Peve language

The Pévé language, sometimes referred to as Lamé (the main dialect), is a member of the Masa branch of the Chadic family that is spoken in parts of Cameroon and the Republic of Chad.

Not to be confused with Lame language.
Pévé
Lamé
Zime
Native toChad, Cameroon
Native speakers
ca. 35,000 (1999–2000)[1]
Afro-Asiatic
Language codes
ISO 639-3lme
Glottologpeve1243

Varieties

The term "Zime" is not used in Cameroon, but it is used by ALCAM (2012) to serve as a cover term for the Lame, Peve, and three varieties spoken in Cameroon. There are 5,720 speakers (SIL 2000). Zime is spoken in Cameroon in Bénoué department (Northern Region), along the Chadian border. It is also spoken in Chad. The dialects spoken in Cameroon are:[2]

Sociolinguistic situation

An Ethnologue survey in 1999 identified about 30,000 speakers of Pévé in the Republic of Chad and 6,000 speakers in the North and Far North regions of Cameroon (Ethnologue). Like most speakers of Chadic languages, Pévé speakers tend to be fluent in their language of heritage as well as the vehicular languages of their respective areas. These include the Mundang and Fula languages, both of which are members of the Niger-Congo language family, as well as French, English, and other languages. Unlike many neighboring languages, the number of speakers of Pévé appears to have increased over the past two decades. This is in part due to the Comité pour le Promotion de la Langue et de la Culture Lamé (CPLCL), an organization based in Cameroon and Chad whose goal is to share and preserve cultural customs and traditions, including language use.

The name Lamé is also used for a dialect of the related Ngeté-Herdé language.

Grammar

Like other Chadic languages, Pévé has a rich set of grammatical forms and functions that differ from those of closely related languages, even though the related languages may be spoken just a few kilometers away. For example, Pévé differs from many Chadic languages in having a copula corresponding to ‘to be’. Unlike most languages with an inherent copula, the copula in Pévé can be used in reference to past or future time but not in reference to present time. Another interesting feature of Pévé is the use of pronouns to mark tense, mood, and aspect, along with the grammatical functions of subject and object. These and other unusual form-function relationships make Pévé a likely source for future linguistic studies.[3]

Phonology

Consonants
Consonants of Pévé[4]
Labial Alveolar Post-alveolar Velar Glottal
plain sibilant
Nasal m n ŋ
Plosive voiceless p t ts tʃ k ʔ
voiced b d dz dʒ ɡ
implosive ɓ ɗ
Fricative voiceless f ɬ s h
voiced v ɮ z ɣ
Trill r
Approximant w l j

Contrary to previous assertions, Pévé does not "contrast" voiceless and voiced glottal fricatives ([h] vs. [ɦ]).[3]. In fact, the "voiced glottal fricative" does not exist (either phonologically or phonemically) in the Pévé language.[4]

Vowels

Peve has 5 vowels: /i/, /e/, /a/, /o/, /u/, plus their nasalized forms (/ĩ/, /ẽ/, /ã/, /õ/, /ũ/). The vowels /ɪ, ɛ, ɔ, ʊ/ occur as lax variations of their tense counterparts in closed syllables and occasionally in open syllables.

Publications

The grammatical and semantic forms and functions of Pévé, along with many cultural features, are described in detail in A Grammar of Pévé (see below), published in January 2020 by Brill Publishers. The volume, based on data gathered from 2012 to present, is written by Erin Shay, professor of linguistics at the University of Colorado, Boulder, in collaboration with Lazare Wambadang, a native speaker of Pévé, professional educator and president of Comité pour le Promotion de la Langue et de la Culture Lamé.

References
  1. Pévé at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. Binam Bikoi, Charles, ed. (2012). Atlas linguistique du Cameroun (ALCAM) [Linguistic Atlas of Cameroon]. Atlas linguistique de l'Afrique centrale (ALAC) (in French). Vol. 1: Inventaire des langues. Yaoundé: CERDOTOLA. ISBN 9789956796069.
  3. Grønnum, Nina (2005), Fonetik og fonologi, Almen og Dansk (3rd ed.), Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag, ISBN 87-500-3865-6
  4. Shay, Erin (2019). A grammar of Pévé. Leiden. pp. 30, 34–36. ISBN 978-90-04-41005-3.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
    Peve language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator
    • A Grammar of Pévé.
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