Kom language (Cameroon)
{{Short description|Grassfields language spoken in Cameroon}}
{{Infobox language
|name=Kom
|nativename=Itaŋikom
|states=Cameroon
|region=North-West Province
|speakers={{sigfig|208,000|2}}
|date=2005
|ref=e18
|familycolor=Niger-Congo
|fam2=Atlantic–Congo
|fam3=Benue–Congo
|fam4=Southern Bantoid
|fam5=Grassfields
|fam6=Ring
|fam7=Center
|iso3=bkm
|glotto=komc1235
|glottorefname=Kom (Cameroon)
|notice=IPA
}}
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. Kom is a tonal language with three tones.
Phonology
= Consonants =
| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;" |
| |
! colspan="2" | Bilabial ! colspan="2" | Labio- ! colspan="2" | Alveolar ! colspan="2" | Palatal ! colspan="2" | Labial- ! colspan="2" | Velar |
|---|
| | Plosive
| style="border-right-width: 0;" | || style="border-left-width: 0;" | {{IPAplink|b}} | style="border-right-width: 0;" | || style="border-left-width: 0;" | | style="border-right-width: 0;" | {{IPAplink|t}} || style="border-left-width: 0;" | {{IPAplink|d}} | style="border-right-width: 0;" | {{IPAplink|c}} || style="border-left-width: 0;" | {{IPAplink|ɟ}} | style="border-right-width: 0;" | || style="border-left-width: 0;" | | style="border-right-width: 0;" | {{IPAplink|k}} || style="border-left-width: 0;" | {{IPAplink|ɡ}} |
| | Fricative
| style="border-right-width: 0;" | || style="border-left-width: 0;" | | style="border-right-width: 0;" | {{IPAplink|f}} || style="border-left-width: 0;" | {{IPAplink|v}} | style="border-right-width: 0;" | {{IPAplink|s}} || style="border-left-width: 0;" | {{IPAplink|z}} | style="border-right-width: 0;" | || style="border-left-width: 0;" | | style="border-right-width: 0;" | || style="border-left-width: 0;" | | style="border-right-width: 0;" | || style="border-left-width: 0;" | {{IPAplink|ɣ}} |
| | Nasal
| style="border-right-width: 0;" | || style="border-left-width: 0;" | {{IPAplink|m}} | style="border-right-width: 0;" | || style="border-left-width: 0;" | | style="border-right-width: 0;" | || style="border-left-width: 0;" | {{IPAplink|n}} | style="border-right-width: 0;" | || style="border-left-width: 0;" | {{IPAplink|ɲ}} | style="border-right-width: 0;" | || style="border-left-width: 0;" | | style="border-right-width: 0;" | || style="border-left-width: 0;" | {{IPAplink|ŋ}} |
| | Approximant
| style="border-right-width: 0;" | || style="border-left-width: 0;" | | style="border-right-width: 0;" | || style="border-left-width: 0;" | | style="border-right-width: 0;" | || style="border-left-width: 0;" | | style="border-right-width: 0;" | || style="border-left-width: 0;" | {{IPAplink|j}} | style="border-right-width: 0;" | || style="border-left-width: 0;" | {{IPAplink|w}} | style="border-right-width: 0;" | || style="border-left-width: 0;" | |
| | Lateral
| style="border-right-width: 0;" | || style="border-left-width: 0;" | | style="border-right-width: 0;" | || style="border-left-width: 0;" | | style="border-right-width: 0;" | || style="border-left-width: 0;" | {{IPAplink|l}} | style="border-right-width: 0;" | || style="border-left-width: 0;" | | style="border-right-width: 0;" | || style="border-left-width: 0;" | | style="border-right-width: 0;" | || style="border-left-width: 0;" | |
= Vowels =
Orthography
Kom uses a 29-character Latin-script orthography based on the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages.{{Cite book|last=Kawuldim|first=Kimbi Paul|url=https://www.sil.org/system/files/reapdata/10/86/48/108648728144253617182285370672996573014/RelativizationinKomNov08_U.pdf|title=Relativization in Kom|publisher=Nairoby Evangelical Graduate School of Theology|year=2008|location=Nairobi|pages=17}} 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.
| class="wikitable" style=text-align:center |
| 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{{cite book |last1=Shultz |first1=George |title=Kom Language Grammar Sketch Part 1 |date=1997 |publisher=Société Internationale de Linguistique (SIL) |location=Yaoundé |url=https://www.sil.org/system/files/reapdata/70/11/93/7011935867147439892802585576980500892/Kom_Grammar.pdf}}
| {{IPAslink|a}} || {{IPAslink|æ}} || {{IPAslink|b}} || {{IPAslink|c}} || {{IPAslink|d}} || {{IPAslink|e}} || {{IPAslink|f}} || {{IPAslink|g}} || {{IPAslink|ɣ}} || {{IPAslink|i}} || {{IPAslink|ɨ}} || {{IPAslink|ɟ}} || {{IPAslink|ʔ}} || {{IPAslink|k}} || {{IPAslink|l}} || {{IPAslink|m}} || {{IPAslink|n}} || {{IPAslink|ŋ}} || {{IPAslink|ɲ}} || {{IPAslink|o}} || {{IPAslink|œ}} || {{IPAslink|s}} || {{IPAslink|t}} || {{IPAslink|u}} || {{IPAslink|y}} || {{IPAslink|v}} || {{IPAslink|w}} || {{IPAslink|j}} || {{IPAslink|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 {{IPAslink|k}}.
Although Kom has eight phonetic tones, only two are marked in writing: the low tone [{{IPA|˨}}] is written with a grave accent (◌̀) over the vowel (e.g. kàe [{{IPA|kæ̀}}] "four"), and the high-low falling tone [{{IPA|˦˨}}] is written with a circumflex (◌̂) over the vowel (e.g. kâf [{{IPA|kâf}}] "armpit").
References
{{Reflist}}
Bibliography
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20180220015803/http://www.silcam.org/documents/Kom-Grammar.pdf Shultz, George, 1997a, Kom Language Grammar Sketch Part 1, SIL Cameroon]
- [http://www.silcam.org/download.php?sstid=030401&folder=documents&file=KomPrimdisc.pdf Shultz, George, 1997b, Notes on Discourse features of Kom Narrative Texts, SIL Cameroon]
- [http://www.sil.org/africa/cameroun/bydomain/linguistics/lexicons/Kom%20Lexicon.pdf Jones, Randy, compiler. 2001. Provisional Kom - English lexcion. Yaoundé, Cameroon: SIL]
External links
{{incubator|bkm}}
- [http://www.sil.org/africa/cameroun/bydomain/linguistics/dictionaries/kom/index.html Kom - English dictionary]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20070211111133/http://faculty.ed.umuc.edu/~jmatthew/articles/langdiverse.html Article about Kom language]
{{Languages of Cameroon}}
{{Grassfields Bantu languages}}
{{Authority control}}
Category:Languages of Cameroon
{{gras-lang-stub}}