Bangolan language

Bangolan is a Grassfields Bantu language of Cameroon.

Bangolan
Region	Cameroon
Ethnicity	Bamileke
Native speakers	14,000 (2011)[1]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta-Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Grassfields Eastern Grassfields Mbam-Nkam Nun Bangolan
Language codes
ISO 639-3	bgj
Glottolog	bang1356

Phonology

Consonants

Consonants^[2]

		Labial	Coronal	Back	Labial-velar
Plosive	voiceless		t	k	kp
	voiced	b	d	g	gb
Fricative	voiceless	f	s	h
	voiced	v	z
Affricate			t͡s
Nasal		m	n	ŋ
Approximant			j		w

• /b/ is [b] after nasals (e.g., [mbé] 'nail') and [p] elsewhere (e.g., [pà] 'bag').^[3]
• /d/ is [d] after nasals (e.g., [ndɔ́ŋ] 'horn'), [l]~[ɾ] between vowels or after syllable-final consonants (e.g., [túŋlə̀]~[túŋɾə̀] 'ear'), and [l] elsewhere (e.g., [lə̀ŋ] 'chair').^[3]
• /g/ is [g] after nasals (e.g., [ŋgùt] 'skin') and [ɣ] elsewhere (e.g., [ɣàtə́] 'divide').^[3]
• /t/ is [tʰ] before [u] in open syllables (e.g., [tʰú] 'dig (verb)') and [t] elsewhere (e.g., [túŋ] 'dig (verb)').^[3]
• /k/ is [ʔ] between vowels or syllable-finally (e.g., [nàʔ] 'cow') and [k] elsewhere (e.g., [kú] 'die(verb)').^[3]
• /z/ is [d͡ʒ] in labialized or palatalized syllables after nasal consonants (e.g., [nd͡ʒìŋ] 'darkness'), [ʒ] in labialized or palatalized syllables (e.g., [wǎʒwí] 'lion'), [d͡z] after nasal consonants (e.g., [nd͡zə̀] 'dream', and [z] elsewhere (e.g., [zí] 'face').^[4]
• /s/ is [ʃ] in labialized or palatalized syllables (e.g., [ʃíʃí] 'vein') and [s] elsewhere (e.g., [sáŋ] 'corn').^[4]
• /t͡s/ is [t͡ʃ] in labialized or palatalized syllables (e.g., [t͡ʃì] 'blood') and [t͡s] elsewhere (e.g., [t͡sɔ̀t] 'mouth').^[4]
• /ʔ, t, ŋ/ are the only syllable-final consonants.^[5]

Vowels

Vowels^[6]

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i	ɨ	u
Close-mid	e		o
Open-mid	ɛ	ə	ɔ
Open		a

/ɨ/ does not occur in labialized or palatalized syllables, and /ə, u, o, ɔ/ do not occur in palatalized syllables.^[7] /e, o, ɨ/ cannot occur in closed syllables before /ŋ/.^[6]

Tone

Bangolan has lexical and grammatical tone. Lexical tone contrasts [nd͡zɔ̂ŋ] 'clitoris' with [nd͡zɔ̏ŋ] 'thorn',^[6] while grammatical tone contrasts [à wé] 'he has gone' with [à wē] 'he is going'.^[8]

There are three level tones (high [á], mid [ā], low [à]) and three contour tones (low-rising [ǎ], high-low falling [â], and low-falling [ȁ]).^[5] The mid tone is rare but contrasts with the high and low-falling tones.^[8]