Babanki language

Babanki has 25 consonant phonemes. Most consonants also appear in phonemic prenasalized, labialized, and palatalized forms, although it remains ambiguous as to whether Babanki actually has these secondary articulations or if they are simply consonant clusters of simple consonants with placeless nasals, /w/, or /j/, respectively.[5]

Babanki has some allophonic palatalization before front vowels /i e/. The velar plosives /k g/ are realized as palatalized [kʲ gʲ], respectively, and the labial-velar approximant /w/ is realized as a labial-palatal approximant [ɥ]. This variation also applies to labialized consonants (e.g. /kʷì/→[kᶣì] "up"), although labialized bilabials and labiodentals retain labial-velar secondary articulation.

Prenasalized consonants in Babanki (all oral consonants but /v/ can appear as prenasalized) are realized in several ways depending upon the manner of articulation of the consonant in question. Preceding an obstruent and following a vowel, prenasalization is generally realized as a homorganic nasal stop (e.g. /kɘ̀ⁿt͡ʃík/→[kɘ̀ɲt͡ʃíʔ] "lid"), while preceding a sonorant and following a vowel, prenasalization is generally realized without full oral closure which tends to cause the preceding vowel to be nasalized (e.g. /fɘ̀ⁿʃìk/→[fɘ̃̀ʃìʔ] "grass beetle"). Additionally, when a prenasalized consonant is word initial and has no preceding vowel, the nasal portion is often audibly syllabic and using the low tone (e.g. /ⁿdɔ̏ŋ/→[ǹdɔ̏ŋ] "potato").

Babanki has eight vowel phonemes contrasting in height, roundness, and backing. Length distinction and nasalization also occur non-contrastively. Babanki is unusual in that it contrasts both the rounded and the unrounded close central vowels and the close and close-mid central unrounded vowels.

In open syllables, vowels /e/ and /o/ are realized as close-mid [e] and [o], while in closed syllables they are realized as open-mid [ɛ] and [ɔ] (compare [àbé] "liver" and [bɛ̀ʔ] "snatch", [ɘ̀kó] "money" and [kɔ́ʔ] "chop").

Babanki has both lexical tone and grammatical tone. At the phonological level it is described as simply having a distinction between low /˨/ and high /˦/ tonemes,[5] although a number of derived surface tonal sequences have been observed. Rarely, contour tones can occur in non-derived environments.

The downstepped high and mid tones are phonetically identical, but are otherwise distinct; the downstepped high tone [ꜜ˦] occurs much more freely and creates a tone ceiling for successive high tones in the same tonal phrase, while the mid tone [˧] must precede a high tone and is restricted to a few specific environments.[7]

Typically, Babanki words are composed of a CV(C) stem with optional (C)V prefixes and suffixes.[5] The stem-initial onset is where the majority of Babanki consonants occur exclusively;[lower-alpha 3] onsets of affixes and function words only permit the phonemes /t k f v s ʃ m n j ɰ/, and the only permissible coda consonants are /m n ŋ f s k/. Allophony is much more distinct in coda consonants; /k/ is realized as a glottal stop [ʔ], and rimes ending in the alveolar nasal /n/ whose nuclei are the non-high vowels /a e o/ (i.e. /an en on/) diphthongize, surfacing as [aɪ̯n~aɪ̯̃ ɛɪ̯n~ɛɪ̯̃ ɔɪ̯n~ɔɪ̯̃].[5]

Vowel coalescence is also quite significant in Babanki. It occurs in /Vɘ/ and /VCɘ/ sequences (excluding those where /C/ is /m/), where the final close-mid central unrounded vowel and (in the case of the latter) the coda consonant coalesce to a single phonetically long vowel [Vː], the quality of which cannot necessarily be determined by either vowel (although in /Vɘ/ sequences the phonetic long vowel is usually of the same quality as the phonemic first vowel). For example, the phrase [kɘ̀zɔ̀ː kɔ́m] "my speargrass" would be phonemically parsed:

Here, the sequence /ònɘ́/ coalesces into the long vowel [ɔː]. Although virtually all long vowels that occur in Babanki are due to this process, there are a few instances of long vowels that are not clearly derived, such as in the words [ɘ̀kɔ̀ː] "which" and [ⁿbɛ̀ː] "term of address for fon".[5]

Akumbu, Pius W. (1999). Nominal phonological processes in Babanki. University of Yaounde MA thesis.

Hyman, Larry M. (1979). Tonology of the Babanki noun. Studies in African Linguistics 10. 159–178.

Mutaka, Ngessimo & Esther Phubon. (2006). Vowel raising in Babanki. Journal of West African Languages 33 (1). 71–88.

Phubon, Esther. (1999). Aspects of Babanki phonology. University of Buea BA long essay.

Phubon, Esther. (2002). Phonology of the Babanki verb. University of Buea MA thesis.

Phubon, Esther. (2007). Lexical phonology of Babanki. University of Yaounde 1 DEA thesis.

Phubon, Esther. (2014). Phrasal phonology of Babanki: An outgrowth of other components of the grammar. University of Yaounde 1 dissertation.

Tamanji, Pius N. (1987). Phonology of Babanki. MA thesis, University of Yaounde.

Akumbu, Pius W. (2008). Kejom (Babanki) – English lexicon. Ga’a Kejom Development Committee. Bamenda: AGWECAMS.

Akumbu, Pius W. (2009). Kejom tense system. In Tanda, Vincent, Pius Tamanji and Henry Jick. (eds.), Language, literature and social discourse in Africa: Essays in honor of Emmanuel N. Chia, 183–200. Buea: University of Buea.

Akumbu, Pius W. & Evelyn F. Chibaka. (2012). A pedagogic grammar of Babanki. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.

Fungeh Abongkeyung Landeà. (2022). Babanki for beginners.

Brye, Edward. 2001. Sociolinguistic survey of Babanki. (824) Yaounde: SIL.