Kwasio language
Encyclopedia
The Kwasio language, also known as Ngumba / Mvumbo, Bujeba, and Gyele / Kola, is a language of Cameroon
, spoken in the south along the coast and at the border with Equatorial Guinea
by some 70 000 members of the Ngumba, Kwasio, Gyele
and Mabi peoples. The Kwasio, Ngumba, and Mabi are village farmers; the Gyele (also known as the Kola or Koya) are nomadic Pygmy hunter-gatherer
s living in the rain forest.
Dialects are Kwasio ( Kwassio, Bisio), Mvumbo ( Ngumba, Ngoumba, Mgoumba, Mekuk), and Mabi (Mabea). The Gyele speak to subdialects of Mvumbo, Gyele in the north and Kola Koya in the south, variously spelled Giele, Gieli, Gyeli, Bagiele, Bagyele, Bajele, Bajeli, Bogyel, Bogyeli, Bondjiel and
Likoya, Bako, Bakola, Bakuele, also Bekoe. The local derogatory term for pygmies, Babinga, is also used.
Kwasio is a tonal language. As a Bantu
language, it has noun class system
. The Kwasio noun class system is somewhat reduced, having retained only 6 genders (a gender being a pairing of a singular and a plural noun class).
is also used for the pygmies of the northern Congo–Gabon border region, which speak the Ngom language
.
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...
, spoken in the south along the coast and at the border with Equatorial Guinea
Equatorial Guinea
Equatorial Guinea, officially the Republic of Equatorial Guinea where the capital Malabo is situated.Annobón is the southernmost island of Equatorial Guinea and is situated just south of the equator. Bioko island is the northernmost point of Equatorial Guinea. Between the two islands and to the...
by some 70 000 members of the Ngumba, Kwasio, Gyele
Gyele people
The Gyele , also known as the Kola or Koya , are the pygmies of southern Cameroon and adjacent areas of Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. They live among Bantu patrons, the Mvumbo and Bassa...
and Mabi peoples. The Kwasio, Ngumba, and Mabi are village farmers; the Gyele (also known as the Kola or Koya) are nomadic Pygmy hunter-gatherer
Hunter-gatherer
A hunter-gatherer or forage society is one in which most or all food is obtained from wild plants and animals, in contrast to agricultural societies which rely mainly on domesticated species. Hunting and gathering was the ancestral subsistence mode of Homo, and all modern humans were...
s living in the rain forest.
Dialects are Kwasio ( Kwassio, Bisio), Mvumbo ( Ngumba, Ngoumba, Mgoumba, Mekuk), and Mabi (Mabea). The Gyele speak to subdialects of Mvumbo, Gyele in the north and Kola Koya in the south, variously spelled Giele, Gieli, Gyeli, Bagiele, Bagyele, Bajele, Bajeli, Bogyel, Bogyeli, Bondjiel and
Likoya, Bako, Bakola, Bakuele, also Bekoe. The local derogatory term for pygmies, Babinga, is also used.
Kwasio is a tonal language. As a Bantu
Bantu languages
The Bantu languages constitute a traditional sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages. There are about 250 Bantu languages by the criterion of mutual intelligibility, though the distinction between language and dialect is often unclear, and Ethnologue counts 535 languages...
language, it has noun class system
Noun class
In linguistics, the term noun class refers to a system of categorizing nouns. A noun may belong to a given class because of characteristic features of its referent, such as sex, animacy, shape, but counting a given noun among nouns of such or another class is often clearly conventional...
. The Kwasio noun class system is somewhat reduced, having retained only 6 genders (a gender being a pairing of a singular and a plural noun class).
See also
The term BakolaKola people
The Kola people, Bakola, also known as the Koya, Bakoya, are pygmies of the NE Gabon–Congo border area. They speak the Bantu Ngom language....
is also used for the pygmies of the northern Congo–Gabon border region, which speak the Ngom language
Ngom language
Ngom is a Bantu language spoken in Gabon and the Congo. It is used with only minor differences by the Kola/Koya Pygmies of Gabon....
.