Basaa language

For a Kru language spoken in Liberia and Sierra Leone, see Bassa language. For a Kainji language spoken in Nigeria, see Basa language.

Basaa
Mbene
ɓasaá, ɓàsàa
Native to	Cameroon
Region	Centre and Littoral Provinces
Ethnicity	Basaa people
Native speakers	300,000 (2005 SIL)
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Southern Bantoid Bantu (Zone A) Basaa languages (A.40) Basaa
Language codes
ISO 639-2	bas
ISO 639-3	bas
Glottolog	basa1284
Guthrie code	A.43a

Basaa (also spelled Bassa, Basa, Bissa), or Mbene, is a Bantu language spoken in Cameroon by the Basaa people. It is spoken by about 300,000 people in the Centre and Littoral regions.

Maho (2009) lists North and South Kogo as dialects.

Background and Origin

Basaa is spoken by 230,000 speakers. They live in Nyong-et-Kelle (Central Region) and Sanaga Maritime (with the exception of the Edéa commune, which has a Bakoko majority) and most of Nkam commune (Littoral Region). In the western and northern parts of this department, the peripheral Basaa dialects are spoken: Yabasi in the commune of Yabassi, Diɓuum in the commune of Nkondjok (Diboum Canton), north of Ndemli and Dimbamban.

Similarly, Basaa Baduala is spoken in Wouri Department (Littoral Region), traditional Basaa territory that is being transformed by the growth of Douala. Basaa is also found in Océan Department (commune of Bipindi, Southern Region).

Hijuk is spoken only in the quarter of Niki in Batanga commune, in Yangben Canton (Ch. Paulian (1980)) by 400 people. Hijuk is a Basaa dialect, despite its geographical location in the southeast of Bokito arrondissement (Mbam-et-Inoubou department, Central Region).

Phonology

Vowels

	Front	Back
Close	i iː	u uː
Close-mid	e eː	o oː
Open-mid	ɛ ɛː	ɔ ɔː
Open	a aː

Consonants

		Bilabial	Coronal	Palatal	Velar	Labial-velar	Uvular	Glottal
Plosive	voiceless	p	t	tʃ dʒ	k	kʷ ɡʷ
	prenasal	ᵐb	ⁿd	ᶮdʒ	ᵑɡ
	implosive	ɓ
Fricative		ɸ β	s		x ɣ		χ	h ɦ
Nasal		m	n	ɲ	ŋ	ŋʷ
Tap			ɾ̥ ɾ
Lateral			l
Approximant				j		w

• When not root-initial and not after a pause, the voiceless stops /p t k/ are realized as voiced stops or voiced fricatives.

Tone

Basaa contrasts four tones: high, low, high-to-low (falling) and low-to-high (rising).

Orthography

The language uses a Latin-based alphabet, with the addition of the letters Ɓɓ, Ɛɛ, Ŋŋ, Ɔɔ, ten multigraphs, as well as acute, grave, and circumflex accents:

Capital	Small
A	a
B	b
Ɓ	ɓ
C	c
D	d
E	e
Ɛ	ɛ
F	f
G	g
GW	gw
H	h
HY	hy
I	i
J	j
K	k
KW	kw
L	l
M	m
MB	mb
N	n
NJ	nj
NY	ny
ND	nd
Ŋ	ŋ
ŊG	ŋg
ŊGW	ŋgw
ŊW	ŋw
O	o
Ɔ	ɔ
P	p
R	r
S	s
T	t
U	u
V	v
W	w
Y	y

Macron and caron diacritics may be used for marking tone in reference works, for example the dictionary by Pierre Emmanuel Njock.

Further reading

• Makasso, Emmanuel-Moselly and Lee, Seunghun J. (2015). "Basaá". Illustrations of the IPA. Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 45 (1): 71–79. doi:10.1017/S0025100314000383{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link), with supplementary sound recordings.

• Hyman, Larry M. (2003). "Basaá (A.43)". In Nurse, Derek; Philippson, Gérard (eds.). The Bantu Languages (PDF). Routledge. pp. 257–282. ISBN 0-7007-1134-1.