Vute language

Vute is a Mambiloid language of Cameroon and Gabon, with a thousand speakers in Nigeria. The orthography was standardized on March 9, 1979.[2] Noted dialect clusters are eastern, central, and Doume.

Vute
Native to	Cameroon
Native speakers	21,000 (1997)[1]
Language family	Niger–Congo Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Mambiloid Mambila–Konja Mambila–Vute Tep–Vute Vute languages Vute
Language codes
ISO 639-3	vut
Glottolog	vute1244

Phonology

Consonants

Consonants in Vute are numerous and include pulmonic and implosive airstreams. Labialization is phonemic in many consonants, some of which is dialectal.

Consonants of Vute[2]

		Bilabial		Labio- dental		Dental/ Alveolar		Post- alveolar		Palatal	Velar		Labial– velar	Glottal
		plain	lab.^‡‡	plain	lab.^‡‡	plain	lab.^‡‡	plain	lab.^‡‡		plain	lab.		plain	lab.^‡‡
Nasal stop		[m] m	[mʷ] mw			[n] n					[ŋ] ŋ
Implosive		[ɓ] ɓ	[ɓʷ] ɓw			[ɗ] ɗ	[ɗʷ] ɗw^†
Plosive	voiceless	[p] p				[t] t					[k] k	[kʷ] kw	[k͡p] kp
	voiced	[b~β]* b				[d] d					[g~ɣ]* g	[gʷ] gw	[ɡ͡b] gb
	prenasalized	[ᵐb] mb				[ⁿd] nd	[ⁿdʷ] ndw^††				[^ŋg] ŋg	[^ŋgʷ] ŋgw	[^ŋmɡ͡b] mgb^§
Affricate	voiceless							[t͡ʃ] c	[t͡ʃʷ] cw^††
	voiced							[d͡ʒ] j	[d͡ʒʷ] jw^††
	prenasalized							[ⁿd͡ʒ] nj^§
Fricative	voiceless			[f] f	[fʷ] fw^†	[s] s	[sʷ] sw^††							[h] h	[hʷ] hw^‡
	voiced			[v] v
	prenasalized			[^ɱv] mv^§
Approximant						[l~ɾ~r]** l~r~r				[j] y			[w] w

*becomes a fricative intervocalically. [ŋgáb] "they" -> [ŋgáβè] "their"

**initially: [leè] "wall ; intervocalically: [tòɾò] "papaya' ; finally: [bɨ́r] "oil palm tree"

^†Doume dialect only.

^††Doume and eastern dialects only.

^‡Central dialects only'

^‡‡Only vowels /i/ /e/ /a/ may follow a labialized consonant.

^§ Low frequency[3]

Tones[2]

There are more phonemic tones than are marked in orthography, such as mid-high rising tone and mid tone being both unmarked <a> for example. Phonologically-conditioned downstep is unmarked.

Tone Category	IPA	Orthography	Example	Gloss
high tone	˦	á, áá	tím	blood
mid tone	˧	a, aa	məb	louse
low tone	˨	à, àà	tɨ̀mnɨ	to drown
mid-high	˧˥	a, aá	tɨm	antelope
low-high*	˩˥	à	ɓùn	grass
high-low	˥˩	â, áà	bɨ̂ŋ	round, complete
high-mid	˥˧	â, áa	mîn	good
high-low-high	˥˩˦	âá	sîím	rainy season

*Only in eastern dialects, on short vowels. All other dialects merge this class with low tone.

Vowels[2]

Oral		Nasal
Long	Short	Long	Short
[i:] ii	[i~ɪ] i	[ĩ:] i̧i̧	[ĩ] i̧ ^†
[e:] ee	[e~ɛ] e	[ɛ̃:] ȩȩ	[ɛ̃] ȩ
[ɨ:] ɨɨ ^†	[ɨ] ɨ	[ɨ̃:] ɨ̧ɨ̧	[ɨ̃] ɨ̧
[ə:] əə ^†	[ə] ə	[ə̃:] ə̧ə̧	[ə̃] ə̧ ^†
[a:] aa	[a] a	[ã:] a̧a̧	[ã] a̧
[u:] uu	[u~ʊ] u	[ũ:] u̧u̧	[ũ] u̧
[o:] oo	[o~ɔ] o	[õ:] o̧o̧	[õ] o̧
[ɔ:] ɔɔ*	[ɔ] ɔ*	[ɔ̃:] ɔ̧ɔ̧	[ɔ̃] ɔ̧ ^†
[ei] ei		[ẽĩ] ȩi̧
[ai] ai		[ãĩ] a̧i̧
[ɨi] ɨi		[ɨ̃ĩ] ɨ̧i̧
[əi] əi		[ə̃ĩ] ə̧i̧
[oi] oi		[õĩ] o̧i̧

* /ɔ/ only contrasts from /o/ in open syllables and before velar final consonants: /k/ and /ŋ/. When preceding bilabial and alveolar final consonants, [ɔ] is understood to be an allophone of /o/.

^† Low frequency

References

1. Vute at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
2. Thwing, Rhonda (2004) [1981]. "Vute Orthography Statement" (PDF). General Alphabet of Cameroonian Languages.
3. "PHOIBLE 2.0 -". phoible.org. Retrieved 2020-02-01.