The Sound of Mmuock: Orthography

[e-book v. 120101144229]

¿e Sound of MmuockVolume 1: Orthography

�rst edition

Tano Fotang

TM

series

The Sound of Mmuock

Volume 1: Orthography

“¿is pioneer piece of work is not only original but ‘unput-downable’! It reminds me of Tony Blair’s A Journey. A er readingthe �rst dra s of this book two years ago, my mindset was com-pletely reformed. I became aware of how foreign cultures hadpenetrated deep into our societies and overshadowed our identity.

A language encapsulates a people’s cultural values. Nkwatte’soutstanding piece is a vivid wake up call to those who can still dosomething about identifying themselves with their roots. It is alsoa very helpful book for those who want to sharpen their skills, andfor students who are interested in taking this initiative further.”

—Ferdinand ZaumuSenior Banker

“¿is guide contributes not only to the formalisation of theMmuocklanguage, but takes us deeper into the understanding and preser-vation of our history and culture. Aside from projecting the imageand identity of the Mmuock peoples, it will fetch Mmuock a placein the front line of Cameroon languages.”

—Apabeloi Mbape N., dipes ii (Y’de i), M.Phil (Oslo)

“At last, a sigh of relief, as ¿e Sound of Mmuock has come topreserve this rich tongue.”

—Rita Zaumu, Ndem’s Communication

“. . . original and full of creativity. ¿is demonstrates great zeal onthe part of a son of the soil of Mmuock, employing a very simpleapproach and methodology, to e�ectively articulate his mothertongue for a wider audience to grasp. It is wonderful.”

—Ojuku Tiafack (Ph.D)Senior Lecturer, Yaounde i University

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Lë Muòk is an initiative of the Mmuock Language Society aimed at promotingthe production of books, articles, and other works, in or on the Mmuock language.

Authors seeking sponsorship should write to [email protected].

Lë Muòk is also known as Lë Mok.

mailto:[email protected]

¿e Sound of MmuockVolume 1: Orthography

�rst edition

Tano Fotang

TM

series

magnolian publishers

First published 2011Magnolian Publishers—Bamenda, Republic of Cameroon

ForNjuontsop Joseph Ateafack

in memoriam

Copyright © 2011 Tano Fotang

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed,or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrievalsystem, without the prior written permission of the copyright holder

To contact the Author electronically, write to: [email protected]

For updates to this book and further information to this series, visit the website:http://som.mmuock.org

Typesetting and design by Tano Fotang

¿is e-book might di�er from the print version

ISBN 978-9956-645-17-6 (paperback)

magnolian [email protected]


http://som.mmuock.org


Foreword

Slavery, colonialism and modernism have deprived Africa of many of her cul-tural values which have been painstakingly preserved from antiquity. Decadesof out-cry from the heart of Africa have not stopped this in�ux of westernlifestyles, fashions and tastes into the heart of the continent. ¿is notwithstand-ing, Africa still safeguards one of her richest and most precious natural gi s— her plethora of languages. What measures then do we take to immortalisethese languages so that they should not wither in oblivion? ¿e best measure isto learn how to write and read them. It is along the margin of the foregoingpremise that Tano Fotang moves in this �rst volume of his book, Volume 1:Orthography, of the procession¿e Sound of Mmuock.

Although it is very di�cult for a non-native speaker of a language to learnthe language and speak it as �uently as the native speakers, it is however, ofprimordial importance that he starts by learning the sound of that language.And this begins with the orthography. ¿en, grammatical patterns like verbsand nouns can follow suit.

With this publication (unprecedented of its kind within its environs), theauthor pays everlasting tribute to his land of birth, to his upbringing, to hiselite and to the linguistic department. ¿is is a very laudable e�ort, and acommendable step towards immortalising our national languages. Man hasa natural tendency of always returning to where he was born — even in thewestern world as ¿omas Hardy contends in his novel¿e Return of the Native.

And his mother tongue best identi�es him with his origin which extends to hiso�spring in later generations.

vii

viii The Sound of Mmuock 0. Foreword

¿is is an indispensable publication for all sons and daughters of Mmuockand every prospective researcher or learner of the Mmuock language. Whilehoping that it will meet the needs of the reader as underscored, the author, ashe has personally pledged, owes us a heavy debt in the proceeding volumes.

Nkwetatang Sampson3rd Class Honours Penfellow

of the Magnolian Academy

Preface

¿is is the �rst in a series of short introductory notes on Mmuock. Writtenalternatively as Mmock, Mmuock is the language of the M’muock (M’mock)peoples of Cameroon. While there is a vibrant and growing community ofspeakers, the biggest issue facing the language, has been the lack of a writingsystem—and the absence of any means of literary expression. ¿is instalmentattempts to address one facet of Mmuock: the orthography.

¿ere are at least two di�erent dialects of Mmuock, and those dialects di�eronly in certain words and pronunciation; the orthography is the same. ¿ispaper introduces a writing system for all dialects. Examples given in the presentedition might be disproportionately drawn from the dialect spoken in the veryupper region of the Mmuock tribe. ¿is partiality is but temporal, and is dueto my non-familiarity with other variations of the Mmuock language. I hopethat readers who are more versed with other dialects, will submit examples andcorrections for inclusion in further revisions of this document.

¿is text is targeted at speakers of Mmuock: those who already can speakthe language and now want to be able to write it. It should also be of some helpto those who want to learn to read the language. ¿is primer will not teach youto speak Mmuock; it can only assist you to write or to read it. If you can speakthe language, you already know much of what is contained herein. But youmay not be aware of that. My objective is to bring to your consciousness thatwhich you already know.

In this volume the orthography is introduced, starting with the alphabetwhich de�nes the basic symbols that represent the sounds and tones ofMmuock.

ix

x The Sound of Mmuock 0. Preface

(We will be looking at the orthography under several di�erent headings: vowels,consonants, tones, etc. ¿ese purely arbitrary divisions are solelymeant tomakediscussions easy to follow; do not attach any signi�cance to them.) Section 1.3then looks at the di�erent vowels in the language, while in sections 1.6 and1.7 we discuss the numerous tones and consonant sounds, respectively. ¿isarticle ends with a list of over 750 commonMmuock words, the study of whichshould enable the reader to spell similar words.

Each discussion is accompanied by examples. Many examples will containelements that have at that point not yet been covered. For example, the sectionon vowels will have examples containing various tones which will be coveredonly in a later section. Where an example is a single word, it is important tonote that the example represents the word in only the basic, “stand-alone” formof the word; that is, when the word occurs in isolation or is followed by a pausein speech.

Caveat lector! As a labour of love, this manuscript is a work in progress; itclaims neither accuracy nor completeness. Some examples and explanationsare rather elliptic; some sections, excessively austere. Furthermore, this is notan academic treatise, and no scienti�c or linguistic value is implied. Absentare such esoteric terms as “phonemes”, “minimal triplets”, “tone registers” andso forth. Not being a linguist of any kind, nor a particularly good speaker ofthe language, I intend this paper to be simply an impetus for initiatives in, andre�ection on, the development of the Mmuock language. More speci�cally,I hope that the imperfections of this publication will spur improvement orcontribution by those more resourceful.

¿is monograph is dedicated to all those who have kept Mmuock a livinglanguage, and who continue to do so. Special encouragement to those familieswho continue to pass invaluable knowledge to the children of today. Muchencouragement goes out to those associations and groups who mandate thatMmuock be the language of business.

I hope you get as much pleasure reading this as I did composing it.

Tano FotangAbuja

September 2011

Contents

Foreword vii

Preface ix

List of tables xiv

Abbreviations and conventions xv

1 Orthography 11.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.2 ¿e Alphabet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

1.2.1 Quotation marks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41.2.2 Rare symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

1.3 Vowel sounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51.4 Special case: <œ> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71.5 Glottal stops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81.6 Tones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

1.6.1 Notation and de�nition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111.6.2 Instances of use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161.6.3 Postscript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

1.7 Consonant sounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281.8 Orthographic exceptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

1.8.1 y . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

xi

xii The Sound of Mmuock CONTENTS

1.8.2 Short vowels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331.9 Alternative notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

1.9.1 Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331.9.2 Tones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

1.10 Outlook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

A Word in�ection 37A.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37A.2 How to in�ect a word . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

A.2.1 Pre-in�ection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39A.2.2 Post-in�ection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

B Word list 43

C Names 65C.1 Common �rst names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65C.2 Days of the week . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66C.3 Places . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

D Numerals 69D.1 Cardinal numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69D.2 Ordinal numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Example Index 71

Index 75

List of Tables

1.1 ¿e Mmuock alphabet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31.2 Vowels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51.3 ø examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61.4 σ examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61.5 œ in use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71.6 Summary of glottal stops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91.7 Tones in Mmuock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101.8 Tone 5 in nouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201.9 Comparative sample of common tones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251.10 Consonants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281.11 ¿e elided [a] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301.12 Examples of the pre�xed e . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311.13 Examples of the pre�xed i . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311.14 Examples of the leading syllabic consonant . . . . . . . . . . . 321.15 Alternative notation of letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341.16 Alternative notation of tone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

A.1 Pre-in�ection: altering last consonant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39A.2 Pre-in�ection: adding an e . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40A.3 Pre-in�ection: Doubling the last vowel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

xiii

¿is page intentionally le blank

Abbreviations and conventions

¿e following abbreviations and symbols are used in this article:adj adjective sb somebodyadv adverb esp especiallypl plural usu usuallyprep preposition é refer to, see alsopers personal = synonymvt transitive verb s© speci�c to Mmuock-Fossimondipron pronoun l© speci�c to Mmuock-Letehvi intransitive verb m© speci�c to Mmockmbinsth somethingdisappr expressing disapproval

Mmuock words, when not «quoted», are written in teletype. English transla-tions are italicized. Context is set (like this), while comments within translationsare in (sans-serif ). Finally, the word class is indicated like so: adj.

xv

¿is page intentionally le blank

Chapter 1

Orthography

This chapter introduces a Mmuock writing system. It presents the al-

phabet and discusses the different sounds and tones of the language.

Examples are given for each feature that is covered. For the most

part the examples refer to how words are written when they occur in

isolation. At the end of the chapter a speaker of Mmuock should be able

to read and write the language.

1.1 Introduction

¿e�rst thing to note about theMmuockwriting system is the fact that there aregenerally no ambiguities in the orthography: Each letter or symbol has a uniquepronunciation; conversely, each sound has a unique way of representation asa letter or combination of letters and tones. ¿ere are a few exceptions to therule; we will look at them in section 1.8 on page 33.

Secondly, there are no syllable breaks between vowel sounds. When twovowels follow each other in a word, there can be no break between them inspoken speech.

¿irdly, and most importantly, the meanings of words are distinguishednot only by vowels and consonants, but also by the tone or pitch: ¿e pitch ofa sound is just as important as the sounds of the consonants and vowels that

1

2 The Sound of Mmuock 1. Orthography

make up the word. ¿is contrasts starkly with languages such as English andFrench, where the tone does not really a�ect the de�nition of a word. Changingthe tone of a sound in Mmuock has the same consequences as changing a letterin an English word: the word either changes meaning, or becomes meaningless.

It is important to bear these points in mind as we investigate how to writethe language. To make our discussion easy to follow, we will structure it intodi�erent sections: vowels, tones, consonants, glottal stops, and others. ¿isdivision has nothing to do with the Mmuock language itself, and it is notimperative that we understand such fanciful terms. However, such partitioningenables us to group together elements that share common features and discussthem in one place.

A er brie�y presenting the alphabet, we shall look at the di�erent vowelsounds that are present in Mmuock, followed by two special sections: a descrip-tion of the special symbol <œ>, and a short discussion of the glottal stop in theMmuock language. Section 1.6 will provide an extended examination of thedi�erent tones. We close with a study of consonants.

1.2 ¿e Alphabet

¿eMmuock alphabet has notations for thirteen tones and forty letters. ¿reeof the letters are optional. (As shall be seen later, an optional symbol can berepresented by a combination of two, non-optional letters.) ¿ree others (ϕ, rand ¢) occur in just a few, albeit popular, words.

