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The Nun Languages of the Grassfields of Cameroun

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The Nun Languages of the Grassfields of Cameroun THE NUN LANGUAGES OF THE GRASSFIELDS OF CAMEROUN Roger Blench & Cameron Hamm DRAFT ONLY: VARIOUS SECTIONS NOT WRITTEN NOT TO BE QUOTED WITHOUT PERMISSION Roger Blench Cameron Hamm Kay Williamson Educational Foundation SIL 8, Guest Road Cambridge CB1 2AL United Kingdom Voice/Ans 0044-(0)1223-560687 Mobile worldwide (00-44)-(0)7967-696804 E-mail [email protected] http://www.rogerblench.info/RBOP.htm TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction................................................................................................................................................. 1 2. Sources ......................................................................................................................................................... 2 3. Membership of the Nun group................................................................................................................... 3 3.1 Nun as a genetic group............................................................................................................................ 3 3.2 Ndzerem .................................................................................................................................................. 4 3.3 Mankong (Bamukumbit)......................................................................................................................... 5 3.4 Other proposals ....................................................................................................................................... 5 3.5 Revised classification.............................................................................................................................. 6 4. Background to the region and individual languages................................................................................ 6 4.1 The Ndop Plain ....................................................................................................................................... 6 4.2 Baba ........................................................................................................................................................ 6 4.3 Bamenyan................................................................................................................................................ 6 4.4 Bamun ..................................................................................................................................................... 6 4.4.1 Shu Paməm....................................................................................................................................... 6 4.4.2 Bapi .................................................................................................................................................. 6 4.5 Bangolan ................................................................................................................................................. 6 4.6 Chopechop............................................................................................................................................... 6 4.7 Chrambo.................................................................................................................................................. 7 4.8 Chufie’..................................................................................................................................................... 7 4.9 Mankong ................................................................................................................................................. 7 4.10 Mungaka................................................................................................................................................ 7 4.10.1 Bali Nyonga ................................................................................................................................... 7 4.10.2 Ti Nusi (1986)................................................................................................................................ 7 4.10.3 Ndeng ............................................................................................................................................. 7 4.11 Ndzerem ................................................................................................................................................ 7 5. Phonology..................................................................................................................................................... 7 6. Morphology.................................................................................................................................................. 7 7. Syntax........................................................................................................................................................... 8 8. Reconstructing proto-Nun.......................................................................................................................... 8 9. Conclusions .................................................................................................................................................. 8 Appendices....................................................................................................................................................... 8 1. Orthographies of Nun languages ............................................................................................................... 8 2. Comparative wordlist ................................................................................................................................. 8 References ........................................................................................................................................................ 8 TABLES Table 1. The Nun languages.............................................................................................................................. 2 Table 2. Nun languages in Koelle (1854) ......................................................................................................... 2 Table 3. Data sources for the Nun languages.................................................................................................... 3 Table 4. Isoglosses illustrative of the common origin of the Nun languages................................................... 3 Table 5. Isoglosses illustrating the place of Ndzerem in the Nun group........................................................... 4 Table 6. Ndzerem cognates with Nso'............................................................................................................... 4 Table 7. Common glosses for an MCNB subgroup .......................................................................................... 5 Table 8. Evidence for Ndzerem-Chopechop links ............................................................................................ 5 Table 9. Isoglosses distinguishing Mankong from Ngemba languages ............................................................ 5 FIGURES Figure 1.Grassfields languages ......................................................................................................................... 1 The Nun languages Circulation draft 1. Introduction The languages of the Grassfields of Cameroun form a major subset of the Bantoid languages. The languages classified as Grassfields constitute a major subgroup and cover most of the region geographically. Although manifestly close to Bantu languages in the context of Niger-Congo, they are nonetheless very different in terms of phonology, morphology (especially noun-class systems) and lexicon. Given their numbers and diversity, they remain little-known compared with other language groupings in the region, such as Bantu and Cross River. The name ‘Grassfields’ first appears in Richardson (1957:61) without a clear genetic definition as part of the survey of languages of the ‘Northern Bantu borderland. This first era of research was followed by the establishment of a ‘Grassfields Working Group’ in the 1970s. Grassfields was probably first used in its linguistic sense simultaneously in Hyman (1980) and Stallcup (1978, 1980). An important synthesis that picked up much of this work was the Linguistic Atlas of Cameroun (Dieu & Renaud 1983). Other outlines of Grassfields appear in Watters & Leroy (1989), Piron (1995), Anderson (2001) and Watters (2003). However, an unfortunate characteristic of much recent work on Grassfields is that it has not been published. Despite the recent enthusiasm for language documentation and description, extended phonologies and lexical lists find no natural home in the competitive world of seminar linguistics. Even more worrying is the publication of class exercises conducted with a single non-resident speaker (e.g. Koopman & Kural 1994) and the non-publication of material based on extended fieldwork. There are two major sources of this grey literature; descriptions prepared in the context of literacy and bible translation and theses undertaken in Camerounian universities. As a consequence it may be the right time to pull together such materials to provide a more nuanced account of the subgroups of Grassfields. With these reservations, Figure 1 shows a tentative classification of the Grassfields languages. Figure 1.Grassfields languages Proto-Narrow Grassfields Ambele Western Momo Menchum Ring Momo Ndemli ? Eastern = Mbam-Nkam South East Centre West Bamileke Ngemba Nkambe Nun A significant subgroup of Grassfields is the Nun language group, one of the four divisions
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