Bamum language

Not to be confused with Bamu language.

Bamum (Shü Pamom [ʃŷpǎˑmə̀m] 'language of the Bamum', or Shümom 'Mum language'), also known as Shupamem, Bamun, or Bamoun, is an Eastern Grassfields language of Cameroon, with approximately 600,000-700,000 speakers in 2025. The language is well known for its original script developed by King Njoya and his palace circle in the Kingdom of Bamum around 1895. Cameroonian musician Claude Ndam was a native speaker of the language and sang it in his music.

Bamum
Shüpamom
ꚶꛉ꛰꛲ꚫꛦꚳ
Region	Cameroon, Nigeria
Ethnicity	Bamum people
Native speakers	600,000 (2022)
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta-Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Grassfields Eastern Grassfields Mbam-Nkam Nun Bamum
Dialects	Bapi
Writing system	Latin script, Bamum syllabary (being revived)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	bax
Glottolog	bamu1253
Page from a manuscript in the Bamum script

Phonology

Bamum has tone, vowel length, diphthongs and coda consonants.

Vowels

Nchare claims ten monophthongs, only eight of which (excluding /ɔ/ and /o/) have a length distinction. Matateyou shows short and long examples of all ten vowel qualities. The orthography in angle brackets is based on the General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages as used by Matateyou.

	Front		Central	Back
	Unrounded	Rounded	Unrounded	Unrounded	Rounded
Close	i ⟨i⟩ iː ⟨ii⟩	y ⟨ü⟩ yː ⟨üü⟩		ɯ ⟨ʉ⟩ ɯː ⟨ʉʉ⟩	u ⟨u⟩ uː ⟨uu⟩
Mid	e ⟨e⟩ eː ⟨ee⟩		ə ⟨ə⟩ əː ⟨əə⟩		o ⟨o⟩ oː ⟨oo⟩
Open-mid	ɛ ⟨ɛ⟩ ɛː ⟨ɛɛ⟩				ɔ ⟨ɔ⟩ ɔː ⟨ɔɔ⟩
Open			a ⟨a⟩ a ⟨aa⟩

Consonants

The consonants are displayed as following:

			Labial		Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Labial- velar	Glottal
Plosive	Plain	Voiceless	p ⟨p⟩		t ⟨t⟩		k ⟨k⟩	k͡p ⟨kp⟩	ʔ ⟨ʼ⟩
		Voiced	b ⟨b⟩		d ⟨d⟩		ɡ ⟨g⟩	g͡b ⟨gb⟩
	Prenasal	Voiceless	ᵐp ⟨mp⟩		ⁿt ⟨nt⟩		ᵑk ⟨ŋk⟩	ᵑ͡ᵐk͡p ⟨ŋkp⟩
		Voiced	ᵐb ⟨mb⟩		ⁿd ⟨nd⟩		ᵑɡ ⟨ŋg⟩	ᵑ͡ᵐg͡b ⟨ŋgb⟩
Fricative	Plain	Voiceless	f ⟨f⟩		s ⟨s⟩	ʃ ⟨sh⟩
		Voiced	β ⟨ɓ⟩	v ⟨v⟩	z ⟨z⟩	ʒ ⟨j⟩	ɣ ⟨gh⟩
	Prenasal	Voiceless	ᶬf ⟨mf⟩		ⁿs ⟨ns⟩	ᶮʃ ⟨nsh⟩
		Voiced	ᶬv ⟨mv⟩		ⁿz ⟨nz⟩	ᶮʒ ⟨nzh⟩
Nasal			m ⟨m⟩		n ⟨n⟩	ɲ ⟨ny⟩	ŋ ⟨ŋ⟩	ŋ͡m ⟨ŋm⟩
Rhotic					r ⟨r⟩
Approximant	Plain				l ⟨l⟩	j ⟨y⟩		w ⟨w⟩
	Prenasal					ⁿj ⟨nj⟩		ⁿw ⟨nw⟩

Tones

Bamum has four or five tones. Mateteyou's analysis includes a mid tone, while Nchare's analysis includes downstep. Bamum distinguishes between lexical and grammatical tone.

Diacritic	Nchare	Matateyou
à	low	low
á	high	high
ā	―	mid
ǎ	rising	rising
â	falling	falling
ꜜ	downstep	―

Bibliography

• Matateyou, Emmanuel (2002). Parlons Bamoun. Paris: L'Harmattan. p. 38.
• Nchare, Abdoulaye Laziz (2012). The Grammar of Shupamem (PhD dissertation). New York University. ProQuest 996252918.
• Pawou Molu, Solange (2018). Problèmes de morphophonologie nominale en Bamun-Shüpamom (PhD dissertation). Paris Cité University.

Further reading

• Bamum Scripts and Archives Project; Riley, Charles (2006-01-08). Towards the Encoding of the Bamum Script in the UCS (PDF) (Report).