Table 1.1 on the next page displays the letters and tones of the alphabet. Forvisual convenience, the table is divided into �ve blocks of symbols, the blocksseparated from each other by a horizontal line. ¿e �rst four blocks show theletters a–i, j–r, σ–ω, and £–z, respectively. In each of these blocks, the �rstrow contains the small letter, while the second row displays the correspondingcapital letter. ¿e third and last row indicates the speech sound which the letterrepresents, from [a] to [z]. It should be noted that some of the sounds shown arejust best approximations; the actual sounds must be learned by pronouncingthe examples that will be provided when we look at each letter in later sections

1.2 ¿e Alphabet Tano Fotang 3

Table 1.1:¿eMmuock alphabet

a b c d dz e f g h iA B C D Dz E F G H I[a] [b] [Ù] [d] [dz] [@] [f] [g] [h] [i]

j k l m n ñ π æ ¢ rJ K L M N Ñ Π Æ � R[] [k] [l] [m] [n] [ñ] [N] [E] [I] [5]

σ ø š o œ p pf ϕ q ωΣ Ø Š O Œ P Pf Φ Q Θ[9] [W] [S] [O] [1] [p] [

>pf] [o] [G] [3]

£ s t ts u v w x y z� S T Ts U V W X Y Z[e] [s] [t] [ţ] [u] [v] [w] [Z] [j] [z]

a ã á à a å ä a ă â ‚a a

of this article. (¿e letter œ is a special case for which the sound given in thetable might sometimes not be used. We will look at it in section 1.4.)

Each letter can be written as either a small (lowercase) or a capital (upper-case) letter. In table 1.1 the uppercase character (e.g. ‘A’) is displayed below thesmall letter (such as ‘a’). ¿ere is no di�erence in meaning between small andcapital letters. However, there is a di�erence in usage: ¿e capital letters areused for beginning sentences, and for the �rst letter of nouns (names of people,places, and things).

¿e last block of table 1.1 shows the symbols used to indicate tones. Eachtone is represented by a diacritic (¯ ´ etc.) placed over the letter a as example.Note that only twelve of the thirteen tones are given in the table; there is onethat does not need to be particularly marked.

From table 1.1 we see that the sounds in Mmuock are, with few exceptions,

Lë Muòk


also found in the English language, although in English some of the sounds(such as [Ù] and [O]) might be represented by di�erent symbols (such as <ch>for [Ù]). ¿is composition being in English, it is naturally assumed that youcan read and write English or French, at least to a greater extent than yourknowledge of the Mmuock orthography. ¿e main di�erence between theorthographies of the two languages, is the tremendous signi�cance of tones inMmuock. We will, on account of that, be dwelling longer on the study of thevarious tones of the Mmuock language.

1.2.1 Quotation marks

Before we progress, it is well to say something about punctuation. With theexception of quotation marks, there are no special punctuation requirementsor punctuation marks other than what is found in the English language. InMmuock, the single quotationmarks are ‹ (opening) and › (closing). ¿e doubleopening and closing quotation marks are « and », respectively.

1.2.2 Rare symbols

Of the forty letters of the Mmuock alphabet, three occur in just a handful ofMmuock words. ¿e three are:

• ϕ, which occurs in a handful of monosyllabic words such as F (adv yes),Φ (polite term of address for an elderly woman), and Φφ`-φ (bye-bye);

• r, which is found in the word lèqœr (to go); and

• £, found in the common adverb p£.£ or £ (that way; like that).

We will split our discussion into three broad sections, viz.: vowels sounds, tones,and consonant sounds. Given the greater signi�cance of tones in Mmuock,there is the temptation to start with a discussion of the tones of the language.However, tones are almost always indicated on vowel letters. We will, therefore,look at the vowel sounds right away, and then talk about the various tonesimmediately a er that in section 1.6.

1.3 Vowel sounds Tano Fotang 5

1.3 Vowel sounds

Table 1.2: Vowels

Letter Variations Example

a ã, a, á, à, a, å, ä, a, ă, â, ‚a, a Mba (residence)e e, e, é, è, ě, e, ë, e, e, ê, ‚e, e Mbem ((unit of measure) grain)i ı, ı, í, ì, ı, ı, ï, ı, ı, î,‚ı, ı Ki. (namesake)o õ, o, ó, ò, o, o, ö, ő, o, ô Ndóπ (cup)ϕ ϕ, ϕ, ϕ, ϕ, ϕ F (adv(reply) yes)u u, ú, ù, u, ů, ü, ű, u, û, ‚u, u Qu (disease)ω ω, ω, ω, ω, ω, ω, ω, ω, ω, ‚ω lèsω. (m© to come)£ £, £, £, £, £ p£.£ (adv that way; like that)æ æ, æ, æ, æ, æ, æ, æ, æ, æ, æ, ‚æ Pæ (people)r r, r, r, r, r, r, r, r, r, r, ‚r lèqœr (to go)¢ ¢, ¢, ¢, ¢, ¢, ¢, ¢, ¢, ¢, ¢, ‚¢ lèl¢ (to hide)ø ø, ø, ø, ø, ø, ø, ø, ø, ø, ø, ‚ø Tø (drum)σ σ, σ, σ, σ, σ, σ, σ, σ, σ, σ, ‚ς Pfσ (foot)

¿ere are thirteen vowel sounds in the Mmuock language. ¿ey are repre-sented by the symbols a, e, i, o, ϕ, u, ω, £, æ, r, ¢, ø, and ς. (Due to typographicalissues, the letter σ is herein sometimes inaccurately displayed as ’ς’.)

Table 1.2 is a summary of the vowels. ¿e �rst column shows the letterwhich represents the vowel sound, while the column Variations gives variousother notations of the vowel letter. ¿ese other notations represent di�erenttones that can be on the vowel. (Tones will be studied in section 1.6.)

Nine of the vowels (a, e, i, o,ϕ, u,ω, £, andæ) can be described by comparingthem to similar sounds in the English language:

a sounds like the <a> in the word ‘palm.’

e sounds like the <a> in the English ‘about.’

i is the sound of <y> in the English word ‘happy.’

Lë Muòk


ω is like the sound of the <ir> in the British ‘sir.’

£ is the same sound as the <a> in ‘date.’

o is a similar vowel to that represented by <aw> in the English ‘saw.’

ϕ represents the same sound as the <o> of the English word ‘open.’

u sounds like the <u> in the English word ‘actual.’

æ has as closest equivalent the <ai> of the word “fair.’

¿e remaining vowels represented by r, ¢, ø, and ς are best described usingcommon Mmuock words in which they occur. We de�ne them as follows:

Table 1.3: ø examples

Żøte (insult)lètø (to burn)Fø (lice)Lefø (fat)Ndø (curse; bad luck)Fø (king)

Table 1.4: σ examples

Tsσ (head)Lepfσ (sky)nσ (adj true)lèfσ (to spray)Nσ (matter, issue)Nσq (sun)

Letter ø represents the vowel that comes a er the T in the word Tø (drum).Other examples are given in table 1.3.

Letter σ denotes the vowel found a er Ts in the word Tsσ (head). Other wordswhich contain the vowel, are given in table 1.4.

Letter ¢ represents the vowel that comes a er the t in the word lèt¢ (to stand).¿e following words also contain the vowel:Lez¢ gerund seeingLet¢ palm tree

lèl¢ to hide.Finally,

1.4 Special case: <œ> Tano Fotang 7

Letter r represents the vowel that comes a er qœ in the word lèqœr (to go).

¿e letters which we have seen in this section actually represent uniquesounds of the Mmuock language. In the examples that we have met so far, thereis a symbol <œ> which does not stand for any particular sound. However, itallows us to, in a straightforward way, represent some two sound sequencesthat are otherwise tricky to do elegantly. As will become evident as we progress,<œ> is very important to the Mmuock orthography. We will now discuss it asa special case in a dedicated section.

1.4 Special case: <œ>

Table 1.5: œ in use

Consonant Sound Example

k, q [x] Mπkœó [mNkxO] infantMaπkœà. l© Irish potato

lèkœá. to cut with cutlass or axe

lèkœé (light) to shineLeqœa. [l@GxaP] jawlèqœe to do

all others [jh] Lœaπ [aljha< N] chair

Lœé ants

Tœě tree

lèxœak [l@Zjha<

k] to sweep

Bešœé sides

Šœá (banana) bunchNjœé time

Cœé [aÙjh@<

3] rainy season

œ in occurrence is di�erent from other letters of the alphabet. Firstly, itnever appears at the beginning of a word, and follows only consonants. In

Lë Muòk


fact, although any word can—at least in theory—be created which contains aconsonant followed by œ and a vowel, in practice it should be noted that:

– œ only follows the consonants represented by the letters c, d, j, k, l, n, π,ñ, p, q, š, t, and x;

– œ precedes only the vowels a, e, o, r, and ø.

Secondly, œ is, strictly speaking, neither a vowel nor a consonant. When itfollows k or q, œmay be pronounced as [x], such as in Mπkœa. [mNkxaP] (cock).However, when it follows any other consonant, œ represents [jh] and indicatesa steady transition from the consonant to a succeeding vowel, as in the wordNdœaπ [ndjha< N] (bamboo).

Generally, therefore, œ occurs between two other letters, the �rst of whichmust represent a consonant.

With the aid of very common words, table 1.5 on the previous page sum-marises typical occurrences of œ in a word. ¿e column Sound shows theapproximatemeaning of œ when œ directly follows the corresponding conso-nant given under the column Consonant. Note that, for the sake of simplicity,phonetic spellings are not given for all examples. Moreover, the given phoneticspellings are just close approximations, and the examples must actually bepronounced in order to learn the actual sound.

1.5 Indicating glottal stops

To aid our understanding of further examples that will follow in our study ofthe orthography, it is necessary to now look at glottal stops and learn how tonotate them. Glottal stops are very common in Mmuock, and many exampleswill contain them.

¿e glottal stop is an essential feature of Mmuock. Although it can bediscussed under the section on consonantal sound, it is, unlike the other soundsof the language, not represented by a letter of the alphabet. We do not needa dedicated symbol: If a word (or syllable) begins with a vowel, the vowel isalways preceeded by a glottal stop. (¿is is not special to the Mmuock language;

1.5 Glottal stops Tano Fotang 9

Table 1.6: Summary of glottal stops

GlottalLetter stop Sound Example

a a. [aP] Mba. (grass)i i. [iP] Ki. (namesake)o o. [OP] Po. (mushroom)u u. [uP] Pu. (remainder)æ æ. [EP] Fæ. (measurement)ω ω. [3P] lèsω. (m© to come)

the same could be true of English.) As there are no exceptions, the glottal stopneed not be specially indicated when writing the word.

Elsewhere in a word (or syllable), the glottal stop, if present, always imme-diately follows a vowel—thus ending the syllable—and must be indicated. Itis indicated by placing a dot below the vowel letter. For example: If the lettersequence «nda» had a glottal stop right a er <a>, the word would be writtencorrectly as «nda.»; «nda» would mean something completely di�erent.

Table 1.6 exhibits the notation of glottal stops that occur a er vowels. ¿e�rst column gives a letter whichmay preceed the glottal stop; the second columnshows how the glottal stop is indicated on the letter. In the table examples areprovided for only six vowels; glottal stops very rarely occur at the others.

¿e glottal stop as di�erentiator

Quite o en, the di�erence between two words lies in the presence of the glottalstop in one of them. For example, the following pairs of words are di�erentiatedthat way:lèfa (to err) and lèfa. (to seek),

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lèpá (to cover) and lèpá. (to weave),Ntá (branch) and Ntá. (pocket),Πgu (patient) and Πgu. (gap between rocks, bricks etc.),lèfı (to collapse) and lèfı. (to unearth), andlètú ((song) to tune) and lètú. (to give away in marriage).

1.6 Tones

Table 1.7: Tones in Mmuock

Notation Tone Name Example

a /22/ Tone 2 paπ (adj red)nda (adj (situation, well-being) �ne)

ã /00/ Tone 0 paπpãπ (adj red)ndandã (adv slowly)

a /11/ Tone 1 lekua ((number) four)Mba (home, compound)

á /33/ Tone 3 Mbúó (hands)Letá (trap)

à /44/ Tone 4 Tà! (Guess [it]!)1

Tetà (courtyard)a /24/ Tone 5 Ta (father)å /41/ Tone 6 tå ((quantity) �ve)ä /32/ Tone 7 ndä tå (twenty-�ve francs)a /43/ Tone 8 [A] ta. ([She] has guessed.)1

ă /23/ Tone 9 Tă. (Do not return.)2

â /14/ Tone 10 Ta Tâ ([the] father’s father)‚a /34/ Tone 11 [A] le t‚a. ([She] stayed.)2

a /20/ Tone 12 «paπMba» (red compound)1 in�nitive: lètá (to guess)2 in�nitive: lèta (to not return)

1.6 Tones Tano Fotang 11

As has already been noted, in Mmuock the meanings of words may bedistinguished not only by the letters of the word, but also by the tone or pitch ofthe sounds in the word. For example, the word ‹Mu› maymean eithermother orchild, depending on the tone on the /u/. Likewise, ‹Loπ› may mean a numberof di�erent things, depending on the pitch of the /o/. In fact: to understandthe Mmuock language, intonation plays a more vital role than both the vowelsounds that we have seen in the preceeding section, and the consonants thatwe shall study in the next.

