Oku | |
---|---|
Kuɔ | |
Native to | Cameroon |
Native speakers | 87,000 (from the 2005 census) [1] |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 |
oku |
Glottolog |
okuu1243 |
Oku (Ebkuo, Ekpwo, Ukfwo, Bvukoo, Kuɔ) is a Grassfields Bantoid language that is primarily spoken by the Oku people of northwest Cameroon, a fondom of the Tikar people.[ citation needed] They are a different ethnic group from the Oku people of Sierra Leone.
Oku has 21 consonant phonemes. [2] The consonant phoneme inventory of the language is shown below.
Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Plain | Labialized | |||||||
Stop/Affricate | voiceless | / t/ | / t͡ʃ/ | / k/ | / kʷ/ | |||
voiced | / b/ | / d/ | / d͡ʒ/ | / g/ | / gʷ/ | |||
Fricative | voiceless | / f/ | / s/ | |||||
voiced | / ɣ/ | / ɣʷ/ | ||||||
Nasal | / m/ | / m̩/ [a] | / n/ | //N// [b] | / ŋ/ | |||
Lateral | / l/ | |||||||
Glide | / j/ | / w/ |
Davis argues that Oku has five nasal phonemes. These are three non-syllabic nasals (/ m/, / n/, and / ŋ/), syllabic / m̩/, and archiphonemic //N//. [2] / m̩/ does not assimilate to the following consonant. However //N// assimilates before all consonants except / f/, / t͡ʃ/, and / d͡ʒ/, where it becomes / n/. [2]
Davis describes the following vowels in her thesis. [2]
Front | Back | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Unrounded | Rounded | ||||||
High | Tense | / i/ | / iː/ | / u/ | / uː/ | ||
Lax | / ɪ/ | / ɪː/ | |||||
Mid | Tense | / ə/ | / əː/ | ||||
Lax | / ɛ/ | / ɛː/ | / ɔ/ | / ɔː/ | |||
Low | / ɑ/ | / ɑː/ |
The Oku alphabet has 25 letters. [3]
a | b | ch | d | dz | e | ɛ | ə | f | g | gh | i | j | k | l | m | n | ŋ | o | p | s | t | w | y | z |
Oku | |
---|---|
Kuɔ | |
Native to | Cameroon |
Native speakers | 87,000 (from the 2005 census) [1] |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 |
oku |
Glottolog |
okuu1243 |
Oku (Ebkuo, Ekpwo, Ukfwo, Bvukoo, Kuɔ) is a Grassfields Bantoid language that is primarily spoken by the Oku people of northwest Cameroon, a fondom of the Tikar people.[ citation needed] They are a different ethnic group from the Oku people of Sierra Leone.
Oku has 21 consonant phonemes. [2] The consonant phoneme inventory of the language is shown below.
Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Plain | Labialized | |||||||
Stop/Affricate | voiceless | / t/ | / t͡ʃ/ | / k/ | / kʷ/ | |||
voiced | / b/ | / d/ | / d͡ʒ/ | / g/ | / gʷ/ | |||
Fricative | voiceless | / f/ | / s/ | |||||
voiced | / ɣ/ | / ɣʷ/ | ||||||
Nasal | / m/ | / m̩/ [a] | / n/ | //N// [b] | / ŋ/ | |||
Lateral | / l/ | |||||||
Glide | / j/ | / w/ |
Davis argues that Oku has five nasal phonemes. These are three non-syllabic nasals (/ m/, / n/, and / ŋ/), syllabic / m̩/, and archiphonemic //N//. [2] / m̩/ does not assimilate to the following consonant. However //N// assimilates before all consonants except / f/, / t͡ʃ/, and / d͡ʒ/, where it becomes / n/. [2]
Davis describes the following vowels in her thesis. [2]
Front | Back | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Unrounded | Rounded | ||||||
High | Tense | / i/ | / iː/ | / u/ | / uː/ | ||
Lax | / ɪ/ | / ɪː/ | |||||
Mid | Tense | / ə/ | / əː/ | ||||
Lax | / ɛ/ | / ɛː/ | / ɔ/ | / ɔː/ | |||
Low | / ɑ/ | / ɑː/ |
The Oku alphabet has 25 letters. [3]
a | b | ch | d | dz | e | ɛ | ə | f | g | gh | i | j | k | l | m | n | ŋ | o | p | s | t | w | y | z |