Bamum or in its French spelling Bamoun, is one of the Benue–Congo languages of Cameroon

Cameroon

Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon , is a country in west Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the...

, with approximately a quarter million speakers. The language is well-known for its original script

Bamum script

The Bamum scripts are an evolutionary series of six scripts created for the Bamum language by King Njoya of Cameroon at the turn of the 20th century...

 developed by King Njoya

Ibrahim Njoya

King Ibrahim Njoya , distinguished ruler, intellectual, and inventor, was 17th in a long dynasty of kings that ruled over Bamum and its people in western Cameroon dating back to the 14th century. He succeeded his father Nsangu and ruled from 1886/7 until his death in 1933...

 and his palace circle around 1895. Cameroonian musicians Claude Ndam and Gerryland are native speakers of the language and use it in their music.

Phonology

Bamum has tone, long vowels and diphthongs, and coda

Syllable coda

In phonology, a syllable coda comprises the consonant sounds of a syllable that follow the nucleus, which is usually a vowel. The combination of a nucleus and a coda is called a rime. Some syllables consist only of a nucleus with no coda...

consonants. The simple vowels are,

Front	Central	Back
i   y	ɨ	ɯ   u
e	ə
ɛ		ɔ
	a

The consonants are,

Labial	Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Velar	Labialized velar	Labial- velar	Glottal
p	t		k	kʷ	kp	ʔ
b	d		ɡ	ɡʷ	ɡb
mp	nt		ŋk	ŋkʷ	?
mb	nd		ŋɡ	ŋɡʷ	?
f	s	ʃ	x	?
v	z	ʒ	ɣ	?
ɱf	?	ɲʃ
ɱv	?	ɲʒ
m	n	?	ŋ	ŋʷ	ŋm
	r   l	j		w

External links

• Map of Bamum language from the LL-Map Project
• Information on Bamum language from the MultiTree Project
• Claude Ndam