Pinyin language
Grassfields language of Cameroon
title: "Pinyin language" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["ngemba-languages", "languages-of-cameroon"] description: "Grassfields language of Cameroon" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinyin_language" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Grassfields language of Cameroon ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox language"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Pinyin |
| region | Northwest Region, Cameroon |
| speakers | |
| date | 2001 |
| ref | e18 |
| familycolor | Niger-Congo |
| fam2 | Atlantic–Congo |
| fam3 | Volta-Congo |
| fam4 | Benue–Congo |
| fam5 | Bantoid |
| fam6 | Southern Bantoid |
| fam7 | Grassfields |
| fam8 | Eastern Grassfields |
| fam9 | Mbam-Nkam |
| fam10 | Ngemba |
| iso3 | pny |
| glotto | piny1238 |
| glottorefname | Pinyin |
| notice | IPA |
| :: |
::callout[type=note] For the Chinese romanisation system and other uses, see Pinyin (disambiguation). ::
|name= Pinyin |region=Northwest Region, Cameroon |speakers= |date=2001 |ref=e18 |familycolor=Niger-Congo |fam2=Atlantic–Congo |fam3=Volta-Congo |fam4=Benue–Congo |fam5=Bantoid |fam6=Southern Bantoid |fam7=Grassfields |fam8=Eastern Grassfields |fam9=Mbam-Nkam |fam10=Ngemba |iso3=pny |glotto=piny1238 |glottorefname=Pinyin |notice=IPA
Pinyin is a Grassfields language spoken by some 27,000 people in the Northwest Region of Cameroon.
Phonology
Consonants
::data[format=table title="Consonants"]
| Phoneme | Allophones | Environment | Orthography |
|---|---|---|---|
| p | p | ||
| pʰ | Before /u/ in an open syllable. | ||
| b | After /ɴ̩/. | ||
| β | Between vowels within a root. | ||
| t | t | ||
| k | k | Beginning of words and of roots within words, and after /ɴ̩/. | |
| ʔ | Only C found at ends of words. | ||
| kʷ | kʷ | ||
| l | l | In roots. | |
| ɾ | In suffixes. | ||
| d | After /ɴ̩/. | ||
| ɣ | ɣ | ||
| ɡ | After /ɴ̩/. | ||
| ɣʷ | ɡʷ | After /ɴ̩/. | |
| f | f | ||
| s | s | /ts/ after /ɴ̩/. | |
| ts | ts | ||
| z | z | ||
| dz | After /ɴ̩/. | ||
| ʃ | ʃ | /tʃ/ after /ɴ̩/. | |
| tʃ | tʃ | ||
| ʒ | ʒ | ||
| dʒ | After /ɴ̩/. | ||
| m | m | ||
| n | n | ||
| ɲ | ɲ | ||
| ŋ | ŋ | ||
| N̩ | m̩ n̩ ŋ̍ | Homorganic with following C. Carries tone. | , |
| w | w | ||
| ɥ | ɥ | ||
| j | j | ||
| :: |
Sequences are: :py (mby), ly (ndy), ty, ky, ngy, my, kẅ, ngẅ (= ) :pw (mbw), lw (ndw), tw, tsw, chw, shw, sw, zw, zhw, nw, nyw, ŋw
All noun and verb roots begin with a consonant; initial vowels are necessarily prefixes. Only occur in prefixes or at the beginning of words, and only occurs in suffixes. do not occur at the ends of words.
Vowels
::data[format=table title="Vowels"]
| Phoneme | Orthography |
|---|---|
| i | i |
| y | ʉ |
| ɛ | e |
| a | a |
| ɔ | o |
| u | u |
| ə | ə |
| ɨ | ɨ |
| :: |
All known long vowels may occur medially or at ends of words, none at the beginning, though long are not attested. Long vowels are written double: aa, əə, ii, ‿ɨɨ, oo, uu. Diphthongs ie, iə, ʉə, ɨə, uə take a single tone.
Tones are high, mid, low, rising, falling. They are written as in IPA, apart from low, which is not written: á ā a ǎ â. Falling tone is largely confined to suffixes, and rising tone is rare, found only on a few nouns such as tǎ 'father'.
References
- The Pinyin Orthography Guide ( Mathaus & Stephen C. Anderson, 2005)
::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. ::