Kuk language
Appearance
Kuk | |
---|---|
Native to | Cameroon |
Native speakers | (3,000 cited 1993)[1] |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | kfn |
Glottolog | kukk1239 |
ELP | Kuk |
Kuk is a Grassfields Bantu language of Cameroon.
Proposed Kumfutu language
[edit]In the late 1980s and early 1990s, some people from the village of Kumfutu (traditionally an ethnic Kuk village) were discontent with Kuk leadership and founded the Kumfutu Student Association as a result. The peopole of Kumfutu wanted to become independent from the Kuk, and thus proposed a new "Kumfutu" language. However, by 2010, the people of Kumfutu were no longer in conflict with the Kuk leadership.[2]
Gloss | Kumfutu | Kuk |
---|---|---|
fufu | kə́bál/kə́bán/kə́bánə́ | kə́bá |
corn beer | zə̀-kə́n-dzɔ̄ŋ | káŋ |
raffia wine | ndzéí-sə̀ fə́bə́-sə́ (white urine) | lə̀-m fə̀bə̂-m (white wine) |
book | kə̀màʼlə̀ | kə́ŋwàlə̀ |
mother | nôː | nə̂ː |
child | wéí | wāī |
market | bə́kə́wɛ́í | bə́kə́wə́n |
let's go | á nwô | á ŋwô |
you (in greetings) | gha (plural) | wu (singular) |
sleep (in greetings) | bilə | bei |
The case of Kumfutu serves as an example of how language change in Africa often closely linked to the need for ethnic differentation.
References
[edit]- ^ Kuk at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ Good, Jeff. 2021. Individual-level lexical variation in the Bantu homeland and its implications for the development of Benue-Congo. Diedrich Westermann-Workshop (West-central African linguistic history between Macro-Sudan Belt and Niger-Congo: commemorating Diedrich Westermann’s legacy and the 100th anniversary of the Berlin professorship for African languages), 4-6 November 2021, Humboldt University of Berlin.