Kung is a Grassfields Bantu language of Cameroon.
Consonants
Tatang enumerates 24 plain consonants, 9 prenasalized consonants, 7 labialized consonants, and 6 palatalized consonants, for a total of 46.
Vowels
Tatang counts 10 vowel phonemes.
Tones
In addition, Kung contrasts six tones--three level tones (high, mid, low) and three contour tones (rising, high-mid, and falling). Tatang argues that the contour tones are combinations of register tones.
References
Further reading
- Di Carlo, Pierpaolo; Good, Jeff (2014). "What Are We Trying to Preserve? Diversity, Change, and Ideology at the Edge of the Cameroonian Grassfields". In Austin, Peter K.; Sallabank, Julia (eds.). Endangered Languages: Beliefs and Ideologies in Language Documentation and Revitalization. doi:10.5871/bacad/9780197265765.003.0012. ISBN 9780197265765.
- Good, Jeff (2013). "A (micro-)accretion zone in a remnant zone?: Lower Fungom in areal-historical perspective". In Bickel, Balthasar; Grenoble, Lenore A.; Peterson, David A.; Timberlake, Alan (eds.). Language Typology and Historical Contingency: In honor of Johanna Nichols. Typological Studies in Language. Vol. 104. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. pp. 265–282.
- Kießling, Roland (2019). "Salient features of the Kung noun class system in a Ring perspective". In Akumbu, Pius W.; Chie, Esther P. (eds.). Engagement with Africa: Linguistic Essays in Honor of Ngessimo M. Mutaka. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag. pp. 139–161. ISBN 978-3-89645-768-4.
- Lo, Ch'ang-p'ei (1945). "A Preliminary Study on the Trung Language of Kung Shan". Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies. 8 (3/4): 343–348. doi:10.2307/2717821. JSTOR 2717821.
- Schlenker, Rebecca (2012). Das Nominalklassensystem des Kung (Graslandbantu) (MA thesis). Universität Hamburg.
