| Fam6: | Ring |
| Fam7: | South |
| Iso3: | bav |
| Glotto: | veng1238 |
| Glottorefname: | Vengo |
Vengo (Vəŋo), or Babungo, is a Grassfields language and the language of the Vengo people from the village of Babungo in the Cameroonian Grassfields. The spelling Bamungo is also often found.
In their own language, the Vengo people call their village vengo (vəŋóo), and their language ghang vengo (gháŋ vəŋóo), which means "language of the Vengo"; it is thus officially listed under the name Vengo or Vengoo. Other names for the language are Vengi, Pengo, Ngo, Nguu, Ngwa, Nge.
Vengo is spoken by about 14,000 people. Because the Babungo people all live closely together and concentrate only in and around Vengo village, there are only small dialectical variations in their speech.
The Vengo language uses different tone pitches, which form a distinctive feature for the meaning of the words. In the Vengo tone system, there are eight distinctive pitch types or pitch sequences on vowels: high, mid, low, high-mid, high-low, low-falling, low-high, low-high-mid.
The use of the language (and traditional Babungo customs) is decreasing among the Babungo people due to not insignificant socio-cultural problems in that region. In most cases, those people acquire English as mother tongue, if they stay predominantly in the anglophone Northwest of Cameroon, otherwise French if they orient themselves towards the francophone parts of Cameroon. Most of the people in Western Cameroon speak Cameroonian Pidgin English anyway.
| Labial | Alveolar | Post-alveolar | Velar | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | voiceless | (pronounced as /ink/) | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||
| voiced | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||
| Fricative/ Affricate | voiceless | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||
| voiced | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||
| Nasal | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||
| Rhotic | (pronounced as /ink/) | ||||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||
Voiceless plosives pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/ are lightly aspirated (pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/). Some speakers alternate pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/ for pronounced as /link/, but pronounced as /link/ is always voiced.
pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/ only occur in loanwords. Schaub does not describe pronounced as /link/ but consistently uses pronounced as /link/. pronounced as /link/ tends to become aspirated pronounced as /link/ in Christian names and become pronounced as /link/ elsewhere. On the other hand, pronounced as /link/ tends to become pronounced as /link/, even in Christian names.
Most of the stops and fricatives/affricates can be prenasalized.Nasals are homorganic to the following consonant. As a result, pronounced as /link/ becomes pronounced as /link/ before pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/. The following examples show which consonants can be prenasalized and the phonemic status of prenasalization. Note that pronounced as //w j v ɣ// become pronounced as //gw d͡ʒ b g// when prenasalized.
| Plain | Gloss | Prenasalized | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| pronounced as /[bɪ́]/ | pronounced as /[mbɪ́]/ | |||
| pronounced as /[dɪ̌ˑ]/ | pronounced as /[ndɪ̌ˑ]/ | |||
| pronounced as /[gɨ̞̏]/ | pronounced as /[ŋgɨ̞̏]/ | |||
| pronounced as /[fɪ́]/ | pronounced as /[ɱfɪ́]/ | |||
| pronounced as /[séː]/ | pronounced as /[nséː]/ | |||
| pronounced as /[ʃə́]/ | pronounced as /[nʃə́]/ | |||
| pronounced as /[vɨ̌ˑʔ]/ | pronounced as /[ɱvɨ̏ʔ]/ | |||
| pronounced as /[zwɪ́]/ | pronounced as /[nzwɪ́]/ | |||
| pronounced as /[d͡ʒɨ̀ː]/ | pronounced as /[nd͡ʒɨ̀ː]/ | |||
| pronounced as /[wɪ̂]/ | pronounced as /[ŋgwîː]/ | |||
| pronounced as /[jɪ̂]/ | pronounced as /[nd͡ʒîː]/ | |||
| pronounced as /[vɪ̂]/ | pronounced as /[mbîː]/ | |||
| pronounced as /[ɣɪ̂]/ | pronounced as /[ŋgîː]/ |
pronounced as // v w ɣ ʔ// cannot be labialized. Consonants can be both prenasalized and labialized.
Vengo has nine phonemic vowels and five diphthongs or vowel-glide sequences.
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |
| Mid | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |
| Open | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ |
Vengo's diphthongs are pronounced as //ɨə//, pronounced as //ei//, pronounced as //ia//, pronounced as /ai/, and pronounced as //au//.
Any consonant may occur word-initially or syllable-initially, but only pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/ can occur finally.