Limbum language

Limbum is a Grassfields language of Cameroon, with a small number of speakers in Nigeria. It is used as a trade language by some, but is primarily the mother tongue of the Wimbum people, who live in Donga-Mantung division of the Northwest Region, at the top of the Ring Road.

Limbum
Limbum
RegionCameroon
Native speakers
130,000 (2005)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3lmp
Glottologlimb1268
PeopleWimbum[2]
LanguageLimbum

Speakers
Traditional dance of Wimbum, around 1990 in dry season Nkambe-town

The Wimbum consist of three clans: War clan headquartered at Mbot, Tang clan at Tallah, and Wiya clan at Ndu.[3] Scattered around the area are other Wimbum villages, each associated with one of the three clans. Each village has a chief, also known as fon, who is largely autonomous, and beneath him sub-chiefs or quarter-heads.[4] The three clans are geographically interspersed, sharing the language.[3] The people live on the Nkambe Plateau, a dramatic grassy highland cut by wooded ravines, about a mile above sea level.[5] Most are farmers, growing maize, beans, potatoes, yams, vegetable, tomatoes, bananas, and also plantains and coffee in lower, warmer areas.[6][7] Some conduct trade, primarily in the towns of Nkambé and Ndu. Some work for the government, primarily in Nkambe.

Some linguists consider Limbum to have three dialects: a northern, a middle, and a southern dialect. Speakers of one dialect can generally understand speakers of any other. The three dialects cut across the three clans, and may result from influence of the neighboring languages to the north and south.[8] Limbum is closely related to some neighboring languages like Yamba and more geographically distant ones like Bamum, Ngemba and Bamileke. It is quite different from some other neighboring languages like Bebe and Noni.[9]

Grammar

Limbum's grammar is similar to English in some ways, including:

  • Word order is subject–verb–object.[10] For example, consider:
    • Ŋgwa Ta᷅ta a᷅ byɛ᷅' kwaa᷅.[11] (normal Limbum word order)
    • Wife Tata has carried corn. (word-for-word English translation, retaining Limbum word order)
    • Tata's wife has carried corn. (translation with conventional English word order)
  • Verb tenses tend to be formed with auxiliary verbs like "a᷅" in the example above.
  • Open questions may be formed with interrogative determiners; e.g. "A nda?" means "It-is who?" word-for-word.[12]

But Limbum differs from English in other ways. Here are a few:

  • Limbum is a tone language, meaning that spoken pitch can distinguish words which otherwise sound the same. For example, the sound "baa" spoken with different tones can mean father, fufu, two, bag, part in hair, or madness.[13]
  • The pronoun system is quite different. For example, "ye" is a gender-neutral third person singular, taking the place of he and she in English. In second person, "wɛ᷅" means you(singular), "we᷅e" means you(plural) and not I, "so᷅" means you(singular) and I, and "se᷅e" means (you(singular) and we) or (you(plural) and I). Also, Limbum has compound pronouns, which English lacks.[14]
  • Adjectives tend to follow the noun they modify, and may be repeated for emphasis. E.g. "e ye bi boŋ" means "he-or-she eats kolanut good," and "e ye bi boŋboŋ" means "he-or-she eats kolanut very-good".[15]
  • Yes–no questions are formed simply by appending the word a to a statement, as in "Ndi a᷅ du a?", meaning "Ndi has gone, is-it-so?" word-for-word - much less confusing than English's subject-verb inversions.[16] Negation is grammatically similar.[17]
  • Limbum's five prepositions don't align with English prepositions much at all:
    • ni: marker of direction, accompaniment or instrument, like "to him" or "with him" in English.
    • mbe: marker of location, like "in the house" or "on the chair."
    • mba: marker of a direction or location at a lower elevation, like "down-to Tabenken valley."
    • ko: marker of a direction or location at a higher elevation, like "up-to Ndu."
    • nje: marker of direction, location or provenance, like "at school" or "from Douala."[18]

Sample vocabulary
ŋwɛ᷅ - personfa - giveŋgʉp - fowlboŋ - good
njeŋwɛ᷅ - womanye - eatnyaa - meatboŋboŋ - very good
muu - childlaa᷅ - saykwaa᷅ - cornbɛbɛp - bad
ŋkar - friendfa᷅' - worknda᷅p - housebaa - two
ma - motherko᷅ŋ - like or lovetap - huttaar - three
ta - fatheryɛ - seeafyoŋ - airplanetâ - five
e - he or shesaŋ - writeŋwa᷅' - letter[19]


Notes
  1. Limbum at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. Blench, Roger (2019). An Atlas of Nigerian Languages (4th ed.). Cambridge: Kay Williamson Educational Foundation.
  3. Pool, p. 33.
  4. Kifon, p. 2-3.
  5. Pool, p. 32.
  6. Ndu.
  7. Nkambe.
  8. Fiore, p. 2.
  9. Nkwi, p. 149.
  10. Nforgwei, p. 252.
  11. Ndi, p. 10 and 65. In the transcriptions of Limbum on this page, I have followed the Ndis' spellings as best I can.
  12. Nforgwei, p. 157-158.
  13. Fiore, p. 78.
  14. Wepngong, p. 6.
  15. Nformi, p. 46-47
  16. Nforgwei, p. 255.
  17. Nforgwei, p. 259-260.
  18. Nformi, p. 58-62
  19. Ndi, throughout.

References
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