¿ere are a total of thirteen common tones with varying frequencies of use.¿e �rst �ve—the primary tones—are level tones which we shall, to facilitatediscussion, number 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4, respectively. ¿e remaining tones (startingfrom tone 5) are made up of a combination of two primary tones. We shall, forease of explanation, describe all tones as a string of the digits that represent thelevel tones. ¿us, the thirteen tones, numbered respectively 0 to 12, are: /00/(tone 0), /11/ (tone 1), /22/, /33/, /44/, /24/, /41/, /32/, /43/, /23/ (tone 9),/14/ (tone 10), /34/ (tone 11), and /20/ (tone 12).

Table 1.7 on the preceding page summarises all the tones and shows howeach is indicated when it occurs on <a>. ¿e last column of the table showsexamples. Note that tone 2 is not marked, as it is the default tone. In the nextsection we will expand on this summary and discuss in a little more detail howto de�ne each tone uniquely.

A er studying table 1.7 onemay not really need to read the next sub-sectionto be able to write and read the tones. ¿e sub-section is nevertheless useful forat least two reasons: (a) many examples are presented, involving other soundsthan just /a/; and (b) it exposes some interesting features of which you, as aspeaker, might not have been conscious.

1.6.1 Notation and de�nition

Just as we have been writing sounds using the letters a, e, i and others, sohave we to also indicate the tone of the sound. With the exception of tone 2,each tone is notated with an accent mark (diacritic) placed over the letter thatrepresents the sound in the alphabet. Tone 2 is the default tone and is not

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specially marked.Tones are indicated on vowels and, to a lesser extent, on the consonants

l,m, π, ñ, and n. ¿is is better illustrated by considering how the words Nděm(God), Mbúó (hands), and mbuo ((prep) in the possession of ) may be combined toform di�erent phrases:

1. mbuo Nděm (adv to God; in God’s hands),2. Mbúó Ńdém (God’s hands), and3. Mbúö Nděm (hands are God)—which, by the way, might be nonsensical.

As a speaker of Mmuock you already know the tones, albeit maybe uncon-sciously. We will now try to formally de�ne each of them in terms of the toneof various known sounds. We will use common words and identify the tone ofinterest, one per word, starting with the default tone, 2.

/22/ (tone 2)

As previously noted, tone 2 is the default tone and is not marked. It is de�nedas the tone on the following letters:

– the a in the word Πka (basket);– the e in the word Teπ (pond);– the o in the word Lekoπ (spear);– the u in the word Πgu (patient);– the æ in the word Letæ. (Leteh); and– the ς in the word Fσ (leaf ).

/00/ (tone 0)

Tone 0 is indicated by a tilde (˜ ) above the vowel letter. It is de�ned as the tonefound on the following vowels:

– the second a in the word paπpãπ (adj red), and– the second e in the word ndeπndeπ (adv equally).


Tone 0 is very similar to tone 2. Where tone 0 immediately follows tone 2 onneighbouring syllables, as in the preceeding examples, it is easy to spot thedi�erence between the two tones. In words such as paπ (red) and ndeπ (equal),tone 2 could in spoken speech be replaced by tone 0 and the di�erence wouldnot be easily evident.

/11/ (tone 1)

Tone 1 is closer to tone 2 and is indicated by the macron (¯ ). Practically, thistone occurs only on the last vowel of a word, and only when the word endsan utterance, is followed by a pause, or stands alone. In every other situation,tone 1 is replaced by tone 2. More on that in section 1.6.2 on page 16.

Tone 1 is de�ned as the tone indicated on the following letters:

– a in the word Pa (bag);– e in the word Żøte (insult);– i in the word lèpı (to peel);– o in the word Πgoπ (world);– æ in Pæ (people);– ø in the word Fø (leader; ruler);– u in the word Lešu (sack);– ¢ in the word lèl¢ (to hide); and �nally,– ς in the word Pfσ (foot).

Tone 1 is more noticeable when it immediately follows tone 2. Although itmight not immediately be evident, tone 1 is the tone on the following vowels:

– a in the word lekua ((number) four);– e in the word Njie (older sibling);– i in the word Kaı (fence);– o in the word Šuok (soap); and– æ in the word lèpiæ. (to carry).

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/33/ (tone 3)

Tone 3 is indicated by an acute accent (´). It is de�ned as the tone on severalvowels and the letterm:

– a in the word Πkáp (money);– e in the word Njíé (smoke);– i in the word lèpí (to get mad);– o in the word Πgóπ (agriculture);– u in the word lècú (to descend);– æ in the word Læ (blood);– ¢ in the word Lez¢ (gerund seeing);– ø in the word Tø (drum);– ς in the word Pfσ (ash); and– M in Mπki. (wife’s mother).

/44/ (tone 4)

Tone number 4 is higher than tone 3 and is represented by a grave accent (`). Itis de�ned as the tone on the following vowel letters:

– a in Tetà (courtyard);– e in Njiè (clothing);– i in Kì (Take it!);– o in Fò ( l© rat);– ¢ in Z¢ (See it!);– u in Mù (child); and– ø in Tø (stone).

/24/ (tone 5)

Tone 5 is indicated by the caron (ˇ ). ¿is tone is de�ned as the tone on thefollowing letters:

– a in Πka (monkey);


– e in Nděm (God);– i in Lepı (tiny piece);– o in Ndoπ (lazy person);– æ in Mæ (palace);– u in Mu (female parent); and– ø in Sø (saw).

/41/ (tone 6)

Tone 6 is indicated with a ring (˚ ) above the letter at which it occurs. It isde�ned as follows, using the tone on the letters a and o as follows:

– a in the word Lå (garlic)– o in the word Loπ (pair of trousers).

/32/ (tone 7)

Tone 7 is indicated with an umlaut (¨). It is de�ned as the tone on the <a> in«ndä 5» (25 francs), and on the <¢> of Z¢lœé (a common name).

/43/ (tone 8)

Tone 8 is indicated by a double acute accent (˝ ), and is de�ned as the tone onthe letter a in the sentence «[A] la.» ([She] has cried.)

/23/ (tone 9)

Tone 9 is indicated by a breve (˘ ). It is de�ned as the tone on the <a> of thedirective «Lă» (Cry!)

/14/ (tone 10)

Tone 10 is indicated with a circum�ex accent (ˆ). It is de�ned as the tone onthe last <a> of the phrase «Ta Tâ» ([¿e] father’s father).

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/34/ (tone 11)

Tone 11 is represented by a double grave accent. It is de�ned as the tone on the<la> in the statement «A le l‚a» (She cried).

/20/ (tone 12)

Tone 12 results from tone 0 following tone 2 on the same sound. To illustrate,remove <πp> from the word paπpãπ (red) and pronounce the resulting word,«paãπ». As there are no syllable breaks between vowel sounds, ‹aã› is tone 12,giving the word p�aπ.

Indicated with an inverted breve (ˆ ), tone 12 is de�ned as the tone on the�rst a in «paπMba» (red compound).

1.6.2 Instances of use

Although the number of tones appears to be quite intimidating, some tonesoccur, or are used, only in certain situations. ¿e low number tones (0 to 5)di�erentiate one word from the other when words occur in their basic forms,such as in the word list in appendix B and in the examples that we have metso far. In sentences and phrases, the same tones may be replaced by others—including high numbered tones (tone 5 and above). ¿e change in tone mightconvey the grammatical function of each word and, hence, lend meaning tothe sentence or phrase.

¿is section takes another look at the tones by using “practical” examplesfrom typical use cases. We will not dwell on tones 2, 3 and 4, as they are straightforward and relatively easy to understand. Tone 6 will be le out because ofa lack of examples at this time. Examples will not only be for words in theirbasic form, but will be taken from sentences and phrases. However, explainingthe meaning of each phrase means putting the words in a grammatical context.Since this essay is not about Mmuock grammar, the discussion is only valid tothe extent that it shows the tones that are used in in a particular circumstance.

Most tones appear particularly in verb tenses, aspects, and moods. Even so,the exact tone that is used, depends on the in�nitive verb. For convenience of


discussion, therefore, we will �rst o� divide verbs into two groups as follows:

group I: ¿ose verbs with either tone 1 or tone 2 on the last vowel of thein�nitive, such as lèkeq (to accuse) and lèla (to cry); and

group II: Verbs which have tone 3 on the last vowel of the in�nitive, such aslèkéq (to enter) and lèlá (to cook).

Tones 1, 2, and 3

1. Use in in�nitive verbs. Only the tones 1, 2, and 3 occur in the root of thein�nitive verb, a er the common pre�x lè. (Verbs in the in�nitive formare pre�xed with lè: lèqáqlé (to hurry), lèpı (to peel), lètá (to guess),etc.) Only those three tones distinguish in�nitive verbs from each other.

2. When tone 2 occurs at the end of a word, it is most likely replacing tone 1.To this there are a few exceptions such as Qu (disease) and Πka (basket),where tone 2 is not replacing tone 1.

Tone 0

1. Tone 0 occurs primarily in the following group ii verbs. (For compari-son, group i verbs are shown alongside those of group ii.)

(a) ¿e in�nitive with an adverb or an adverbial phrase:group ii: lètáπ→ lètãπ leya (to haggle too much), versus:group i: lètaπ→ lètaπ leya (to be too tough); andgroup ii: lèpá→ lèpã tèpók (to hate without fear), versus:group i: lèpa→ lèpa tèpók (to cover without fear).

(b) ¿e near future conditional:group ii: lèpá→ [A] pã... (if [she] covers . . . ), versus:group i: lèpa→ [A] pa... (if [she] hates . . . ); andgroup ii: lèpí→ [A] pı... (if [she] gets mad . . . ), versus:group i: lèpı→ [A] pi... (if [she] peels . . . ).

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2. Tone 0 is also used in the last vowel of adverbs and adjectives which arederived (by doubling) from adjectives and nouns that have tone 2 on thelast vowel. Notable examples are:

– ndandã (gently), formed from nda (well);– ndeπndeπ (equally), derived from ndeπ (equal); and– xœe.xœe. (place by place), formed from Xœe. (location).

It is worth noting, though, that not all such adjectives and adverbs behaveas just described. Some use tone 3 instead of tone 0, as seen in thefollowing examples:

– bešœebešœé (adv from all sides), derived from Bešœé (sides);– ndiændiæ (house by house), derived from Ndiæ (house); and– xěkxék (before the a ernoon is over), derived from Xěk (a ernoon).

Tone 1

Tone 1 only occurs on the last vowel of a word. However, when the word is inthe presence of other words, or when the word is not at the end of a sentence orclause, or the word is not followed by a pause, tone 1 may be replaced by tone 2:

– Bela (lies)→ Bela ma ... (lies which . . . )– Lekot (�ght)→ Lekot fíé (new �ght)– lèpı (to peel)→ lèpi Kendoπ (to peel plantain)– Lepeı (liver)→ Lepei tsa ... (the liver that . . . )– Puo. (knife)→ Puo. wa ... (the knife which . . . ).

To further illustrate the foregoing, let us assemble words which all havetone 1 on the last vowel, and then see how tone 1 is replaced by tone 2 as wordsare added a er it. Using as example the words Na (parcel of farming land), ha(prep here), and nda. (adv only), we get the following four sentences:

1. À Na. On the plot. (cf. À Nã—It is on the plot.)2. À Na ha. On this plot.3. À Na ha nda.. On this plot only.4. À Na ha nda. lò? On this plot only?


Tone 5

Tone 5, apart from occurring in nouns (as exempli�ed in table 1.8 on the nextpage), is most used in verb tenses. Lets look at some instances.

1. ¿e present perfect of all verbs, provided that the verb does not end theclause or sentence. (If the verb does end the clause, tone 8 is used instead,as described on page 21.) Examples:

– lèlá (to cook)/lèla (to cry)→[A] la pá.... [She] has cooked/cried[it] as. . .

– lètá (to guess)→ [A] ta lëtú.. [She] has guessed it at night.– lèfø (to borrow)→ Bé fø Pu..¿e rest has been borrowed.

– lèzéq (to buy)→ Bé zěq ntsem. All have been bought.

+ Note that the present perfect described above is actually markedby the tone sequence /24/ in the verb. When the tone sequence is on thesame vowel, as in the preceding examples, it results in tone 5 (i.e., /24/).In some verbs, however, the tones are on two consecutive vowels. Tone 2is then seen to fall on the �rst vowel, while tone 4 is on the second. ¿isis illustrated by the following examples where the tone numbers havebeen indicated on the vowel letters:

• lèfem (to su�ocate)/lèfém (to get mouldy)→ À fe2mè4 paì. Ithas su�ocated/gotten mouldy outside.

• lèzeı (to start)→ A ze2ì4 lètá. She has started to guess.• lèpéí (to accept)→ A pe2ì4 lètá. She has accepted to guess.

2. Negation in the present perfect of group i verbs, using the negativeadverbs la (never) or ka ([has/have] not):

– lèla (to cry)→ [A] la la. [She] has never cried.– lèla (to cry)→ [A] ka la. [She] has not cried.– lèl¢ (to hide)→ [A] la l¢. [She] has never hidden it.– lèl¢ (to hide)→ [A] ka l¢. [She] has not hidden it.

