Ndemli language

Ndemli
Ndemli
Native to	Cameroon
Native speakers	(10,000 cited 1999)
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Southern Bantoid Grassfields Narrow Ndemli; ; ; ; ; ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	nml
Glottolog	ndem1249

Ndemli, or Bandem, is a language of Cameroon spoken primarily in the Nkam department of the Littoral Region; between Yabassi, Yingui and Nkondjock. Recent classifications such as Nurse (2003)^[2] place it in with the Narrow Grassfields languages, though Ethnologue does not reflect this. Ethnologue states that it is "related to Tikar" and that "the Bandobo dialect of Tikar is very similar to Ndemli", though it is not clear if Bandobo actually is Tikar.

Phonology

Ndemli Consonant Phonemes^[3]
		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stop	voiceless	p	t	c	k	ʔ
	voiced	b	d	ɟ	g
	prenasalized voiceless		ⁿt	ᶮc	ᵑk
	prenasalized voiced	ᵐb	ⁿd	ᶮɟ	ᵑg
Nasal		m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Affricate	voiceless		ts	t̠ʃ
Affricate	voiced			d̠ʒ
Trill			r
Fricative		f	s		ɣ	h
Approximant		w	l	j

Ndemli Vowel Phonemes^[3]
	Front		Central	Back
	Unrounded	Rounded	Central	Back
Close	i(ː)		ʉ(ː)	u(ː)
Close-mid	e(ː)	ø(ː)		o(ː)
Open-mid	ɛ(ː)			ɔ(ː)
Open			a(ː)

There are five tones; high, mid, low, rising, and falling.^[3]

References

^ Ndemli at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^ Derek Nurse & Gérard Philippson, 2003, The Bantu Languages, p 227
^ ^a ^b ^c Ngoran, Lenaka Loveline. 1999. A Sketch Outline of the Phonology of Ndemli. (MA thesis, University of Yaounde I).

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[e18-1] Ndemli at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

[2] Derek Nurse & Gérard Philippson, 2003, The Bantu Languages, p 227

[:0-3] Ngoran, Lenaka Loveline. 1999. A Sketch Outline of the Phonology of Ndemli. (MA thesis, University of Yaounde I).

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