Yemba
The Bamileke language of Dschang and the Menoua
Family : Niger-Congo, Bantoid, Grassfields (Mbam-Nkam group, Western Bamileke languages)
Speakers : About 300,000 speakers in 1992 according to French Wikipedia; about 500,000 according to Ethnologue, cited by English Wikipedia (2023 figure).
Also called : Yɛmba, Yémba, Bamiléké-Dschang, Tchang
Where and by whom it is spoken
Yemba is one of the major Bamileke languages. It is spoken around Dschang, in the Menoua division (West region), and in the neighbouring Lebialem division, in the anglophone South-West. It is also called Bamileke-Dschang or Tchang; its varieties include that of Foreke-Dschang. It is a language with three tones: high, mid and low.
History and writing
Long a purely spoken language, Yemba was given a written form by the Cameroonian linguist Maurice Tadadjeu, one of the authors of the General Alphabet of Cameroonian Languages, and the linguist Steven Bird. In 1997 their team published a "Petit dictionnaire yémba-français" of more than 3,000 words and expressions, with the Yemba Language Committee. The alphabet marks the high tone with an acute accent and the mid tone with a macron, leaving the low tone unmarked.
Where to hear it today
- The everyday language of Dschang, a university town in the western highlands.
- Spoken on both sides of the boundary between the francophone West and the anglophone South-West, where Lebialem is part of its area.
- A written language: besides the 1997 dictionary, a spelling system has been proposed for the Mmuock variety.
What sources disagree on
The number of speakers ranges from 300,000 to 500,000 depending on the source and the year, with no recent language census to settle the matter.