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3. ¿e non-negative habitual aspect in the past tense of group i verbs. Forexample:

– lèpa (to hate)→ [A] la mba. [She] used to hate it. (cf. [A] late mbá má—[She] used not to hate it.)

– lèla (to cry)→ [A] la ńda. [She] used to cry. (cf. [A] la tendá má—[She] used not to cry.)

4. Remote future tenses of group i verbs. (Note how, in the non-negative,the subject ismodi�edwith tone 9, as shall be seen on page 23.) Examples:

– a (she)+ lèla (to cry)→ Ă lá. la. She will cry. (cf. À lá. la.—It

will cry.)– lèla (to cry)→ A te lá. la mà. She will not cry.– Mu (mother) + lèl¢ (to hide)→ Mu lá. l¢. [¿e] mother will hide

it. (cf. Mù (child)→ Mü lá. l¢. [¿e] child will hide it.)– lèl¢ (to hide)→ Mu te lá. l¢ mà. [¿e] mother will not hide it.

Table 1.8: Tone 5 in nouns

Belaπ (shoes) Πka (monkey)Ta (dad) Leka (whistle)Ndzaπ (xylophone) Télaπ (day of the week)Mba (abscess) Ñě (cutlass)Nděm (God) Fěπ (wound)Sěq (friend) Lepı (tiny piece)Let¢ (palm tree) Mu (mother)Lefa ((door, wall etc.) crack)

Tone 7

¿e simple present of group i verbs, when it describes a habit, is indicatedby the tone sequence /32/, resulting in tone 7. ¿is is true except when (i) theverb ends the sentence or clause, and (ii) the verb is followed by a conjunction


that begins with tone 3 or 4, such as té before, πga that, ńdzé so, etc. In suchsituations, tone 3 is used instead. Here are few examples for illustration:

– lèl¢ (to hide) → A nd¢... She hides . . . (cf. A nd¢.—She hides [it].

and A nd¢ πga...—She hides [it] so that. . . )– lèla (to cry) → A ndä lëtú.. She cries at night. (cf. A ndá té bél¢.—She cries before it is hidden.)

– lèfø (to borrow)→ A fø lëtú.. She borrows [it] at night. (cf. A fø.—She borrows [it].)

– lèqa (to say)→ [Bé] πgä pòp. [It is] said so. (cf. Bé πgá.—It is said.)

Tone 8

Tone 8 is found in all present perfect, and in the past tense of group ii verbs.

1. Non-negative present perfect of group i and group ii verbs: ¿e verbmust end the sentence or clause. If it does not, tone 5 is used instead.Examples:

– lèla (to cry)/lèlá (to cook) → A la,... She has cried/cooked

[it]. . . (cf. A la lèyá.—She has cooked/cried [it] too much.)– lèkeq (to accuse)/lèkéq (to enter)→A keq. She has accused/entered[it]. (cf. A kěq Ndíæ.—She has entered/accused the house.)

¿e verb groups, however, each use di�erent tones to express negativityin the present perfect tense. group i uses tone 4, while group ii, as seenon page 19, goes with tone 5:

group i: lèla (to cry)→ A ka la. She has not cried [it.]group ii: lèlá (to cook)→ A ka là. She has not cooked [it].group i: lèkeq (to accuse)→ A ka kěq. She has not accused [it].group ii: lèkéq (to enter)→ A ka kèq. She has not entered [it].

2. Past tense of group ii verbs:

– lèlá (to cook)→ A le la. She cooked [it].– lèkéq (to enter)→ A le keq. She entered [it].

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¿is contrasts with how the past tense of group i verbs is constructed,as seen on page 24.It is interesting to note that, in the negative, the past tense has tone 4instead of 8:

– lèlá (to cook)→ A la te là. She did not cook [it].– lèkéq (to enter)→ A la te kèq. She did not enter [it].

(cf. group i: lèla (to cry)→ A la te la—She did not cry and lèkeq(to accuse)→ A la te keq—She did not accuse.)

Tone 9

Tone 9 is found in verbs and in the subject of phrases. It is used in at least thefollowing occasions:

1. Imperative mood of group i verbs. (¿e prohibitive mood uses tone 1instead.) Examples:

– lèla (to cry)→ Lă! Cry! (cf. Te la—Don’t cry.)– lèl¢ (to hide)→ L¢! Hide it! (cf. Te l¢—Don’t hide it.)– lèfø (to borrow)→ Fø! Borrow! (cf. Te fø—Don’t borrow.)– lèkeq (to accuse)→ Keq! Accuse! (cf. Te keq—Don’t accuse.)

2. Simple present tense of group i verbs. Examples:

– lèl¢ (to hide)→ A l¢. She hides.– lèla (to cry)→ A lă. She cries.

Digressing, we recall that in Mmuock there is another simple present forgroup i verbs that indicates a habitual action. Having a slightly di�erentnuance of meaning, this other simple present is marked by either tone 7or tone 3, as seen on page 20. Analogous to the preceeding examples,then, we have the following:

– lèl¢ (to hide)→ A nd¢. She hides.– lèla (to cry)→ A ndá. She cries.


3. Moods which express general rules, and to state something that is gener-ally true of something or somebody. For example:

– lèqa (to state)→ [Lepaq] qă... [¿e law] says. . .

– lèlæ. (to refuse)→ [Bé] læ. [πga]... [It is] forbidden [to]. . .

4. ¿e present tense of to be for certain nouns. (¿is use does not includeexpressing negativity.) Examples:

– Mba (home)→ Mbă ńdzem.¿e compound is behind. (cf. Mba tendzem mà—¿e compound is not behind, Mba ndzem—¿e com-

pound behind, Mbă Ndzem—¿e compound is the rear, and MbaNdzem—¿e home of “those who will follow.”)

– Πgeq (guest)→ Πgeq ńdzem.¿e guest is behind.

– a (pers pron, subjective she)→ Ă ńdzem. She is behind.– a (pers pron, subjective she)→ Ă hà?Where is she?

– a (pers pron, subjective she)→ Ă ha? Is she here?– a (pers pron, subjective she)→ Ă ha. She is here.– Lez¢ (gerund seeing)→ Lez¢ Lèpéí. Seeing is believing. (cf. Lez¢te Lèpéí má. Seeing is not believing.)

5. In the future tense of group ii verbs to modify certain subjects of thesentence. ¿is does not include futurity in the negative. Examples:

– A (she)→ Ă là. She will cook [it]. (cf. A te lá má—She will not

cook [it].)– A (she)→ Ă kèq. She will enter. (cf. A te kéq má—She will notenter.)

Tone 10

Tone 10 is used in the following situations:

1. To indicate the possessor of certain objects:

– Ta (father)→ Ta Tâ.¿e father’s father.

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– Nděm (God)→ Nděm Tâ.¿e father’s God. (Ta—father)– Πka (monkey)→ Πka Mû.¿e mother’s monkey. (Mu—female par-

ent)

As an aside, it is worth mentioning, that not all possessives are markedby tone 10 on the possessor, and that those so indicated are exceptions.For comparison, compare the preceeding examples with the following:

– Πka (monkey)→ Πka Πka.¿e monkey’s monkey.

– Πka (basket)→ Πka Πká.¿e monkey’s basket.

– Nděm (God)→ Ndem Πka.¿e monkey’s God.

– Πka (basket)→ Πka Ta.¿e father’s basket.

– Πkeq (message)→ Πkeq Ta.¿e father’s message.

2. To indicate the future tense of group i verbs:

– lèla (to cry)→ A lâ. She will cry.– lèla (to cry)→ A te lâ mà. She will not cry.– lèl¢ (to hide)→ A l¢. She will hide it.– lèl¢ (to hide)→ A te l¢ mà. She will not hide it.

Tone 11

One notable occurrence of tone 11 is in the past simple tense of group i verbs,as in the following examples:

– lèla (to cry)→ A le l‚a—She cried, and– lèkeq (to accuse)→ A le k‚eq—She accused.

As seen previously on page 21, group ii verbs use tone 8 instead: lèlá (tocook)→ A le la. She cooked [it].

Note that the past simple is actually indicated by the tone sequence /34/ atthe end of the verb. ¿is sometimes results in tone 12 when there is only oneterminating vowel. Examples:

– lèzeı (to start)→ A le zéì. She started [it].– lèkaı (to lock up)→ A le káì. She locked [it] up.


Tone 12

In verbs, a typical use of tone 12 is in the simple past of lèpó (to be). Examples:

– A l�a mboπ; a l�a πgu. She was good; she was pregnant.– Ì l�a Tsoπ. It was deceit.– À l�a lekua.¿ere were four.

Table 1.9: Comparative sample of common tones

Ndoπ (lazy person) Ndóπ (cup)Mu (mother) Mù (child)Mba (abscess) Mbá (scabbard) Mba (residence)Πka (monkey) Πka (basket) Πka (nest)lèl¢ ((object) to hide) lèl¢ ((injury) to sustain)Loπ (laziness) Loπ (pair of trousers) Lòπ (vexation)Njie (older sibling) Njíé (smoke) Njiè (clothing, dress)Leyie (good sense) Leyíé (noise) lèyíé ((lies) to tell)lèpı (to peel) lèpí (to go crazy) Lepı (a tiny piece)lèfa (to err) lèfá (to spray) lefa ((number) eight)Ntóπ (neck) ntoπ ((tree) top) ndä lefa (40 francs)Ntáπ (lie) Ntaπ (private storeroom) Z¢lœé (a given name)Πgěq (gun) Πgeq (guest) ntå (�ve)Πgoπ (world) Πgóπ (agriculture) Lå (garlic)Fø (ruler) Fø (lice) Ndaz¢ (sth amazing)Tø (drum) Tø (stone; rock)Sø (saw) Sø (spitefulness)Tsσ (head) Tsσ (antelope)Læ (blood) Læ (horse)

Table 1.9 presents, as a summary, a comparative sample of the “simplest” tones.In the interest of simplicity, we attempt to use only examples which exhibit justone other tone in addition to tone 2.

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1.6.3 Postscript: Tones in Mmuock

¿e preceeding discussion of the tones in the Mmuock language might ap-pear arcane and pedantic. ¿e underlining fact, though, is that in order tounderstand a word or a sentence, one must di�erentiate between the varioustones. Normally that is done automatically and unconsciously when speakingor listening. When writing, on the other hand, we need to di�erentiate thetones by using the symbols discussed in the last sections. Is that practical? Isthat always easy?

¿e problemmost speakers likely face with writing, is that they concentratetoo much on the fact that they are writing. It is easier, I submit, to insteadimagine that you are speaking. Forget about what a word might look like in thedictionary or in the word list; just write it the way it sounds when you say it inthe sentence. Suppose you wanted to put down in writing the translation of the�lm title¿e Gods Must Be Crazy. One is tempted to consider the individualwords, starting with Belěm (Gods), followed by the verb lèpí (to get mad).¿en one would probably think of tsaπe (maybe), a er which one would getlost �guring out which tone should or should not go where.

If, on the other hand, you were to simply “speak out” the translation withoutmuch consideration to the individual words, it would just be something like«Tsaπe Belemè pı»,1 which is quite correct and requires less gymnastics. ¿esame view applies to reading: If you try to analyse individual words, you willnot have much success, at least not initially. Case in point: Which of thesetwo sentences refers to the mother (Mu), and not the child (Mù), reaching anunfortunate mental state: Mu pı or Mü pı?

All of the foregoing may serve to emphasise a fundamental fact: Unlikethe languages that we �rst learned to write, such as English, in Mmuock thespelling of a word varies depending on the surrounding words.

As an exercise, try to complete the examples below by �lling in the blankswith words or phrases that contain the indicated basic tone sequences:

1. tone sequence: làlàlá

1You may want to look at appendix A to discover why we are appending all the e’s.


(a) Zà lènáπ (Welcome.)(b) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2. làlalà

(a) à la ká? (how do you do?)(b) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3. lalalá

(a) u la πgá. . . (if you say it. . . )(b) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4. lalalã

(a) u la πgã. . . (if you say [that]. . . )(b) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

5. làlala

(a) À Tut ha. ([O]n this farm.)(b) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6. làlãla

(a) À Tut ha. (It is on this farm.)(b) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

7. lalãlá

(a) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .(b) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

8. lalãla

(a) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .(b) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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1.7 Consonant sounds

Consonant sounds in Mmuock are represented by the following twenty-sixsymbols: b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, ñ, π, š, ts, dz, pf, p, q, s, t, v, w, x, y, and z.Table 1.10 summarises them and gives an example for each. (In some examplesthe leading character has a dot placed above it, as in Teπ (pond). ¿at will beexplained in the next section.)

