lingvo.wikisort.org - Language

Fang /ˈfɒŋ/ is a Central African language spoken by around 1 million people, most of them in Equatorial Guinea, and northern Gabon, where it is the dominant Bantu language; Fang is also spoken in southern Cameroon, the Republic of the Congo, and small fractions of the islands of São Tomé and Príncipe. It is related to the Bulu and Ewondo languages of southern Cameroon.

Fang
Pangwe
Faŋ, Paŋwe
Native to	Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Republic of the Congo, Cameroon, and São Tomé and Príncipe
Ethnicity	Fang
Native speakers	1 million (2006–2013)[1]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta-Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Bantu (Zone A) Beti Fang
Dialects	Southwest Fang Ntoumou-Fang Okak-Fang Mekê-Fang Mvaïe-Fang Atsi-Fang Nzaman-Fang Mveni-Fang
Language codes
ISO 639-2	fan
ISO 639-3	fan
Glottolog	fang1246
Guthrie code	A.75,751[2]

Under President Macías Nguema, Fang was the official language of Equatorial Guinea, although in 1982, the third Constitution once again replaced it with Spanish. Since then, each version of the Constitution has recognized Fang and other languages indigenous to the country as integral to the national culture, despite these languages not having official status.

There are many different variants of Fang in northern Gabon and southern Cameroon. Maho (2009) lists Southwest Fang as a distinct language. The other dialects are Ntoumou, Okak, Mekê, Atsi (Batsi), Nzaman (Zaman), Mveni, and Mvaïe.

Distribution

According to ALCAM (2012), Fang is mainly spoken in northern Gabon and also in Equatorial Guinea. Dialects include Ntumu, Mvayn, and Okak. In Cameroon, Fang is spoken in the southern half of Dja-et-Lobo department (Southern Region) south of Djoum. It is also spoken in the southeast of Mvila department: south of Mvangan, plus small isolated parts of Océan department between Lolodorf and Kribi where the Okak dialect is spoken. The other dialects, Mvayn and Ntumu, are spoken in Vallée-du-Ntem department.[3]

Corpus and lexicology

Despite Fang's lack of any well-defined literary corpus, it is of note that linguists have, in the past, made attempts to compile dictionaries and lexicons for the Fang language. The two most notable ones to be proposed or fully compiled were made by Maillard (2007)[4] and Bibang (2014). Neither created a direct Fang-English dictionary, but opted instead to separate the two languages via a third European language as a bridge for various loanwords.

The translation efforts to English have been done through Romance languages: specifically, Spanish and French. The latter of the two languages would likely have had the most impact on the language, given the occupation of Gabon by the French during the existence of French Equatorial Africa (itself part of French West Africa), which lasted 75 years from 1885 to 1960. To a lesser extent, in São Tomé and Príncipe, Portuguese also likely has influenced the dialects of Fang present there, due to the country being occupied by Portugal for most of the islands' history of habitation.

Phonology[5]

Vowels

Fang has 7 vowels, each of which can have short or long realizations.

Vowel Phonemes

	Front (short/long)	Back (short/long)
Close	i iː (ĩ)	u uː (ũ)
Close-mid	e eː (ẽ)	o oː (õ)
Open-mid	ɛ ɛː (ɛ̃)	ɔ ɔː (ɔ̃)
Open	a aː (ã)

Nasal vowels are allophones of the respective oral vowels, when followed by a nasal consonant [ŋ] or [ɲ]. Words can not start with [ɛ], [i], [ɔ] nor [u].

Diphthongs

Diphthongs can be a combination of any vowel with [j] or [w], as well as [ea], [oe], [oa], [ua].

Tone

Fang distinguishes between at least 5 lexical tones, conventionally called: high, mid, low, rising and falling. One vowel in a sequences of vowels can be elided in casual speech, though its tone remains and attaches to the remaining vowel. [6]

Consonants

In Fang, there are 24 plain consonants. The majority of them can become prenasalized:

		Labial	Alveolar	Alveopalatal	Velar	Labial–velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Plosive	plain	p   b	t   d		k   ɡ	k͡p   ɡ͡b	ʔ
	prenasal	ᵐp   ᵐb	ⁿt   ⁿd		ᵑk   ᵑg	ᵑk͡p   ᵑɡ͡b
Affricate	plain		t͡s   d͡z
	prenasal		ⁿt͡s   ⁿd͡z
Fricative	plain	f   v	s   z				h
	prenasal	ᶬf   ᶬv	ⁿs   ⁿz
Approximant	plain		l	j	w
	prenasal			ᶮj	ⁿw
Tap			ɾ

/h/ is only used in interjections and loanwords. Words can not start with /ŋ/, except when followed by a velar consonant. /ɾ/ and /z/ also are restricted from word-initial position. /g/ and /p/ can only come in word-initial position in words of foreign origin, although in many of these cases, /g/ becomes realized as [ŋg].

The morpheme "gh" is pronounced as ɾ in the case of the word "Beyoghe" (the Fang term for Libreville); one of several changes to pronunciation by morphology.

It is also important to note that in Fang, at every "hiatus" (shock of two vowels), such as in "Ma adzi", it is required for one to make the second word an aphetism, dropping the pronunciation of the aː sound at the start of the second word (e.g. "Ma dzi") in order to make grammatically correct sentences.

See also

• Beti-Pahuin

References

External links

• Bantulanyi
• http://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/1229
• https://web.archive.org/web/20080630064631/http://monefang.com/parlons1.html Monefang, archived from the original (2008). Note: This site is mostly in French.

На других языках

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[de] Fang (Sprache)

Fang (auch Pahouin und Pamue) ist die Sprache der Fang in Zentralafrika. Sie wird den Bantusprachen innerhalb der Benue-Kongo-Sprachen zugerechnet.

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- [en] Fang language

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[es] Idioma fang

El fang o pamue[2] es una lengua de África Central hablada por los pueblos de la etnia fang. Es una lengua de la familia ekang y se habla en Guinea Ecuatorial, en la zona norte de Gabón, en la zona sur de Camerún y en menor medida en la República del Congo y en Santo Tomé y Príncipe. Se calcula que en 1993 tenía 858 000 hablantes y en 2007 la cifra superaba el millón (1 027 900). Es mutuamente inteligible con otras lenguas del grupo ekang/beti como el bebele, el bebil, el bulu, el etono, el ewondo y el mengisa.

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[fr] Fang (langue)

Le fang est une langue parlée au Cameroun, en Guinée équatoriale, au Gabon, au Congo-Brazzaville, et à Sao Tomé et Principe. Ses dialectes nigéro-congolais sont parlés par les Fangs. Il existe beaucoup de variantes du fang au Gabon. Maho (2009) a listé le fang du Sud-Ouest comme une langue à part entière. Les autres dialectes sont : ntumu, okak, make, atsi (batsi), nzaman (zaman), mveny.

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[it] Lingua fang

La lingua fang o fang è una lingua niger-kordofaniana parlata principalmente in Gabon e in Guinea Equatoriale, mentre è parlata in misura minore in Camerun, Repubblica del Congo e São Tomé e Príncipe.

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[ru] Фанг (язык)

Фанг (/'faŋ/) — африканский язык, язык народа фанг. Этот язык близко связан с языками бул и эвондо, распространённых в южном Камеруне. На фанг говорят в южном Габоне, Камеруне и южной Экваториальной Гвинее.

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