Medumba (, ) is a Bamileke language of Cameroon. The people who speak it originate from the Nde division of the West Region of the country, with their main settlements in Bangangté, Bakong, Bangoulap, Bahouoc, Bagnoun and Tonga. It is a major Bamileke language, and is located in an area where sacred kingship played a pivotal role in government, justice, and diplomacy. The modern history of the Bamileke area, which was a German colony placed under French trusteeship by the League of Nations in 1919, is closely associated with the nationalist movement of the Union des Populations du Cameroun (UPC), which developed primarily in the coastal hinterland (Bassa) and the western highlands (Bamileke). From 1956 to the late 1960s, this area of Cameroon experienced a period of unrest; this episode continues to shape Bamileke political culture, and has an impact on language identity and the linguistic landscape.
The Medumba-speaking area is famous for a cultural festival — ('Medumba Arts and Crafts Festival') — that promotes the Medumba language, as well as dance, artwork and food styles of the fourteen different villages of the locality. The festival, which takes place over a 2-week period in early July, is hosted in Bangangte.
Language resources
Scholarship on the Bamileke cluster Medumba is part of the Eastern Group of the Bamileke Cluster, which also include Fe'fe', Ghomálá', Kwa', and Nda'nda'. The Bamileke cluster — along with Ngemba, Nkambe and Nun — is part of the Eastern Grassfields subgroup which, together with the Ring languages and the Southwest Grassfields languages, constitute the Grassfield language grouping.
Medumba figures prominently in linguistic research on the Bamileke cluster, partly because of the high quality of the work done by Jan Voorhoeve in the 1960s and 1970s, including work on (in chronological order): morpheme structure constraints (Voorhoeve 1965) personal pronouns (Voorhoeve 1967) noun classes (Voorhoeve 1967 and 1969) tone of nouns (Voorhoeve 1971) traditional Bamileke narratives (Voorhoeve 1976) general linguistic description of the Bangangte dialect (Voorhoeve 1977)
This work was pursued by L. Hyman in the 1980s, on the closely related language Fe'fe' (add refs). It was re-invigorated in the early 2010s by research groups at Boston University (led by C. O'Connor) and at the University of British Columbia (led by R.-M. Déchaine). Some of these publications include: [add refs] Also notable are the scholarly contributions of Medumba speaker-linguists, including (in chronological order): Keupdjio 2011, MA thesis (University of Yaounde) on content questions Kouankem 2011, PhD dissertation (University of Yaounde) on nominal syntax Kouankem 2013 on concord Recent work on Medumba is part of a more general push towards documenting the languages of Africa, in the face of rising levels of language endangerment. Cameroon — along with Nigeria, Sudan, and Ethiopia — is reported to have one of the highest language mortality rates in Africa.
Literacy and orthography Efforts to develop a Medumba orthography date back to the beginning of the 20th century, and are associated with the following milestones: 1926: Protestant missionaries develop an orthography for use in primary schools to facilitate the penetration of the Christian Bible in the region. 1957: The French administration prohibits the use of local languages in the territories of the . 1973, 20 December: is created; its mission is to promote research on Medumba and develop literacy materials.
