Feʼfeʼ language

Grassfields language spoken in Cameroon

Feʼfeʼ
Nufi, Fotouni, Bafang^[1]
Fèʼéfěʼè
Native to	Cameroon
Region	Haut-Nkam (Upper Nkam)
Ethnicity	Bamileke Feʼefeʼe
Native speakers	c. 140,000 (2005)^[2]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta-Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Grassfields Eastern Grassfields Mbam-Nkam Bamileke Feʼfeʼ
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	`fmp`
Glottolog	`fefe1239`

Feʼfeʼ or commonly Feʼefeʼe, also known as Nufi or Bafang (Fe'fe': Nufi), is a Bamileke language spoken in Cameroon, around the town of Bafang. It was one of the four languages selected for option at the Collège Libermann at Douala (along with Duala, Basaa and Ghɔmálá').^[3]

Writing system

Feʼfeʼ alphabet^{[citation needed]}
Uppercase	A	Ɑ	B	C	D	E	Ə	F	G	Gh	H	I	J	K	L	M	N	Ŋ	O	P	S	Sh	T	U	Ʉ	V	W	Y	Z	Zh	ʼ
Lowercase	a	ɑ	b	c	d	e	ə	f	g	gh	h	i	j	k	l	m	n	ŋ	o	p	s	sh	t	u	ʉ	v	w	y	z	zh	ʼ

Phonology

Consonants

Allophones are given in brackets.

Consonants^[4]
		Labial	Dental	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n	(ɲ)	ŋ
Plosive	voiceless	(p)	t	t͡ʃ	k	ʔ
Plosive	voiced	b	d	d͡ʒ	ɡ
Fricative	voiceless	f	s	(ʃ)	x
Fricative	voiced	v	z	(ʒ)	(ɣ)
Approximant		(w)	(l)	(j)

Vowels

Vowels^[4]
	Front	Mid	Back
High	i	ɨ^[a]	u
Mid	e	(ə)^[b]	o
Mid	(ɛ)	(ə)^[b]	(ɔ)
Low	a		ɑ

^ Hyman (1972) uses /ɯ/, represented by ⟨ʉ⟩.^[5]
^ Hyman (1972) uses /ɤ/.^[5]

Tone


Tone	Low	Raised-Low	Mid	High
Diacritic	à	ẚ	a	á
Example	[pʉà]	[pʉẚ]	[pʉa]	[pʉá]
Translation	bag	to bend over	to go crazy	two (2)

The language has a complex tone system, carefully described, along with other aspects of the phonology and morphology, in Hyman (1972).^[4]

References

^ OLAC resources in and about the Feʼfeʼ language. Open Language Archives.
^ Feʼfeʼ at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^ Renaud, Patrick (1979). "Le Français au Cameroun". In Valdman, A. (ed.). Le Français hors de France. Paris: Editions Honoré Champion.
^ ^a ^b ^c Hyman, Larry (1972). A Phonological Study of Feʼfeʼ-Bamileke (PDF) (PhD thesis). Los Angeles: University of California.
^ ^a ^b Hyman 1972, p. 32.