Vengo
Facts
- Language: Vengo
- Alternate names: Babungo, Vengoo, Vengi, Pengo, Ngo, Nguu, Ngwa, Nge
- Language code: bav
- Language family: Niger-Congo, Volta-Congo, Benue-Congo, Bantoid, Southern Bantoid, Wide Grassfields, Narrow Grassfields, Ring, South Ring, Babungoic
- Number of speakers: 13500
- Script: Latin script
More information:
Introduction
Babungo is the language of the Babungo people originating from a village also called "Babungo" located in the Cameroonian Grassfields. In their own language, the Babungo people call their village vengo [vəŋóo] and their language ghang vengo [gháŋ vəŋóo], which means "language of the vengo".
The language is closely related with Kenswei Nsei?, Bamunka, and Wushi?.
The alphabet
a b d e ə f g gh i ɨ j k l m n ny ŋ o ɔ s sh t u v w y z ʼ
The Verb
- Babungo has got a very complex tone system: So for the vowels there are eight distinctive pitch types or pitch sequences: high, mid, low, high-mid, high-low, low-falling, low-high, low-high-mid. The complex aspect system of Babungo is marked generally with the tones.
- Tenses are marked with prefixes.
- Verbs are not inflected in person or number.
| Imperfective aspect | Perfective aspect |
|---|---|
| ŋwə́ ndéynə́ fá | ŋwə́ ndèynə́ fá |
| he look (imperfective) thing | he look (perfective) thing |
| he was looking at something | He looked at something |
References
- Schaub, Willi. Babungo. Croom Helm. Beckenham, Kent, UK , 1985.