Table 1.10: Consonants

Letter Example Letter Example

b Mba (residence) š Šuok (soap)c Ncœa. (coward) p paπ ((colour) red)d nda. (adj only) q Qemle (�g tree)f Foπ (cow) s Sáπ (broom)g Πgie (voice) t Teπ (pond)h ha (here) v Válé (obfuscation)j Njie (elder sibling) w Lewúá (short visit)k Kó. (ladder) x Lexuπè (joint)l Bela (lies) y Mbiyàπ (groundnut)m Mu (female parent) z lèzáπ (to pain)n Ná. (soup) ts Ntsσ (mouth)ñ Ñia (animal) dz Ndzěm (darkness)π Πeq (person) pf Lepfσ (sky)

As was noted in the introduction, there are no syllable breaks betweensounds in Mmuock. ¿erefore, the letters ts, pf and dz represent sounds that areproduced when /z/ follows /d/, /p/ precedes /f/, and /t/ is followed by /s/,respectively.

With the exception of c, ñ, π, š, q, and x, all letters represent the sameconsonant sounds as in the English language. ¿e sounds denoted by theexceptions, however, can be compared to some other sounds in either Frenchor English:

1.7 Consonant sounds Tano Fotang 29

c sounds like <ch> in the English word “church.”

ñ sounds like the <gn> in the French word “igname.”

π sounds like <ng> in the word “song.”

š sounds like <sh> in the word “shall.”

x sounds like the <j> in the French “jardin.” Finally,

q lies between [g] and [x].

¿e next section is provided largely for information; it details some inter-esting things that happen with consonants, but the more useful part is at thebeginning where we discover why we have to write some words with a dot overthe leading letter.

“Cosmetic” pre�xing

When a word begins with a consonant and the consonant is directly followedby a vowel, the word is pronounced di�erently when it (the word) occurs (a) inisolation(alone), (b) at the start of a sentence or clause, and (c) following aword that ends in a consonant. In such situations, the word in spoken speech isin�ected (modi�ed) in one of the following four ways:

Pre�xed with /a/. ¿is causes the word to be pronounced with [a] as �rstsyllable. In writing the word, however, the initial <a> is le out.

Words which exhibit this behaviour are predominantly nouns, although asmall group of other words, such as interrogative pronouns, are in�ectedin a similar manner. All such words are written with a dot over theleading consonant, as in F, K, and x. Examples: Pa (bag), xìà (possessivepronounmine), and wa (interrogatory who).

A summary of commonly a�ected consonants is given in table 1.11 on thefollowing page. ¿e second column of the table,Notation, shows how theleading consonant is written in the manner just described. ¿e column

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Table 1.11:¿e elided [a]

letter Notation Sound Example

C C [a.Ù] Cú. (pestle)F F [a.f] Fa. (work)K K [a.k] Kaı (fence)L L [a.l] Lá. (country)M M [a.m] Male (male gown)N N [a.n] Na (farming plot)P P [a.p] Pu. (rest)Pf Pf [a.

>pf] Pfσ` (ash)

Π Π [a.N] Πak (contention, quarrel)Q Q [a.G] Qák (throat)S S [a.s] Saqè ((structure) wall, side)Š Š [a.S] Šuok (soap)T T [a.t] Ták (disorder, confusion)Ts Ts [a.ţ] Tsσ` (head)W W [a.w] Wá. (epilepsy)X X [a.Z] Xúó. (yam)Y Y [a.j] Yık (smell)Z Ż [a.z] Żéq (thing)

Sound gives the pronunciation of the in�ected letter; this pronunciationis the same as that of the �rst letter, preceeded by the syllable [a].

Pre�xed with e. Here a glottal stop precedes the leading consonant. However,the glottal stop need not be indicated in the spelling of the word.

Words which manifest this behaviour, begin with the letters c, s, v, f, š,k, π, l (unless followed by tone 6), p, t, and x. Examples are listed intable 1.12 on the next page.

Pre�xed with i. Instead of pre�xing with e—i.e. [P@]— as described above,

1.7 Consonant sounds Tano Fotang 31

Table 1.12: Examples of the pre�xed e

Letter Example

s Sø [[email protected]] or [sW3] spitefulness

f Fø [[email protected]] or [fW1] king

k Kěq [[email protected]@24G] or [k@24G] bedl Loπ [[email protected]] or [lO24N] laziness

p Púπ [[email protected]] or [pu3N] poverty

š Šœé [[email protected]<3] or [Sjhe<

3] face

the word is pre�xed with [i]. ¿is is less common and the resulting wordmay sound strange to some listeners, but both methods are identical andmay be used interchangeably. ¿e examples which are shown in table 1.13are thus identical to those shown in table 1.12.

Table 1.13: Examples of the pre�xed i

Letter Example

s Sø [i.sW3] or [sW3] spitefulness

f Fø [i.fW1] or [fW1] king

k Kěq [i.k@24G] or [k@24G] bedl Loπ [i.lO24N] or [lO24N] laziness

p Púπ [i.pu3N] or [pu3N] poverty

š Šœé [i.Sjhe<3] or [Sjhe<

3] face

¿e leading consonant becomes syllabic. ¿is applies to words which beginwith l,m, π, and n. Also included in this group, are words which beginwith two consecutive consonants. Excepted are words that have tone 5on the vowel following the leading consonant, such as Mu (mother).

Past convention was to generally double the leading consonant whenwriting the word, thus creating a double consonant at the start of the

Lë Muòk


Table 1.14: Examples of the leading syllabic consonant

Consonant Example

m Mbúó [m"mbu3O3< ], [mbu3O3< ] hands

Muòk [m"muO<

4k], [muO<4k] �re

n Ná. [n"na3P], [na3P] soup

[n"nu3], [nu3] snake

l Loπ [l"lO41N], [lO41N] trousers

word. usually an apostrophe (’) then separates the consonants, as in theword “M’muock.” Such practice, however, is quite confusing and unnec-essary: It does not make clear whether the word always has a leadingdouble consonant, or whether that depends on the word’s position in thecompany of other words.

Table 1.14 shows examples for leading consonants that become syllabic.¿e phonetic representation of the in�ected form is shown, followeda er the comma by the basic form.

+ ¿e in�ections described above are purely cosmetic or “dummy.” ¿atis, they do not change anything in the meaning or context of the word. How-ever, without the in�ections—especially the �rst, pre�xing with a— the wordin spoken speech sounds not only weird, but is sometimes unrecognisable.Moreover, some words, which are otherwise orthographically identical, aredi�erentiated from each other by the way each is in�ected. An example is thecombination Fæ.: Pre�xed with a it becomes Fæ. (period, time); pre�xed with e.it is Fæ. (measurement).

1.8 Orthographic exceptions Tano Fotang 33

1.8 Orthographic exceptions

In the introduction to this chapter it was indicated that in Mmuock, each letteror symbol has a unique pronunciation; conversely, each sound was said to havea unique notation as letter or symbol.

¿ere are, however, some important exceptions. ¿e �rst exception is theword y; the second is the indication of short vowels.

1.8.1 y

¿eMmuock word for ‘yes’, perhaps the most frequently used word, is phoneti-cally very di�erent from any other word of the language. Although pronouncedas [Üee], it is written as ‹y›.

1.8.2 Short vowels

Vowels by default are long. To indicate the occasional short vowel that occursbefore a consonant in the same word, the consonant letter is doubled (writtentwice). To illustrate, consider the two words lèpáté (to be next) and lèpátté(to paste). In the former, /p/ is followed by [a:]; in the latter, by [a].

1.9 Alternative notation

Sometimes a symbol may be represented alternatively by combinations of othersymbols. ¿is is o en the case when it is not possible to realise the symbolusing mechanical or electronic means. We now look at how certain letters andtones may then alternatively be written.

1.9.1 Letters

Table 1.15 on the next page shows the combination of characters thatmay be usedto represent other characters or character sequences. Use of these alternativenotation is, however, discouraged, especially as it reduces legibility.

Lë Muòk


¿e glottal stop a er a vowel, normally indicated by either a dot below thevowel letter, may alternatively be represented by an apostrophe placed a er thevowel letter. For example, instead of writing ta. (one), one may write ta’.

Dotted letters (C, K, x, etc.) may also be represented by placing an ‘a’ beforethe base letter, without the dot. ¿e ‘a’ must always be the small letter ‘a’. Forexample, Kaı and Lá. can be written as aKaı and aLá., respectively.

Table 1.15: Alternative notation of letters

Symbol Alternate

ñ nhpf pfts tsdz dzπ ng (at the end of a syllable)πg ng (at the start of a syllable)πk nk (at the start of a syllable)š sh

Table 1.16: Alternative notation of tone

Tone Alternate(s)

0. ã a0

1. a a1

3. á a3

4. à a4

5. a a5 a24 aà6. å a6 a41 àa7. ä a7 a32 áa8. a a8 a43 àá9. ă a9 a23 aá10. â a14 aá11. ‚a a34 áà12. a a20 aã

1.9.2 Tones

Composite tones (these are tones starting from tone 5) are made up of two leveltones; that is, tones 5 and above are composed of two tones between tone 1 andtone 4. Whenever it is not possible to represent a composite tone on a letterusing the respective accent mark, the tone may be notated by using the leveltones that comprise it. ¿e are two ways of doing this:

1. ¿e letter is repeated and the level tones are noted on each letter, consecu-tively following the order in which the level tone occurs in the composite

1.10 Outlook Tano Fotang 35

tone. ¿is is shown in the last column of table 1.16 on the facing page,where ă (i.e. a23) is written as aá. To emphasise this point, «Lă» (Cry!)may also be written as «Laá».

2. ¿e tone is indicated by placing the tone number, or a string of numbers(for tones 5 to 9), a er the letter. ¿is is shown on table 1.16 on thepreceding page using the letter a as example. For instance, one may writeFœě (strength) as either Fœe24 or as Fœe5.

1.10 Outlook

We have come to the end of this �rst chapter. Our goal was to introduce thewriting system and learn how to write and readMmuock; learning to speak wasoutside the realm of discussion. As was noted in the preface, a large numberof examples have for now been drawn from the language as is spoken in theupper regions of the Mmuock tribe.

We saw in section 1.2 that the Mmuock alphabet consists of forty letters,three of which are optional. ¿e optional letters are dz, ts, and pf, which alterna-tively may be represented by dz, ts, and pf, respectively (section 1.9).

In addition to vowels and consonants, tone is essential in determining themeaning of a word in Mmuock. For example, the word Mu can mean eithermother or child, depending on the tone on letter u. ¿ere are �ve basic leveltones (numbered 0 to 4). ¿e last four of them can be combined to yield eightother tones, numbered 5 to 12. In a word, the tone is indicated by placing adiacritic over the sound. It was noted that, tone 1 occurs only on the last syllableof a word and only if the word in speech precedes a pause—for example, whenthe word stands alone or is at the end of a phrase; otherwise tone 1 is replacedby tone 2. ¿e high number tones (6 to 12) are found predominantly in verbtenses and moods.

We also looked at glottal stops, which are denoted by a dot placed belowthe letter that represents the preceeding sound. It was seen that the meaningof a word may be changed by the presence of a glottal stop at a sound of the

Lë Muòk


word. For example, Ntá., which means pocket, has a di�erent meaning fromNtá (which translates to branch).

Some words which start with a consonant sound are in spoken speechpronounced as if the consonant were preceded by [a]. We saw that such wordsare written with a dot over the leading consonant. An example of such a wordis Xœe.: Xœe. means place, whereas Xœe., which has no dot over the leading X,has completely di�erent meanings ranging from the plural of Xœe., to the times,circumstances, conditions.

¿e �rst impression of Mmuock might be that Mmuock is a challenginglanguage to write. ¿at feeling is particularly on account of the numerous toneswhich, to a reader with a background in just the English or French languages,seem di�cult to understand. ¿at impression, though, is misleading; writingMmuock is no more di�cult than, say, French or German. ¿e best approachto learning how to write, is to study the accompanying examples. A list of some800words is provided in appendix B.¿e list contains asmany orthographicallydi�erent words as possible. Other words may be spelt by simply checking thetable to see how similar words are written.

¿is article has tried to look at all elements of the Mmuock orthography.It is not certain that we have succeeded. Particularly, it is possible that someobscure vowel sounds and tones have been unwittingly le out. Indeed, a studyof grammar would probably uncover a few more tones. Nevertheless, it willnot be necessary to devise new symbols to denote new sounds and tones. Anynew vowel might be handled as an exception and be represented using existingsymbols. A new tone will likely be made up of the tones that have already beencovered here and can, as described in section 1.9.2 on page 34, be representedby a combination of the level tones 0 to 4.

Appendix A

Word in�ection

In chapter 1 we saw that some words in spoken speech are tacitly altered

when they occur in isolation, begin a phrase (or sentence), or come after

a pause. Under such circumstances, it was seen, the word is changed

at the first syllable. We also saw that such inflection, while necessary,

was purely cosmetic since it does not affect the meaning of the word or

the context of a phrase.