Currently, educational materials, literature and dictionaries for the language are produced by CEPOM, based in Bangangte. The combined output of missionary and CEPOM work has produced more than 80 publications on Medumba language and culture; these are published in French, English, and Medumba. Over time, publications in Medumba have used six different orthographies: 1926: published in a collection of 12 songs 1945: published in a book on religious history () and a syllabary 1967: publication of the New Testament () and 1973: publication of and 1979: publication of and 1985, 2 February: adoption of the current orthography at the 4th CEPOM Council The current alphabet is given in the following table. + AlphabetUppercaseAⱭBCDƏEƐFGGhHIJKLMNŊOƆSShTTsUɄVWNyYZʼLowercasea ɑ b cdə eɛf gghh ijklmn ŋoɔ ssht tsuʉ vwnyyzʼIPA symbolaɑbtʃdəɪɛfgɣxiɟklmnŋoɔ sʃtʦu, ʊʉvwɲjzʔ In addition to simplex consonants, Medumba has numerous complex consonants, and these are represented as digraphs or trigraphs; see Table 2. Nasals, stops, and fricatives can be labialized; in the orthography this is represented as a CW digraph. Stops and fricatives can be pre-nasalized; in the orthography this is represented as an NC digraph or an NCW trigraph. + Table 2. Orthographic conventions for complex consonantsLabialized consonantsPre-nasalized consonantsnasalsstopsfricativesstopsfricativesvoicedvoiceless voicedvoicelessUppercaseNwŊwBwJwGwCwKwFwSwMbMbwNdNjNjŊgŊgwNtNcNcwŊkwŊkwMfMfwNsNswLowercasenw ŋwbwjw gwcwkwfw sw mbmbwndnjnjwŋgŋgwntncncwŋkŋkwmfmfwnsnswIPA symbolɲʷŋʷbʰɟʷ, ʒʷgʷtʃʷkʷfʷsʷᵐbᵐbʰⁿdᶮɟ,ⁿʒᶮɟʷ,ⁿʒʷᵑgᵑgᵂⁿtᶮcᶮcᵂᵑkᵑkᵂᵐfᵐfᵂⁿsⁿsᵂ Orthographic conventions for tone-marking are as follows: High-tone is not marked. Low-tone is marked as a grave accent on the vowel, e.g. à. Rising Low-High is marked as a caron on a single vowel, e.g. ɛ̌. Falling High-Low is marked as circumflex on a single vowel, e.g. ʉ̂. Recent developments in digital literacy have had an impact on Medumba. For example, a seven-language electronic calendar — in French, English, and the five national languages (Medumba, Ghomala, Yemba, Meta, Kom) — sends information on time and date to an LCD screen via a VGA controller. The calendar has been developed as a way of mitigating the impact of language competition, and with the specific goal of raising the profile and prestige of the national languages in a context of language endangerment.
Media Radio Medumba Bangangté was established in 2000 by .
Phonology
Vowels
According to and , Medumba has 12 phonemic simple vowels given in the following inventory:
+ Simple vowelsFrontCentralBack Closed(High) + - Mid(Non-high) CloseOpen Low
Additionally, Medumba has five phonemic diphthongs: , , , , and .
Consonants
The following table gives the simple phonemic consonants in Medumba according to . Consonants in parentheses are phonemic but extremely rare.
+ Simple consonantsLabialAlveolarPalatalVelarGlottal Nasal Stop voiced voiceless Trill Fricative voiced()() voiceless()Approximant
Only nasals, /b/, /d/, /g/, and /ʙ/ appear in both onset and coda positions.
Approximants /w, j/ also may occur according to Nganmou (1991).
