Kom_language_(Cameroon)
Kom language (Cameroon)
Grassfields language spoken in Cameroon
The Kom language (also Itaŋikom) is the language spoken by the Kom people in Northwest Province in Cameroon. It is classified as a Central Ring language of the Grassfields, Southern Bantoid languages in the Niger-Congo language family.[2] Kom is a tonal language with three tones.[2]
| Kom | |
|---|---|
| Itaŋikom | |
| Native to | Cameroon |
| Region | North-West Province |
Native speakers | 210,000 (2005)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | bkm |
| Glottolog | komc1235 |
| This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. | |
Consonants
Vowels
Kom uses a 29-character Latin-script orthography based on the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages.[4] It contains 20 single characters from the ISO set, six digraphs, and three special characters: barred I (Ɨɨ), eng (Ŋŋ), and an apostrophe (’). The digraphs ae and oe are also written as ligatures æ and œ, respectively.
| Letters | a | ae | b | ch | d | e | f | g | gh | i | ɨ | j | ’ | k | l | m | n | ŋ | ny | o | oe | s | t | u | ue | v | w | y | z |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IPA[2] | /a/ | /æ/ | /b/ | /c/ | /d/ | /e/ | /f/ | /g/ | /ɣ/ | /i/ | /ɨ/ | /ɟ/ | /ʔ/ | /k/ | /l/ | /m/ | /n/ | /ŋ/ | /ɲ/ | /o/ | /œ/ | /s/ | /t/ | /u/ | /y/ | /v/ | /w/ | /j/ | /z/ |
The orthography is mostly phonemic, although the characters ae, oe, ue, and ’ represent allophonic variations: the three vowel digraphs are the product of vowel coalescence, and the apostrophe represents the glottal stop, a syllable-final variant of /k/.
Although Kom has eight phonetic tones,[3] only two are marked in writing: the low tone [˨] is written with a grave accent (◌̀) over the vowel (e.g. kàe [kæ̀] "four"), and the high-low falling tone [˦˨] is written with a circumflex (◌̂) over the vowel (e.g. kâf [kâf] "armpit").[5]
- Kom at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- Shultz, George (1997). Kom Language Grammar Sketch Part 1 (PDF). Yaoundé: Société Internationale de Linguistique (SIL).
- Shultz, George (June 1993). Notes on the Phonology of the Kom Language (PDF). Yaoundé: Société Internationale de Linguistique.
- Kawuldim, Kimbi Paul (2008). Relativization in Kom (PDF). Nairobi: Nairoby Evangelical Graduate School of Theology. p. 17.
- Chia, Emmanuel N.; Kimbi, Joseph C. (1992). Guide to the Kom Alphabet: Kom Language Reading and Writing Book (PDF). Yaoundé: Société Internationale de Linguistique.
