| Yemba | |
| Also Known As: | Ashuŋne yémba |
| Nativename: | Dschang |
| Region: | Cameroon |
| Ethnicity: | Bamileke |
| Speakers: | ~500,000 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| Ref: | e25 |
| 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: | Bamileke |
| Fam11: | West Bamileke |
| Fam12: | Bamboutos |
| Iso3: | ybb |
| Glotto: | yemb1246 |
| Glottorefname: | Yemba |
Yɛmba or Yemba, also Yémba or Bamiléké Dschang, is a major Bamileke language in West Region of Cameroon. It was approximately spoken by 500,000 or so people in the country in 2023.
Despite originally being exclusively a spoken language, Yemba writing was developed by Maurice Tadadjeu (co-creator of the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages) and Steven Bird. Their team developed a small Yemba - French Dictionary covering French translations of over 3,000 Yemba words and expressions.[1] The Yemba alphabet is a subset of the International Phonetic Alphabet.
A machine backwards transformation of the dictionary was performed by independent scientists who created the French translation of Yemba words. The resulting dictionary was extended with French synonyms from the French version of the WordNet database. Furthermore, over 6,000 English, German, Czech, Spanish, Italian and Chinese words and expressions were translated into Yemba. A major outcome of this project is a collaborative online platform for extending Yemba translations and promoting the learning of the Yemba language. [2]
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | 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/ | |||
| Rhotic | (pronounced as /link/) | |||||
| Approximant | lateral | (pronounced as /link/) | ||||
| central | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| Mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Low | pronounced as /link/ |
Three tones are marked as high [á], mid [ā], or low [à]. Low tones are unmarked when written.[3]
The Yemba alphabet consists of 32 letters, including letters from the Latin alphabet as well as special graphemes.
| Uppercase | A | B | C | D | E | Ə | Ɛ | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | Ŋ | O | Ɔ | P | Pf | S | Sh | T | Ts | U | Ʉ | V | W | Y | Z | ' | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lowercase | a | b | c | d | e | ə | ɛ | f | g | h | I | j | k | l | m | n | ŋ | o | ɔ | p | pf | s | sh | t | ts | u | ʉ | v | w | y | z | ' |
[ftp://ftp.cis.upenn.edu/pub/sb/papers/dictionary/dictionary.pdf Petit dictionnaire Yemba Francais]