In addition to simple consonants Medumba has a large number of consonants with secondary articulation. Complex consonants only occur in onset position. The inventory of complex consonants according to is: + Complex consonantsLabialAlveolarPalatalVelar labialized nasal stop voiced voiceless fricative pre-nasalized trill plosive voiced voiceless fricative pre-nasalized labialized plosive voiced voiceless fricative +Full consonant chart with secondary articulationLabialAlveolarPalatalVelarGlottalplainLab.plainLab.plainLab.plainLab. Nasal Stop Trill Fricative ()() ()Approximant
Morphology
Affixation Medumba has several affixes including: the suffix -te, which attaches to verbs to derive the counterpart iterative form ('to verb regularly or repetitively'). While many -te forms have a counterpart base to which they may or may not be transparently related (1-10), many of them seem to be frozen forms, for which the underived no longer exists (11-22). homorganic nasal prefixal N-, which is found in two contexts: it attaches to verbs to derive nouns it attaches to verbs to derive non-initial verbs (e.g. after an auxiliary or the non-initial verb of serial verb construction) suffixal H-tone prefixal H-tone + Examples of iterative -tə: (1-10)IPAorthographyglossIPAorthographyglosssource(1) L'be red' LL'change'V1976:111(2) H'crever, pierce, explode' HH'ask'V1976:112(3) H'wipe' HH'pick up'V1976:114(4) L'rip' LL1. 'rip' 2. to separate from each otherV1976:116(5) H'become quiet' HH'be late'V1976:118(6) L'be covered with écailles' LL'escroquer'V1976:121(7) L'hit' LL1. 'hit with small hits' 2. 'thank, pray'V1976:26 V1976:122(8)[lɑʔ] L'to become angry' LL'reveal, show'V1976:122(9) L1. throw 2. project
3. clothe again LL'cotiser'V1976:123(10) H'push' HH'push with small shakes'V1976:26 + Examples of iterative -tə (frozen forms)IPAorthographyglosssource HH'mend, pin up'V1976:112 LL'pour, empty'V1976:116 LL'show'V1976:114 LL'be amusing, provoke laughter'V1976:121 HH'remember'V1976:122 LL'forgive, forget'V1976:122 HH'trick'V1976:122 LL'safeguard, fructify'V1976:123 LL'shake'V1976:125 HH1. 'be dirty 2. 'realize'V1976:126[sɛʔ-tə] LL'rub'V1976:126 HH'lie, mislead'V1976:127
Tonal inflection
Nominal tone classes: LL, HH, HL, LH Tone on Nouns: {LL, HH, HL, LH}: Voorhoeve introduced a non-segment tone in order to distinguish two different low tone noun groups and two different high tone noun groups. For instance, and both bear a segment low tone, but their tonal realization is different in the context such as . For instance, in (I saw the child of the cow) bears a non-low tone, whereas in (I saw the child of the chief) bears a low tone. He proposed a four-way distinction, L(L), L(H), H(L), and H(H) to account for the nominal tone groups . + Noun tone classesTone classSurface toneIPAOrthographyGlossL(L)L[]'chief'L(H)L[]'cow'H(L)H[]'child'H(H)H[]'tree'Adapted from
Verbal tone classes: L, H Tone on Verbs: {L, H}: The radical of the verb has only one tonal contrast, which is a Low and High contrast. The tone of radical may be realized differently in different contexts. For instance, a low tone verb that has a nasal prefix has a different tone from its non-prenasalized counterpart. Examples are provided to illustrate this phenomenon. [Give examples of CV, CVC, CV-L and CVC-L) + Verb tone classesTone classContext 1: infinitiveContext 2: consecutiveSurface toneIPAOrthographySurface toneIPAOrthographyGlossL-toneCVL-H[]H-L[]'like'CVCL-H[]H-L[]'arrive'H-toneCVH[]H[]'eat'CVCH-H[]HH[]leaveAdapted from , The examples above show that the Low tone radical is realized as a high tone if the verb is prenasalized, whereas it is realized as a low-mid tone if the verb is not prenasalized. The High tone radical is realized as mid tone regardless of prenasalization. This effect is also found in Bamileke-FeʔFeʔ.
Noun classes Voorhoeve identifies two characteristics of noun classes that surface in Medumba: Systems of pairings between singular and plural prefixes Concording nominal and prenominal prefixes Voorhoeve also assumes that pronominal prefixes exist within the noun class system, with these prefixes consisting of inherent tone morphemes such as the left-edge floating tone. The added prenominal tone creates a tonal difference between singular and plural noun class pairs, with generation of the plural form created by the singular.
Noun classes can be detached by singular and plural pairs.
Voorhoeve ascertains that the nasal prefix serves as a distinguishing factor between singular and plural noun pairs. As seen in Table 19, this nasal prefix does not surface in all constructions, especially with singular nouns that are already nasal word-initially. +Table 12. Noun Class PairsClassIPAOrthographyGlossClass 1[]'child'Class 2[]'children'Class 3[]'house'Class 4[]'houses'Class 5[]'knife'Class 4[]'knives'(Adapted from and )