Kemezung | |
---|---|
Native to | Cameroon |
Region | Northwest Province, Donga-Mantung Division, Southwest corner of Ako Subdivision, Northwest of Nkambé, town of Dumbu and village of Kwei. |
Native speakers | 3,540 (2008) [1] |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 |
dmo |
Glottolog |
keme1240 |
Kemezung (Dumbo, Dumbu, Dzumbo, Kumaju) is a Southern Bantoid ( Eastern Beboid) language of Cameroon. According to Ethnologue, it's 85% lexically similar to Bebe. [1]
Kemezung has 19 "unmodified" consonants. [2] Cox also claims Kemezung has labialized, palatalized, and prenasalized consonants but does not list all of them. [3]
Labial | Coronal | Palatal | Velar | Labial-velar | Laryngeal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Plosive | Voiceless | / t/ | / k/ | / k͡p/ | |||
Voiced | / b/ | / d/ | / g/ | / g͡b/ | |||
Affricate | Voiceless | / t͡s/ [a] | |||||
Voiced | / d͡z/ [b] | ||||||
Fricative | / f/ | / s/ [c] | / h/ | ||||
Nasal | / m/ | / n/ | / ɲ/ | / ŋ/ | |||
Approximant | / l/ [d] | / j/ [e] | / w/ |
Kemezung has 9 phonemic vowels. [4]
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | / i/ | / u/ | |
Close-mid | / e/ | / ɘ/ [a] | / o/ |
Open-mid | / ɛ/ | / ɜ/ [b] | / ɔ/ |
Open | / ä/ |
Kemezung also has 7 (or possibly 8) tones. [5] There are three level tones (high, mid, and low), three falling tones (high-low, mid-low, and long mid-low), and one or two rising tones (low-mid and possibly mid-high).