Bankon (A40)

Eléments de phonologie, morphologie et tonologie

Author: Gratien G. Atindogbé. Series edited by: Wilhelm J.G. Möhlig †, Bernd Heine.

Series: GA Grammatical Analyses of African Languages Volume 7

Bankon is spoken by about 12,000 people in the West of Cameroon (SIL: 2001), north of Douala, and was classified by Guthrie as A.40 (Equatorial Bantu). The present detailed description is the result of several years’ linguistic research in Cameroon and is meant to preserve the Bankon language from being displaced by the more frequent Douala.

As linguistic model, the author uses the autosegmental theory, developed by the generative transformational grammar. This approach has the advantage of being at the same time a descriptive and an explicative description of a language. The author analyses the phonology, the nominal and verbal morphology and the tonology of Bankon. The phenomenon of tone shift is discussed in detail.

In our programme, further analyses, dictionaries and text collections of Bantu and Grassfields Bantu languages of Cameroon have been published, see the following links:

Accompanying material:

• A Descriptive Grammar of Bafut (ISBN 978-3-89645-551-2)
• A Descriptive Grammar of Bangwà (ISBN 978-3-89645-563-5)
• A Grammatical Description of Metta (Cameroon) in Relation to Focus Parametric Variation (ISBN 978-3-89645-544-4)
• A Pedagogic Grammar of Babanki (ISBN 978-3-89645-558-1)
• Akum, Ala’atening and Mankon: Dialects or Languages? (ISBN 978-3-89645-562-8)
• Analyse contrastive des parlers Yémba du département de la Ménoua de l’Ouest-Cameroun (ISBN 978-3-89645-046-3)
• Dictionnaire ngiemboon–français–anglais (ISBN 978-3-89645-428-7)
• Engagement with Africa (ISBN 978-3-89645-768-4)
• Grammaire descriptive du pólrì (ISBN 978-3-89645-567-3)
• Lamnso’-English Dictionary (ISBN 978-3-89645-429-4)
• Mòkpè (Bakweri) – English Dictionary (ISBN 978-3-927620-33-9)
• Mungaka (Bali) Dictionary (ISBN 978-3-927620-30-8)
• Research Mate in African Linguistics – Focus on Cameroon (ISBN 978-3-89645-041-8)
• Structural and Typological Approaches to Obang Grammar (ISBN 978-3-89645-568-0)
• Traditions, Tales and Proverbs of the Bali-Nyonga (ISBN 978-3-927620-32-2)
• Verbal Serialisation in Isu (West Ring) (ISBN 978-3-89645-555-0)

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