This section examines another type of inflection which affects gram-

mar and lends context and meaning to a word in a sentence or phrase.

Although this is not a book on grammar, this discussion is to some ex-

tent still within the stated objective of this monograph—namely, how

speakers of Mmuock can write and read the language. Especially, it will

enable the reader to recognise words when they have been altered in a

sentence or phrase.

A.1 Introduction

When words combine to form a phrase or a sentence, the grammatical functionof each word is determined by the way the word or the preceeding word isin�ected. Conversely, in order to determine the grammatical role of a word in

37

38 The Sound of Mmuock A. Word in�ection

a phrase, or make sense of the phrase, one must look at how the word has, orhas not, been in�ected “away from its basic form.”

¿is section looks at how to generally in�ect words. ¿e following pointsshould be borne in mind:

(i) ¿is chapter does not discuss the meaning or signi�cance of any of thein�ection possibilities discussed herein; that is a matter of grammar andis outside the scope of this article.

(ii) Examples in this chapter show only the state of a word a er pre-in�ection(we shall in awhile explainwhat pre-in�ectionmeans). Since pre-in�ectiondoes not consider context, possible tone changes cannot be shown in theexamples. To that extent, therefore, examples in this section are incom-pletely written.

A.2 How to in�ect a word

To in�ect a word in the limited context discussed here, is to add a special endingto basic form of the word, by doing one or more of the following at the �nalsyllable:

1. su�xing a vowel,2. altering a letter and su�xing a vowel, or3. changing the tone of a sound.

(1) and (2), which, for the purpose of discussion we are going to call pre-infection, are the same for every grammatical context. On the other hand, (3),which we will designate as post-infection, �ne-tunes the pre-in�ected word tospecify a particular grammatical function for the word. In other words (nopun intended), whenever a word must be in�ected, letters must be appendedor altered in a pre-de�ned way. ¿erea er tone may change according to thespeci�c grammatical context.

A.2 How to in�ect a word Tano Fotang 39

A.2.1 Pre-in�ection

A word can be pre-in�ected in one of the following ways:

Altering the last consonant and then a�xing e. ¿is a�ects words which endin any of the consonants p, g, k, and t. Such words are in�ected bychanging the last letter to some other consonant, and then appending ane to the new letter, as summarised in table A.1.1

Table A.1: Pre-in�ection: altering last consonant

Example

Consonant In�ection Before in�ection A er

p be Ndap (thread) Ndabeg qe Pak (piece) Paqek qe Lefak (gerund forking) Lefaqet le Πgwat (specie) Πgwale

Lelát (gerund writing) LeláleLekót (mountain) Lekóle

Appending an e. With the exception of q, w, y and the consonants mentionedabove, any other consonant, when it ends a word, remains unchanged ase is appended to the word. For example, Πgwáπ (salt) becomes Ngwáπe.

Words which end in e. , i., and u. are in�ected in a similar manner: an e issimply appended to the word.

Examples are given in table A.2 on the next page.

Doubling the last vowel. If a word ends with a glottal stop following a vowel,and the vowel is not one of those (e, u, i) already covered above, the wordis pre-in�ected by repeating the vowel. For example, ta. (one) becomesta.a. A summary is presented in table A.3 on the following page.

1Please note that, examples under this section ( A.2 on the facing page) have no grammaticalcontext; therefore, we cannot indicate the tone or tones on the a�ected vowels.

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40 The Sound of Mmuock A. Word in�ection

Table A.2: Pre-in�ection: adding an e

Example

Consonant In�ection Before in�ection In�ected

π πe Paπ (the red one) Paπeu. u. e Pu. (the rest) Pu. ei. i.e Ki. (namesake) Ki.ee. e.e

Table A.3: Pre-in�ection: Doubling the last vowel

Example

Consonant In�ection Before in�ection In�ected

a. a.a Fa. (work) Fa.ao. o. o Puo. (knife) Puó.oæ. æ. æ Fæ. (period) Fæ. æω. ω. ω Lesω. (m© gerund Coming) Lesω. ωr. r. r no examples available

σ. σ.σ no examples available

¢. ¢.¢ no examples available

Word is le unchanged. Words which end with any letter not covered in theprevious rules, remain unchanged by pre-in�ection. ¿ese include thefollowing:

– Words which end with w and y2

– Words which end with q, e.g. Faq (lock)

– Words which end with a vowel, but without a glottal stop. For exam-ple, Ntá (lap; branch) remains Ntá a er pre-in�ection, whereas Ntá.(pocket), which has a glottal stop on a, becomes Ntáa. .

2¿is is stated only for the sake of completeness. No word ends with the letter w or y.

A.2 How to in�ect a word Tano Fotang 41

A.2.2 Post-in�ection

A change in the last letter (as seen in section A.2.1 on page 39) may be accom-panied by a change in the tone of the vowel that precedes said letter. ¿attone, together with the tone on the �nal vowel, is actually what determines thegrammatical function of a word in a combination of words. ¿erefore, a look atthe various rules for post-in�ection has to accompany a study of the di�erentaspects of grammar.

Lë Muòk

Appendix B

Word list

¿is appendix presents a short list of selected Mmuock words. ¿e purpose isto show how some familiar words are spelt, so that the reader can more easilyspell similar words. ¿e sample is necessarily short, even though an attempthas been made to include as many di�erent word patterns as possible.

Each word (the “head-word”) is followed by an English translation. Itshould be noted that:

1. ¿e head-word is written in its most basic form; i.e., when the wordoccurs alone and not in a sentence or clause. (¿is includes situationswhere the word is followed by a pause in speech.)

2. ¿is section is not intended as a dictionary, and is not meant to give themost accurate explanations of the words.

3. Translations are not exhaustive: Where a word has multiple meanings,only as many translations are given as may be required for the word tobe uniquely identi�ed. Moreover, translations are not guaranteed to beaccurate: At this time some are even bound to be outright wrong.

4. Head-words are not ordered in any particular way.

Some head-words are followed by a raised small digit in parenthesis, thus:Ta(3). ¿e number, in this case “3”, is the class or gender of the noun. More onthat in Volume 2.

43

44 The Sound of Mmuock B. Word list

Bekéq beans

Bela. 1. brawl; altercation 2. con�ict

Bela falsehood

Belaπ shoes

Bešœé ways and means

Bešúé (plural) �sh

Betœ. =Fa.

Ca. (of a ruler or king) servant; disciple

Cœa. (head wear) cap, hat, helmet

Cœaπte expenditure

Cœcœeπ 1. (disappr) the young and in-experienced 2. childishness

cœcœeπ adj (disappr) childish

Cœé 1. rainy season 2. (house) founda-tion

Cœeπ 1. substance, foundation 2. sexorgan 3. cause, reason 4. decid-ing factor, key 5. (family) roots 6.lower part

cœeπ prep under

Cú. pestle

Cu. te association, union

Fa. 1. work 2. employment

Fa. te cold; �u

Faı (vegetable) type of wild huckleberry

Faπ palm kernel

Faq lock

Faq shin

Fém wind

Femle slovenliness

Fěπ wound

Fæ. season; period; time

Fæ. measurement

Fò l© rat

Fòmbæ white sticky earth éMbæ

Foπ cow

Fœak (formal) �nancial or materialhard times

Fœák 1. cold 2. air

Fœě strength

Fσ Bafou

Fς 1. medicine 2. leaf

Fø louse; lice

Fø chief, king; leader

Tano Fotang 45

Fu. é luck or sth favourable, esp by hap-penstance

Fuk co-wife

Fuok weavel

Ka. a(6) key

Kaı fence

kakú whatever thing

Kale (cattle etc.) herd

Kámndóπ crab

Kápté royal canopy

Kapte(2) umbrella

kèkàπ o lèpo kèkàπ adj(formal) to betough; to be di�cult to deal withor to understand

kékáπ adv 1. unsuccessfully 2. with failurebecause of lack of ability

Kelæ. té chin

Kéñáπ chameleon

Képfσ jigger

Keq 1. =Nko.ó 2. (meat) portion

Kěq bed

Ki. namesake

k¢ whether

Ko. =Lœaπ

Kó. ladder

Koπte thanks, appreciation o lë Koπteadv with thanks

Kó.ó (informal, approving) friendly termof ad-dress for a younger female éΦ(1)

Kot latrine, toilet,wc

Kœep box

Kwaì bone

Kwàπ ring; bangle

Kwaπte thought

Kwæ. tè knee

Lá. country

Lå garlic

La.à day

La. le pledge; promise

Láq tongue

Laqè trace; very small amount

lë (also lé) 1. conj with 2. by means of 3. prepin the direction of

lècíá to feel pity for

lèciale to be dull and lackadaisical

Leciè liquid obtained by �ltering waterthrough wood ash, used as ingredi-ent for cooking

Lë Muòk


lècíé 1. to not attend 2. to push

lècíété 1. to nudge 2. to push bit by bit

lècíæ. to carry

lècıt 1. (tool) to be, or to get, blunt 2. (dis-appr) to be clumsy at dancing; tolack the ability to dance 3. gauche;clumsily lacking in the ability to door perform

lècít to close

lècot 1. to sever 2. (amount) to deduct

lècœa. to fear

lécœák 1. =lèkak (1) 2. to be expensive 3.to scold angrily

lècœaπ 1. to spoil 2. (resources) to spend;to waste

lècœaπte 1. vi to go bad 2. =lècœaπ

lècœe 1. (dress) to iron 2. (road) to tar 3.(hole, esp on container) to mend

lècœe. 1. to shake 2. to �lter by shaking

Lecœeπ 1. (tree, plant, pole etc.) area belowor at the foot 2. (plant) seedling

lècœeπ to tether

lècœ. 1. to become 2. to be remaining

lècú. to pound

lècú 1. =lèší. 2. to travel down

lècúá 1. to beat (up) 2. =lèxœé(2)

lècuπte 1. to repair, to �x 2. (dispute) tosettle

lècuók (snake) to bite; (insect) to sting

lècuo. te to wash the inside by swishing

lècú. té 1. to gather; to assemble; to putor bring together éCute 2. (fire) tomake

Lefa (door etc.) crack, opening

lefa eight

lèfa to err

lèfá to spray

lèfa. 1. to look for sth 2. lèfa.a lèqœe Zéq:to want to do sth soon

lèfa. te to �nd out, to investigate

Lefák twin

lèfak to split o�; to fork

Lefaπ thunder

lèfáπ 1. to grow 2. (size) to be big

lèfaq (door) to bolt or lock

Lefaqé junction, fork

lèfeı 1. to sell 2. to betray

lèféí 1. to cool o� 2. (pain etc.) to subside

lèfem to get mouldy

lèfém to su�ocate

Tano Fotang 47

lèfemle to be sloven

lèfémté 1. to act ineptly 2. =lèpúlé

Le�ak Indian bamboo

lè�e 1. to be sel�sh o Πgaπe�e sel�shperson 2. (disappr) to turn down aplea, esp a request for help

lèfíé to resemble, look alike

lèfı. to un-earth

lèfık to cover with earth

lèfæ. 1. to measure 2. to compare

lèfœet (animal) to be, or to become, sterile

lèfœrt (balloon) to in�ate

lèfσ to spray élèfá

Lefø chie aincy, king-hood

Lefø fat

lèfø to borrow or lend élézá.

lèfu. to dispose of by pouring or dumpingaway

lèfuo. to boil

lèfúk 1. to take out 2. to remove, subtract

lèfúπ to ask a er; to send regards to

lèfuo. to boil; to seethe

Lègè the English language

Leka whistle

lèká 1. to be tired; to get tired 2. (disappr)to become weak, or to be dull inattitude 3. to squeeze

lèkáí to be acerbic or sour

Lekák joy; merriness o lë Lekák advwith joy

lèkak 1. to call to order; to chide; to be-rate 2. to have the desire or inclina-tion to want to do sth

lèkák 1. to be merry or joyful 2. to cele-brate 3. to rejoice

lèkakle to struggle, to trash about, esp inde�ance or against all odds

Lekaπ 1. witchcra 2. wizardry

lèkaπ (property) to stake a claim; to stakeout

lèkáπ to fry

lèkáp (fruit, vegetable etc.) to pick

lèkápte to cover

lèká. té 1. (package, knot etc.) to undo; to un-tie; to unbind 2. to explain clearlyo lèkã. te Tsσ to enlighten

lèkáté to hold sth in the closed hand olèkãte Púó to close the hand

lèkátté to roll together

Lekem width

lèkem 1. =lèkemte 2. to catch in the act

Lë Muòk


lèkemte to cover lightly with earth, espby sprinkling

lèkeπ 1. (door) to leave half open 2. to over-shadow

Lekeπ(5) pot

lèkeq to accuse

lèkéq 1. to enter 2. (group) to join

lèkı to make a line

lèkí to take, accept, or take back sth fromsb

lèkíé to grow

lèkipte to provoke

lèkíté to assist

lèkæ. le to puzzle, bewilder

lèkó. 1. to go up 2. (ladder, tree etc.) to climb2. to return, to be back (home) 3.to swell

lèkók 1. vt (fire) to light 2. (light, device, etc.)to turn on

Lekoπ 1. spear 2. (umbrella etc.) stem

lèkoπ 1. to like 2. to love éΠkoπle

lèkóπ to creep

lèkoπle to love each other

lèkoπte to thank éKoπte

lèkóπté to remove a so mass from a sur-face

Lekot =Bela. ; �ght

Lekót hill

Leko. ó(5) hill

lèkœa =lècíæ.

