Ghomalaʼ language

Bamileke language spoken in Cameroon

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Ghomala
Ghɔmálá’
Native to	Cameroon
Region	[[West Region (Cameroon)\|]]
Ethnicity	Bamileke
Native speakers	350,000 (2005)^[1]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta-Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Grassfields Eastern Grassfields Mbam-Nkam Bamileke Ghomala
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	`bbj`
Glottolog	`ghom1247`

Ghɔmálá’ or Ghomala is a major Bamileke language spoken in Cameroon, originally in the following departments of the West region:

Mifi, Koung-Khi and Hauts-Plateaux: most of the three departments (except extreme south and except pockets in the north and west)
Menoua: east of the department
Bamboutos: a corner in the south

It is spoken by an estimated 2 million people in two main population groups.^{[citation needed]}

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	voiceless	p	t		k	ʔ
Plosive	voiced	b	d		ɡ
Affricate	voiceless	p͡f	t͡s	t͡ʃ
Affricate	voiced	b͡v	d͡z	d͡ʒ
Fricative	voiceless	f	s	(ʃ)		h
Fricative	voiced	(v)		(ʒ)	(ɣ)
Nasal		m	n		ŋ
Approximant	lateral		(l)
	central	w		j
	centralized			ɥ̈

The glottal stop /ʔ/ only occurs as word-final.
Sounds [v l ʃ ʒ ɣ] are alternative consonant sounds of /b͡v d t͡ʃ d͡ʒ ɡ/.
/t d/, when occurring before close front-central vowel sounds /i ʉ/, can sound palatalized as [tʲ dʲ].
Sounds /p b t d k/, when preceding a /h/ sound, are realized as affricated [p͡ɸ b͡β t͡θ d͡ð k͡x].
/ɡ/, when occurring before central vowel sounds /ə ɐ/, may sound affricated as [ɡ͡ɣ].
A word-final /k/ sound, may be realized as uvular sounds [q χ].

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i	ʉ	u
Mid	e	ə	o
Mid	ɛ	ɐ	ɔ
Low		a

Sounds /ɐ u ɔ/ when occurring with a velar nasal /ŋ/, can be realized as nasalized vowel sounds [ɐ̃ ũ ɔ̃].^[2]

Tone

Tones are marked as high [á], low [à], mid (unmarked) [a], rising [ǎ], or falling [â].

References

^ Ghomala at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^ Nissim, Gabriel M. (1981). Le Bamileke-Ghomálá' (Parler de Bandjoun, Cameroun). Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Sciéntifique.