Yambeta language explained

Yambeta
States:	Cameroon
Speakers:	3,700
Date:	1982
Ref:	e18
Familycolor:	Niger-Congo
Fam2:	Atlantic–Congo
Fam3:	Benue–Congo
Fam4:	Southern Bantoid
Fam5:	Mbam
Fam6:	West Mbam
Iso3:	yat
Glotto:	yamb1252
Glottorefname:	Yambeta
Guthrie:	A.462

Yambeta or Nigi^[1] is a Southern Bantoid language of Cameroon.

Phonology

There are 20 contrastive consonants in Yambeta.

!Labial!Alveolar!Palatal!Velar!Glottal

Stop		p	t	t͡ʃ	k	ʔ
Prenasalized	Voiceless		ⁿt		ⁿk
	Voiced	ⁿb	ⁿd		ⁿg
Fricatives		f	s			h
Nasals		m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Approximants			l	j	w

The glottal stop occurs only in word-final position and is elided intervocalically. All other consonants, except /t͡ʃ/ and /w/ as well as the prenasalized stops, may be word-final. All stops are voiceless word-initial and word-final, and voiced intervocalically or following a nasal.

There are two vowel sets in Yambeta. The most common noun syllable structure is CVC.^[2]

! colspan="6"

+ATR	colspan="6"	-ATR
Front		Mid		Back		Front		Mid		Back
Short	Long	Short	Long	Short	Long	Short	Long	Short	Long	Short	Long
Close	ɪ	ɪː			ʊ	ʊː	i	iː			u	uː
Close-mid									ə	əː	o	oː
Open-mid					ɔ	ɔː
Open			a	aː

Notes and References

1. Book: Binam Bikoi. Charles. 2012. Atlas linguistique du Cameroun (ALCAM). Linguistic Atlas of Cameroon. 1: Inventaire des langues. fr. Yaoundé. CERDOTOLA. Atlas linguistique de l'Afrique centrale (ALAC). 9789956796069.
2. Boyd, V. L. (2015). The phonological systems of the Mbam languages of Cameroon with a focus on vowels and vowel harmony (pp. XVIII+-394). Utrecht: LOT.