The Ki language, Tuki (Baki, Oki), is a Southern Bantoid language of Cameroon. It is spoken by 26,000 people in the Central Province of Cameroon, in the Lekie devision and in the Mbam and Kim division, along the Sanaga river.[3]
Ki | |
---|---|
Tuki | |
Native to | Cameroon |
Native speakers | (26,000 cited 1982)[1] |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | bag – inclusive codeIndividual codes: leo – Letimct – Mengisa (duplicate code) |
Glottolog | tuki1240 |
A.601 (ex-A.61,64), possibly also A.63 [2] |
The dialects are Kombe (Tukombe), Cenga (Tocenga), Tsinga (Tutsingo), Bundum, Njo (Tonjo), Ngoro (Tu Ngoro), Mbere (Tumvele)[3] and possibly Leti/Mengisa[4] and Mbwasa.
Tuki distinguishes six phonetic vowels. It distinguishes between long and short vowels.[5]
Front | Back | |
---|---|---|
Close | i | u |
Close-mid | e | o |
Open-mid | ɔ | |
Open | a |
The consonants are as follows.[5]
Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar/Glottal | Labiovelar | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Stop/Affricate | Voiceless | p | t | t͡ʃ | k | k͡p |
Voiced | b | d | d͡ʒ | g | g͡b | |
Prenasalized | ⁿb | ⁿd | ⁿd͡ʒ | ⁿg <ng> | ⁿg͡b | |
Fricative | Voiceless | s | h | |||
Voiced | β | |||||
Nasal | m | n | ɲ <ny> | ŋ <ng> | ||
Approximant | ɾ | j | w |
As in most Bantu languages, the noun consists of a class prefix and a stem. Verbs are conjugated for the noun class of the subject and object.[3] The primary word order is SVO.[6]