Basaa language

Quality 0.50 · 1 view · Updated 2 months ago

Bantu language spoken in Cameroon

title: "Basaa language" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["bassa-people-(cameroon)", "basaa-languages", "languages-of-cameroon"] description: "Bantu language spoken in Cameroon" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basaa_language" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Bantu language spoken in Cameroon ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox language"]

Field	Value
name	Basaa
altname	Mbene
nativename	ɓasaá, ɓàsàa
states	Cameroon
region	Centre and Littoral Provinces
speakers	300,000
ethnicity	Basaa people
date	2005 SIL
ref	e18
familycolor	Niger-Congo
fam2	Atlantic–Congo
fam3	Benue–Congo
fam4	Southern Bantoid
fam5	Bantu (Zone A)
fam6	Basaa languages (A.40)
iso2	bas
iso3	bas
glotto	basa1284
glottorefname	Basa (Cameroon)
guthrie	A.43a
notice	IPA
::

::callout[type=note]

Basaa (also rendered Bassa, Basa, Bissa), or Mbene, is a Bantu language spoken in Cameroon by the Basaa people. It is spoken by about 300,000 people in the Centre and Littoral regions.

Maho (2009) lists North and South Kogo as dialects.

Background and origin

Basaa is spoken by 230,000 speakers. They live in Nyong-et-Kelle (Central Region) and Sanaga Maritime (with the exception of the Edéa commune, which has a Bakoko majority) and most of Nkam commune (Littoral Region). In the western and northern parts of this department, the peripheral Basaa dialects are spoken: Yabasi in the commune of Yabassi, Diɓuum in the commune of Nkondjok (Diboum Canton), north of Ndemli and Dimbamban.

Similarly, Basaa Baduala is spoken in Wouri Department (Littoral Region), traditional Basaa territory that is being transformed by the growth of Douala. Basaa is also found in Océan Department (commune of Bipindi, Southern Region).

Hijuk is spoken only in the quarter of Niki in Batanga commune, in Yangben Canton (Ch. Paulian (1980)) by 400 people. Hijuk is a Basaa dialect, despite its geographical location in the southeast of Bokito arrondissement (Mbam-et-Inoubou department, Central Region).

Phonology

Vowels

::data[format=table]

Front	Back	Close	Close-mid	Open-mid	Open




::

Consonants

::data[format=table]

Bilabial	Coronal	Palatal	Velar	Labial-velar	Uvular	Glottal	Plosive	voiceless	prenasal	implosive	Fricative	Nasal	Tap	Lateral	Approximant








::

When not root-initial and not after a pause, the voiceless stops are realized as voiced stops or voiced fricatives.

Tone

Basaa contrasts four tones: high, low, high-to-low (falling) and low-to-high (rising).

Orthography

The language uses a Latin-based alphabet, with the addition of the letters Ɓɓ, Ɛɛ, Ŋŋ, Ɔɔ, ten multigraphs, as well as acute, grave, and circumflex accents: ::data[format=table]

Capital	Small
A	a
B	b
Ɓ	ɓ
C	c
D	d
E	e
Ɛ	ɛ
F	f
G	g
GW	gw
H	h
HY	hy
I	i
J	j
K	k
KW	kw
L	l
M	m
MB	mb
N	n
NJ	nj
NY	ny
ND	nd
Ŋ	ŋ
ŊG	ŋg
ŊGW	ŋgw
ŊW	ŋw
O	o
Ɔ	ɔ
P	p
R	r
S	s
T	t
U	u
V	v
W	w
Y	y
::

Macron and caron diacritics may be used for marking tone in reference works, for example the dictionary by Pierre Emmanuel Njock.

References

(2012). "Atlas linguistique du Cameroun (ALCAM)". CERDOTOLA.
Hartell, Rhonda L.. (1993). "Alphabets of Africa". Regional Office for Education in Africa, Summer Institute of Linguistics, Unesco-Dakar Regional Office.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::