Ewondo
| Ewondo | ||
|---|---|---|
|
Spoken in |
Cameroon | |
| speaker | about 600,000 | |
| Linguistic classification |
|
|
| Official status | ||
| Official language in | - | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639 -1 |
- |
|
| ISO 639 -2 |
ewo |
|
| ISO 639-3 | ||
Ewondo (also Ewundu, Jaunde, Yaounde and Yaunde) is a Bantu language that is spoken by around 600,000 speakers (1982 census) of the ethnic group of the same name in southern Cameroon .
The Ewondo live mainly near the capital, Yaoundé , to which they gave their name, in the south-east of the province of Center and in the north of the province of Sud .
It serves as the lingua franca in the capital and in the center and south of the country.
A well-known representative of the Ewondo language from the colonial era was Karl Friedrich Otto Atangana , who exercised management functions as "Oberhäuptling" (chief supérieur) within his group both in the German colony of Cameroon and during the French rule . The Yaoundé texts by Karl Atangana and Paul Messi are an important source on the language .
classification
Ewondo is a Northwest Bantu language and belongs to the Yaunde Fang group , which is classified as the Guthrie Zone A70.
It has the dialects Badjia (also Bakjo), Bafeuk, Bamvele (also Mvele, Yezum and Yesoum), Bane, Beti, Fong, Mbida-Bani, Mvete, Mvog-Niengue, Omvang, Yabekolo (also Yebekolo), Yabeka, Yabekanga, Enoah and Evouzok.
literature
- Frederick Quinn: In Search of Salt. Changes in Beti (Cameroon) Society, 1880-1960 , Cameroon Studies. Vol. 6; Berghahn Books, New York / Oxford 2006 ISBN 1-84545-006-X