Musey language
| Musey | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Chad, Cameroon |
Native speakers | 430,000 (2005–2019)[1] |
| Latin | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | mse |
| Glottolog | muse1242 |
Musey is a Chadic language of Chad and Cameroon. There is a degree of mutual intelligibility with Masana. Although Musey and Masa are mutually unintelligible, many Musey speakers also speak Masa.[2]
Distribution
Musey is spoken east of Guéré, in the southern part of Mayo-Danay commune in Danay department, Far North Region, by 20,000 speakers in Cameroon. It is also spoken in Chad.[2]
Phonology
Consonants
| Labial | Alveolar | Lateral | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | tʃ | k | ʔ | |
| voiced | b | d | dʒ | ɡ | |||
| implosive | ɓ | ɗ | |||||
| prenasalized | mb | nd | nd͡ʒ | ŋɡ | |||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ɬ | h | ||
| voiced | v | z | ɮ | ɦ | |||
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | ||||
| Flap | ɾ | ||||||
| Approximant | w | l | j | ||||
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Mid | e | o | |
| Open | a |
Lax allophones of /i u e o/ occur as [ɪ ʊ ɛ ɔ].[3][4]
References
- ^ Musey at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ a b Binam Bikoi, Charles, ed. (2012). Atlas linguistique du Cameroun (ALCAM) [Linguistic Atlas of Cameroon]. Atlas linguistique de l'Afrique centrale (ALAC) (in French). Vol. 1: Inventaire des langues. Yaoundé: CERDOTOLA. ISBN 9789956796069.
- ^ Duncanson, Robert (1972). Interpreting tone in the Musey language. University of North Dakota.
- ^ Shryock, Aaron M. (1992). Consonants and tone in Musey. UCLA.
External links
- Musey language materials from UCLA