Catch (language)

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Catch

Spoken in

Equatorial Guinea , Cameroon , Gabon and Republic of the Congo
speaker 1,020,000
Linguistic
classification
Volta Congo languages
Benue Congo languages
Bantu languages
Yaunde Fang Group (A.70)
  • Catch
Official status
Official language in GabonGabon Gabon Equatorial Guinea (each as national language )
Equatorial GuineaEquatorial Guinea 
Recognized minority /
regional language in
Congo RepublicRepublic of the Congo Republic of the Congo Sao Tome and Principe
Sao Tome and PrincipeSao Tome and Principe 
Language codes
ISO 639 -1

-

ISO 639 -2

fan

ISO 639-3

fan

Fang (also Pahouin and Pamue) is the language of Fang in Central Africa . It is assigned to the Bantu languages within the Benue-Congo languages .

Its approximately 1,020,000 speakers live in Equatorial Guinea (297,000 speakers, 2007 census), Gabon (588,000 speakers, 2007 census), in southern Cameroon (121,000 speakers, 2006 census) and in the Republic of the Congo (8100 speakers, 2006 census).

The catch is in the north of Gabon and Equatorial Guinea an important lingua franca and has a rich, only partially explored oral literature . It is written in the Latin script .

classification

Fang is a northwest Bantu language and belongs to the Yaunde Fang group , which is classified as the Guthrie Zone A70. It is related to the languages Bulu , Eton and Ewondo and, like many other languages ​​in Zone A according to Malcolm Guthrie, has features that are not found in the rest of central Bantu.

Language area of ​​Fang

Phonetics and Phonology

The catch is a tonal language and has a complicated morphonology . The 18 vowel and 23 consonant phonemes also include the labial velars kp and gb .

literature

  • Günther Tessmann : The Pangwe. Ethnological monograph of a West African Negro tribe. Results of the Lübeck Pangwe Expedition 1907-09 and earlier research 1904-1907 . 2 volumes. Ernst Wasmuth, Berlin 1913.

Web links