lèkœá. 1. (tree) to fell; to cut with a cutlass2. to be �rst

lèkœák (size, quantity) to be small

lèkœé 1. (light) to shine 2. (fire) to be on

lèkœép (nut etc.) to shuck

lèkœo 1. to run 2. to escapeo lèkœo Keı(of a woman) to abandon a marriage,esp by leaving secretly

Leku. mortar

lèku to snore

lèkú 1. (wooden artwork) to carve 2. (potatoetc.) to peel

lekua (number) four

lèkua to scrape o�

lèkuate to scratch

lèkuk 1. (corn etc.) to pluck 2. (branches) totrim

lèkukle =lèkuk

lèkúkté to gather

Tano Fotang 49

lèkuπ to boo; to strongly condemn by vo-cal disapproval élèyak

lèkuo. 1. to be enough 2. to measure upto 3. to be able

lèkúó. té to hold

lèkwaπte to think; to mull overéKwaπte

lèkwat | s© lèkwæt| to get out

lèkwát | s© lèkwæt| 1. to tie 2. to belay

lèkwá. té (door) to knock

lèkwáté 1. to catch upwith 2. to be frozen

lèkwé to die

lèkwéí 1. to mention 2. (tool) to sharpen

lèkwæ. té to kneel éKwæ. tè

lèla to cry

lèlá to cook

lèla. to fall out; to no longer be on speak-ing terms

lèlá. to spend the night

lèlaile (disappr) 1. to be slow, not smart2. to fool about; to fool, or waste,away time

lèláklé (disappr) to degenerate, sink, dete-riorate

lèla. le 1. to postpone 2. to promise to dosth later 3. to say good bye éLa. le

lèlálé 1. to be clean 2. to be clear

Lelaπ pineapple

lèláπté 1. vi to keep quiet 2. vt to soothea crying person 3. (person) to lookwell, healthy

Lelaq majority; greater part énda.nda.

lèlaq vi to be sweet

lèlát to write

lèla. te 1. to narrate, recount 2. to direct,instruct

lèlatte 1. vt to be a relative of 2. vi to berelated

lèleı to recognise

lèléí to sleep

lèlem vi to stink

lèlém (informal) to speed

lèlemle vt to smell; to snu�e

lèleπte 1. to compare 2. to imitate 3. totake aim

lèléq 1. to be full 2. to bite

lèliakle to forget

lèligle to mark; to brand éLiklé

lèlı. (tyre etc.) to puncture

lèliqe 1. to end; to �nish 2. to complete

Lë Muòk


lèlíqlé to complete, to �ll up

lèlæ. 1. to refuse élèto. 2. to trap

lèlæ. lé to stutter

lèl¢ to hide sth

lèl¢ (injury) to sustain

lèl¢le to hide oneself

Lelók sleep

lèlok 1. to take along 2. to utilise to dosth

Leloπ bullet

lèlóπlé to laze; to be lazy éLoπ, Ndoπ

lèlóπté to scrape together

Lelœa. (pl Belœa. ) sweet, yellow yam

lèlœá. to dodge, avoid

lèlœáπlé to bear or carry a person orheavy object using the arms, espby more than one person

lèlœe to �ght

lèlœé to rot

lèlœte to coax, lure, cajole

lèlø to beg

lèma. 1. to throw 2. (dress) to wear

lèma to consider or ponder with wonder

lèmak 1. =lèliqe(2) 2. vi =lèmeı

lèmáq to do very early at daybreak

lèmeı to be �nished; to get �nished

lèméí to greet

lèmie to swallow

lèmæ. té to hesitate because of unwilling-ness or uncertainty

lèmú. to sulk

lèmu (formal) to have a tête-a-tête; to dis-cuss

lèna (arm etc.) to stretch towards sb/sth; topro�er

lèná to persistently go a er sth/sb

lènáπ 1. to sit 2. to stay

lèno. to plant

lènoπ 1. vt to place horizontally 2. vi tolie (down) 3. (medicine) to operateupon

lènóπ to suck

lènú to drink

lènuo. (soup etc.) to prepare

lèñaπle (disappr) to �nd repugnant

lèñaπte to tickle

lèñát 1. to leave alone 2. to not do sth3. to desist from sth, to stop doingsth

Tano Fotang 51

lèπá.a =lèπá. té

lèπak to argue

lèπá. lé to be haughty, uppity

Leπaπ (plant) root

lèπá. té (eyes, book) to open

lèπátté to be dishonestly evasive; to notbe forthright

lèπém to beat up; to trash

Leπo. ò fold; bend

lèπó. ó 1. to fold or bendéLeπo. ò 2. vi (roadetc.) to bend 3. to dribble

lèπó. té to fold or bend multiple times

Leπte comparison; imitation

lèπú. té (material) to shrink

lèπwaı 1. to be cold 2. (disappr) to �nd sthrepulsive or distasteful

lèpa 1. to blame 2. to hate

lèpá 1. to cover 2. to beware of sb/sth

Lepá. mass of sth so that is used as cush-ioning for the head when bearingloads

lèpá. to weave

lèpa. te 1. to herd 2. to brush aside

Lepáí waterfall

lèpáí 1. to pick [up] 2. to choose

lèpak 1. to knock over; to knock aside 2.to break o� a piece

lèpák | s© lèpæk| to get stale

lèpáklé to knock together o lèpãkle Tsσ

Lepap (bird/insect) wing

lèpáp to wait for

Lepaq law, regulation

Lepáq breast

lèpaq to ascend

lèpát to mind; to care about; to give athought to (usu used in the negative:lèñat tèpát (disappr) to not care aboutsb/sth; lèñale lèpát to stop caring about)

lèpáté 1. to get closer, approach 2. to benear 3. to be next o Páté the next

lèpatte to carry on the back

lèpátté (poster etc.) to paste, stick, a�x

Lepeı liver

lèpeı (stick) to sharpen

lèpéí 1. to accept, admit 2. (singular subject)to be lost 3. person to disappear,lose contact 4. (screen etc.) to go o�

lèpeite 1. to examine carefully, inspect 2.=lèpeı

Lë Muòk


lèpéíté 1. (plural subject) to be lostélèpéí(2) 2. to frequently disap-pear or lose contact élèpéí (3)

Lepem stomach; belly

Lepeq egg

lèpeq vi 1. to add up 2. to �t

lèpeqte to meet on the way

lèpfát | s© lèpfæt| to eat

lèpfeπ (touch) to tap

Lep�e 1. colanut 2. (formal) token of appre-ciation

lèpfíé (food) to be done

lèpfσ to cause to have a runny stomach

Lepfσ(5) sky

Lepı tiny piece

lèpı (foodstuff) to peel

lèpí to get mad

lèpíák | s© lèpæk| 1. (light, fire, etc.) to putout; to turn o� 2. to eradicate 3. togo bad 4. (device) to fail

Lepi.æ 1. wasp 2. ringworm

lèpiæ. to bear, esp on the head o Piæ.load

lèpıt to turn inside-out

lèpít to explode

lèpæ. =lètsó. (1)

lèpæ. æ to raise

lèpæ. té to straighten

lèpó to be

lèpók to fear

lèpólé 1. (behaviour) to be gentle 2. to tame

lèpoπ 1. (appearance) to be beautiful 2. tobe good

lèpót to be so

Lepœé hole; pit

lèpœé (good tidings) to make known to sb,to inform, to annunciate

lèpœet to reply, comment

Lepu. è bundle

lepu. è (number) nine

lèpuk to pull down, to demolish, to col-lapse

lèpúlé 1. (disappr) to lose one’s wits; to besenile 2. to be confused, to losethe ability to think clearly 3. to actclumsily élèpule Tsσ • éMbulé

lèpúó. 1. (musical instrument) to play 2. tocircumcise

lèpúókté to gather together

Leq dry season

Tano Fotang 53

Leqa 1. story 2. riddle 3. character, dispo-sition

lèqa to say

lèqálé 1. to be dizzy; to be muzzy 2. tocause to be dizzy 3. to roam aboutwith no apparent sense of purpose

Leqap (book etc.) page; fold; section

lèqap to share; to divide

lèqáplé to surround; to go round

lèqáqlé to hurry, to hurry up

lèqa. te to cry out loud

lèqeı to walk

leqém (number) ten

Leqéπ edge

lèqéq to invite

lèqeqle 1. to trouble 2. (of a person) to bestupid, foolish éQeqeq

lèqo. to grind

Leqobè loop

Leqœa. jaw

lèqœa.te to economise

lèqœe to do

Leqœr (pl Πgœr) instance, time, occa-sion; leg

lèqœr 1. to go 2. to depart

lèqu 1. to catch 2. to be ill

lèqúp 1. to bark 2. (disappr) =lècœák (3)

Leqwé death

lèqwe to fall

lèšéπlé =lèšœéπlé

Lešià small piece, esp broken o� a largerwhole

lèšíá to break

Leši.æ needle

lešiæ. to scrape, scratch

lèši.te to shi away

lèšœé to get charred; to be burnt down

lèšœek to be unmoved or una�ected, espin response to pain, etc.; to be stoic

lèšœéπ 1. to tell 2. (darkness) to fall

lèšœéπlé to speak (also lèšéπlé)

lèšœeπte to stretch

Lešu sack

lèšú (farm, grass) to weed

lèšuπ 1. (vehicle) to drive 2. to pull 3. to getpregnant

lèšuo. 1. =lèšuo. te 2. to warn, to threaten

lèšuote. to esteem, to praise; to tout; toappreciate éŠuo. te

Lë Muòk


lèšuok to wash

lèsa. to snatch from sb’s grasp

lèsá. 1. vi (plant) to grow 2. (law) to judge

lèsáí vi to melt

lèsak (length) to be long

lèsáπ to count

lèsaπte to hang (or spread) out to dry

Leseı grave

lèseı to cut into pieces

lèsem to bind, fasten, tie tightly

Lesoπ tooth

lèsoπ (straw etc.) to draw

lèsop to impale; (soil) to so en using im-plement such as pickaxe

lèsóq to yearn

lèsæ. to come, to arrive

lèsςle 1. to slip 2. (surface) to be slippery 3.(escape) to slip away

lèsø to sigh

Letá trap

lèta. to rummage

lètá. to embrace

lèta to not return, contrary to expecta-tion

lètá to guess

lètai to heal

lètáí to twist

lèták 1. to attack 2. to chase o� 3. (meetingetc.) to disrupt

lètállé to obstruct

lètaπ 1. (meat etc.) to be tough; to bespringy 2. to be tenacious

lètáπ 1. (price) to bargain; to haggle 2. toplan to do sth

letáq 1. to sever; to cut o� 2. to reduce,to deduct 3. to enumerate

lètaq 1. to be di�cult 2. to be strongéNtaq 3. (from illness) to recover

lètá. té to overtake

lètéí to be lacking

Letéí(5) (pl Betéí) spittle

lètém 1. to sew 2. to shoot

lètéπ 1. to call 2. to read

lètéq to send

lètí (sun) to shine

lètiæ. to try; to attempt

lètíæté 1. to sort 2. to select several

lèt¢ 1. (grass) to clear 2. to stand

Tano Fotang 55

lèto. to forbid (sb from doing sth); to ban,prohibit sth

lètók 1. (exam) to pass 2. (event) to come topass 3. (measure) to surpass 4. (place)to pass; to pass by

