Myene language
Bantu language spoken in Gabon
Myene is a cluster of closely related Bantu varieties spoken in Gabon by about 46,000 people. It is perhaps the most divergent of the Narrow Bantu languages, though Nurse & Philippson (2003) place it in with the Tsogo languages (B.30). The more distinctive varieties are Mpongwe (Pongoué), Galwa (Galloa), and Nkomi.
01Phonology
| Bilabial | Labio- dental |
Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||
| Stop/ Affricate |
voiceless | p | t | tʃ | k | |
| voiced | b | d | dʒ | ɡ | ||
| prenasal vl. | ᵐp | ⁿt | ᶮtʃ | ᵑk | ||
| prenasal vd. | ᵐb | ⁿd | ᶮdʒ | ᵑg | ||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ʃ | ||
| voiced | β | v | z | (ɣ) | ||
| Approximant | l | j | w | |||
| Trill | r | |||||
- /ɡ/ is also heard as [ɣ] in free variation when preceding vowels or semivowels depending on articulation.
- Voiced sounds /b, d, dʒ/ may also be heard as implosives [ɓ, ɗ, ɗ̠ʲ] in free variation across dialects.
- In the Adyumba dialect /dʒ/ may also be heard as [dz] in free variation.
- Sounds /ᶮtʃ, ᶮdʒ/ may also be heard as prenasal alveolar affricates [ⁿts, ⁿdz] across dialects.
- /w/ may be heard as more palatal [ɥ] when before front vowel sounds.
- A nasalized labio-velar sound /w̃/ may also be attested in the Mpongwe dialect.
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u |
| Close-mid | e | o |
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɔ |
| Open | a | |
02Dictionary
Jean-Rémy Bessieux published a Pongwe dictionary in 1847.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Myene language”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Fathomly is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Wikimedia Foundation. Spotted a problem? Tell us.