Kenswey Nsey (Bamessing): Orthography Guide

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Authors: 
Issue Date: 
2008
Publisher: 
SIL
Publisher Place: 
Yaounde, Cameroon
Sponsored By: 
Ministry of Scientific Research and Innovation
Extent: 
19 pages
Description: 
This paper proposes an orthography for Kenswey Nsey, a Grassfields Bantu language from the South Ring group. It is spoken by about 12, 500 people in the village of Bamessing, North- West Province, Republic of Cameroon. The language has no dialect differences, however the Ethnologue (Gordon, 2005) lists the languages of Babungo, Wushi (spoken in Babessi), and Bamunka as close relatives to Kenswey Nsey. The closest of these is Babungo. The people of Bamessing recognize this, and when asked about the language of Babungo they say that it “rhymes” with that of Bamessing. The two languages, while very similar, are not considered to be mutually intelligible. A very thorough linguistic analysis of Babungo was completed by Willi Schaub from 1974 to 1984. Schaub also did some work on Kenswey Nsey, producing a provisional sketch orthography in 1979. This orthography was used to produce a book of Bamessing folk stories entitled “Ŋwaʼnǝ mǝboʼ nsey” in 1982. At the time, Kenswey Nsey was not given sufficient phonological analysis to produce a full orthography statement. Since then, there have been two phonological analyses of the language. The first was completed in 2000 as a Masters thesis at the University of Yaoundé (Akeriweh, 2000). The second phonological analysis (DeVries, 2008) was completed in conjunction with this new orthography statement, and it is based on the findings of that analysis that this paper is written.
Publication Status: 
Published
Table of Contents: 
Abbreviations.........2, TABLE OF CONTENTS ......3, 1 INTRODUCTION.......4, 2 ALPHABET.......4, 2.1 Consonants.........5, 2.1.1 Nasal-Consonant clusters.....7, 2.1.2 Labialised consonants.......8, 2.1.3 Consonant orthography rules.......9, 2.2 Vowels.......10, 2.2.2 Vowel diphthongs....11, 2.2.3 Vowel orthography rules.....12, 3 TONE........12, 3.1 Lexical tone contrasts marked by diacritics.......12, 3.2 Grammatical meanings marked by diacritics......14, 4 WORD DIVISION.........14, 5 ELISION............14, 6 PUNCTUATION AND CAPITALISATION...........15, 6.1 Full stop........15, 6.2 Question mark......15, 6.3 Exclamation mark......16, 6.4 Comma.....16, 6.5 Quotation marks......16, 6.6 Capitalisation.....17, 7 SAMPLE TEXT......17, 8 NEED FOR FURTHER TESTING OF THE ORTHOGRAHY.....18, 9 REFERENCES.....19
Country: 
Cameroon
Subject Languages: 
Content Language: 
Work Type: 
Nature of Work: 
Entry Number: 
52081