Kom language (Cameroon)

The Kom language, Itaŋikom, is the language spoken by the Kom people of Cameroon. Shultz 1997a and Shultz 1997b (available online) contain a comprehensive description of the language's grammar.

Kom
Itaŋikom
Native toCameroon
RegionNorth-West Province
Native speakers
210,000 (2005)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3bkm
Glottologkomc1235

Kom is a tonal language with three tones.[2]

Phonology

Consonants
Kom consonants[3]
  Bilabial Labio-
dental		 Alveolar Palatal Labial-
velar		 Velar
Plosive  b    td cɟ    kɡ
Fricative    fv sz        ɣ
Nasal  m     n  ɲ     ŋ
Approximant           j  w   
Lateral approximant        l         

Vowels
Kom vowels[3]
  Front Central Back
Close i ɨ u
Close-mid e   o
Open a    

Orthography

Kom uses a 29-character Latin-script orthography based on the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages.[4] It contains 20 single characters from the ISO set, six digraphs, and three special characters: barred I (Ɨɨ), eng (Ŋŋ), and an apostrophe (’). The digraphs ae and oe are also written as ligatures æ and œ, respectively.

Kom alphabet[5]
Letters aaebchdefgghiɨj’klmnŋnyooestuuevwyz
IPA[6] /a//æ//b//c//d//e//f//g//ɣ//i//ɨ//ɟ//ʔ//k//l//m//n//ŋ//ɲ//o//œ//s//t//u//y//v//w//j//z/

The orthography is mostly phonemic, although the characters ae, oe, ue, and ’ represent allophonic variations: the three vowel digraphs are the product of vowel coalescence, and the apostrophe represents the glottal stop, a syllable-final variant of /k/.

Although Kom has eight phonetic tones,[3] only two are marked in writing: the low tone [˨] is written with a grave accent (◌̀) over the vowel (e.g. kàe [kæ̀] "four"), and the high-low falling tone [˦˨] is written with a circumflex (◌̂) over the vowel (e.g. kâf [kâf] "armpit").[5]

References
  1. Kom at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. Archived February 11, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  3. Shultz, George (June 1993). Notes on the Phonology of the Kom Language (PDF). Yaoundé: Société Internationale de Linguistique.
  4. Kawuldim, Kimbi Paul (2008). Relativization in Kom (PDF). Nairobi: Nairoby Evangelical Graduate School of Theology. p. 17.
  5. Chia, Emmanuel N.; Kimbi, Joseph C. (1992). Guide to the Kom Alphabet: Kom Language Reading and Writing Book (PDF). Yaoundé: Société Internationale de Linguistique.
  6. Shultz, George (1997). Kom Language Grammar Sketch Part 1 (PDF). Yaoundé: Société Internationale de Linguistique (SIL).

Bibliography


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