Letoπ navel

lètóπ to scream

Letoπé feather

lètóq to cut

lètœák vt 1. to stand or place in an up-right position 2. to decide, to re-solve

lètœáπé to tilt

lètœé to pay

lètø vt to burn élèšœé

lètøté to support

lètsa. 1. (fruits etc.) to search for and collectfrom where they grow 2. to searchmeticulously

lètsá. 1. to chew 2. (formal) to mull sth over

lètsabe (laundry, grain etc.) to soak

lètsaπle to be physically weak

lètsáπle 1. to lead a weaker person, espby holding the hand 2. (formal) toadvise

lètsa. te to greet; to send greetings, compli-ments éTsa. te

lètseı 1. to show

lètsó. 1. to retaliate 2. (tree, plant etc.) to up-root 3. to open 4. (attachment, roof,etc.) to take o�

lètsó. té 1. to postpone 2. =lètsó. (2)

lètsσ 1. to give a name to sth/sb 2. (usuonly in imperative mood) to go ahead;to take the lead 3. to be separate,di�erent

lètsσ 1. to leak 2. to launch bad-temperedverbal insults (at sb)

lètsσlé to engage in an ill-tempered warof words

lètsø (personality) to be sluggish and awk-ward, esp moving in a lazy way

lètú (song) to tune

lètú. to give in marriage

lëtú. adv by night

lètuk to spit out o lètuk Betéí to spit

Letuπ ear

lètúπté to ask

lètúó. (water) to fetch

lètuo. (growth) to be stunted

lèvállé to obstruct; to distract

Lë Muòk


lèvémlé (question etc.) to stall, evade, skirt

lèvσ 1. =lèpá. 2. (plan) to hatch

lèwá. to throw away

lèwaı to have

lèwák 1. (dress etc.) to wear 2. to belittle3. (capability) to underestimate 4. tomake light of

lèwat 1. to slaughter 2. to injure by cut-ting with a sharp edge 3. (drink) todilute with a second

lèweı to laugh

lèwúk (length) to be short

lèwuo. te to hold in high esteeméWuo. te

lèxaqle to breath

lèxíá to be much or many

Lexíé 1. nose 2. corner

lèxie (guests) to entertain, esp by servingfood and drink

lèxíé to �y

lèxiep 1. to shuck 2. to peel o�

lèxíété 1. to ask 2. to require

lèxi.le to sweat éXi.le

lèxíæ. to taste

lèxíæ. lé 1. to learn 2. to teach

lèxíæ. té 1. to listen 2. to wait 3. to pause

lèxœa. to belch

lèxœá.á vt 1. to lock up 2. to lean against

lèxœak to sweep

lèxœá. lé vi to lean

lèxœe to steal

lèxœé 1. to win 2. to defeat

Lexœék eye

lèxœék to feed

lèxœek (stick, pole etc.) to plant

lèxuπte 1. to follow 2. to extend by ap-pending

lèxúó. 1. to hear 2. to perceive

lèxúók to spend the day

lèxuok to itch

lèxút to be satiated

leya adv too o lèfãπ leya to be too big

lèyá 1. =leya 2. to give

lèyak to shout down élèkuπ

Leyie 1. intelligence, acumen 2. goodsense

Leyíé noise

lèyíé lèyie Bela to tell lies

lèzá. 1. to buy on credit 2. =lècot

Tano Fotang 57

lèzáπ to pain

lèzé 1. to know 2. to give birth

lèzeı to start

lèzémlé to go round

lèzémté to wrap

lèzeπ to still do: lèzeπ ndzèq: to still buy,to buy again

lèzéq to buy

lèz¢ to see

lèzoπ 1. to �ght over; to scramble for 2.(medicine) to treat

lezóq adj (non-humans) pregnant éπgu

lèzσ to kill

lèzø to solemnly deny an accusation andstate the consequences of guiltéZø o lètãπe Zø

lèzøte to insult éŻøte

Liklé (indication) mark, sign, brand

Læ blood

Læ horse

Lo. fault, weak point o lètu Lo. to criti-cise, esp unjustly

Loπ (corn) cob

Loπ laziness éNdoπ

Lòπ vexation o lèzãπe Lòπ

Loπ pair of trousers

Lœaπ chair

Lœé ants

Lœòt frog

Lø cloud

Luπ =Cu. te

Lúπ wild kind of yam-like vegetable

Luπle grinding stone

Luó. waist

Makiezå rebel; terrorist

Manděq husband’s mother

Mandza =Ndza

Mantiat seed capital

Maπkœà. Irish potato

Màqéq hawk

Mba. 1. grass 2. bush

Mba home; compound

Mbàklè assorted things of little or novalue; junk

Mbaπ seed

Mbaπe nail

Mbãπe pl of Πeqmbãπe

Mbap meat

Lë Muòk


mbaq prep (non-horizontal surface) against; on;along

Mbaq body

Mbeí magic potion

Mbéí(1) forest; bush

Mbeq enmity

mbíæ two

Mbæ clay

Mbœé 1. dog 2. pl of Lepœé

Mbulè nonsense

Mbùmbùòk miscellaneous items

Mbúπ poor person

Mbúó pl of Púó

Mbuò. innocent person

mbvie 1. prep in front 2. those that havecome before éNdzem

Mbvíé goat

Mbvσ o lènu Mbvσ

Mí- (also Mï-) prefix éMu- 1. big, large 2.principal, major: Mïnσ matter ofgreat importance

Míπeq head, boss, director

Mntsě orphan

Mnuπ (pl only) hair

Mæ palace

Mπgáp(7) | s©Mπgæp| fowl

Mπgwa (pl Paπgwa) female person;woman éΠeqmbãπe

Mπki. wife’s mother

Mπkœó (pl Paππkœó) 1. infant 2. child3. minor

Mok m© =Muòk

Mók m© =Múók

Mpfσ(3) 1. diseased person 2. (disappr)weak person

Mpfσ(3) woman who has recently givenbirth; nursing mother

Mu 1. mother 2. a respectful term of ad-dress for a woman éTa(1)

Mù (pl Pú) child

Mu- (pl Pú-) prefix 1. (used with children or stu-dents, to show belonging to a group) of;from 2. (diminutive) small: Muπgápchicken 3. unimportant; trivial:Munσmatter of small importance

Muletsσ �rst-born

Mumbãπe (pl Pumbãπe) 1. male child 2.young man; boy

Mumπgwa (pl Pupaπgwa) 1. femalechild 2. young woman; girl

Múók éQemúók

Tano Fotang 59

Muòk 1. language of theMmuock people2. �re 3. electric lighting

Mviešœé forehead

Na farming plot

Ná. soup

Ncie(4) 1. water 2. stream, river 3. song,record

Nciè(4) 1. height 2. reputation, position,standing, level

Ncœé(4) (body part) behind, bottom

nda adj (situation, well-being) �ne

nda. adj only, lone

nda. adv only

Ndakěq =Kěq

ndandã adv slowly; gently; carefully

nda.nda. few, not much, not many

Ńdandã (used as welcome greeting)

Ndáπ small metal container with lid, espfor oil etc.

Ndaq witch; wizard

Ndaz¢ sth amazing or unusual: =Lemaπ

Ndègè a white person

Nděm (pl Belěm) God

nděmńdém adj, adv 1. free of charge 2. invain; for nothing

Ndeq top

Nděq husband

Ndı stripe

Ndíæ house

Ndoπ lazy person

Ndóπ cup

Ndœaπ bamboo

Ndø curse; bad luck

Nduπ 1. price, cost 2. quantity

Ndza 1. road, way 2. means, possibility

Ndzaπ xylophone

Ndzap (vegetable) huckleberry

Ndzeı hunger

Ndzěm darkness

ndzem 1. adv behind 2. adj backward

Ndzem 1. rear; back 2. those to comeéMbvie

ndzemndzem adv backwards

Ndzoπ (used in phrase) Ndzoπ lèwale Πeq:(to be befallen by) a great calamity

Ndzóπ 1. pen 2. (formal) academicprowess 3. (tree) thorn

Ndzo. ò marriage

Lë Muòk


Ngım (collective) locust

Njia axe

Njiè(1) clothing, dress

Njie(3) older sibling

Njíé(4) smoke

Njœé 1. time 2. epoch, age, period

Njœěπ the other side across

Njœeπe (bottle etc.) crown; lid

Njœeπle =Njœeπe

Njœ. egusi

Njuò debt

nς adj true

Nσ(6) matter, issue

Nςlènáq(6) the truth

Nσq sun; sunshine

Ntá. pocket

Ntá 1. (tree etc.) branch 2. (animal) limb 3.(person) lap

Ntaπ storeroom

Ntáπ lie; lies o Πgaπntáπ liar

Ntap hut

Ntaq the strong

Ntáq interior; heart

ńtaq adj, adv alive

ńtáq prep inside

Nteì(1) 1. specie, kind, type 2. style ormanner

Ntéq(4) bridge

ntentàq adj (health) well

Ntóπ neck

Ntoπò s© =Maπkœà.

Ntø(1) mount; (fireplace) any of the threesupports for the cooking pot

Ntsaπ 1. dispute 2. (law) case

Ntsě daughter’s husband éTéki.

Ntsem secret

ntsem adv all

Ntsoπ thief

Ntsσ mouth; entrance

Ntúó. small container, usu a jug, for car-rying wine etc.

Nu group; clique

Nú snake

Nù.(3) porcupine

Nuπgém rainbow

Ñě cutlass

Tano Fotang 61

Ñíæ 1. human body 2. fever

Πaπ vein

Πeq(3) (pl Pæ) person; individual oΠeqmbaπe (plMbãπe) male per-son, man éMπgwa • Πeqnuπ (plPæmnuπ) human being

πgàπ adv (reply) no

Πgaπ 1. the person concerned 2. pre-fix person who does, or who has,sth: Πgaπbela personwho tells lies(liar) • Nxgaπkáp rich person •Πgaπbela. someone with a �ghtingdisposition

Πgáp | s©Πgæp| pl of Mπgáp

Πgap(1) | s© Πgæp| 1. skin 2. comingweek 3. past week

Πgeπté thickness

Πgěm mother of daughter’s husband

Πgém landslide

Πgeπgeq misery

Πgěq gun

Πgeq guest

πgı adv, adj (direction, location) upper

Πgı distance

Πgie the intelligent person

Πgie voice

Πgobe hook

Πgo. (collective) termite

Πgoπ world

Πgóπ agriculture, farming

Πgœá. su�ering

πgu adj pregnant

Πgu patient

Πguo. 1. (how old) age 2. year 3. era, age,epoch

πguo. adv days of old; long ago

Πgwáπ salt

Πgwaπgu gentlewoman éΠgwaseq

Πgwaseq gentleman

Πgwat 1. =Nteí 2. seed 3. (tool) handle

Πka 1. basket 2. (tree, plant) sap

Πka monkey

Πka. light

Πka nest

Πkaπe 1. row 2. generation

Πkap | s©Πkæp| toe- or �ngernail

Πkáp money

Πkat mortar

Πka. te (body part) back

Lë Muòk


Πkeı widower

Πkěm notable of high rank

Πkeπé rapid slope; cli�

Πkeπkœaπ fork tree

Πkeq(4) message

Πkoπle love o lëΠkoπle adv with love

Πko. ó side o Πko. olaq greater part

πkœe hundred

Πkœe rope

Πkuk widow

Πkwaı strong headedness

Πkweı elderly man or woman whohas never been married o lètsapΠkweı (of a woman) to become anold maid

Πkwéí �rewood

o. adv (reply) (used for indicating uncertainty: “haveno idea”, “do not know”) éy éπgàπ

F adv (reply) a variation of yes éy

Φ 1. a friendly way of addressing a girléKó.ó 2. a respectful term of ad-dress for an elderly woman éTa,Mu

Φϕ-F Good-bye

Pa bag

Pá a kind of food

pá. prep like o lèla pá. . . . to cry like . . .

pà.á adv like that; that way ép£.£

pà.a adv like this; this way

Paì 1. =Xœe. (2) 2. outside

Paı pro�t

paπ adj red

paπpãπ adj red

Pap | s© Pæp| 1. dust 2. (land etc.) patch

Peì roo�ng straw

Péí misfortune; loss

Pfσ 1. leg; foot 2. clique, gang 3. =Leqœr

Pfσ 1. wood ash 2. corpse

Pı madman

Piglè (inquiry etc.) reply

Pœe camwood

p£.£ adv like that; that way

Pu. the rest

Pú imbecile, simpleton

Pú 1. pl of Mù 2. descendants; (pl) o�-spring

Púπ =Fœak

Púó 1. (body part) hand 2. (direction) side

Tano Fotang 63

Puó. slave

Puo. knife

Qák throat

Qaπle chest

Qemle �g tree

Qemúók (plMúók) person of Mmuockorigin

Qeqeq 1. fool, imbecile 2. foolery

Qu(6) disease; sickness

Šék ra�a

Šià market

Šœé(4) 1. face 2. mask 3. side, aspect 4.way, means

Šœèπ bird

Šeπle =Šœeπle

Šœeπle language (also Šeπle)

Šúé(1) (singular) �sh

Šúó hoe

Šuok soap

Šuo. te praise, accolade o lë Šuo. te advwith appreciation

Sa sorcery o Πgaπsa witch, wizard

Salè writing tablet; slate

Saπ 1. month 2. monthly wage

Sáπ broom

Saπé(2) tail

Sáq(4) shame

Séí the ground éTsa.

Sěq friend

Sæ elephant

Sóπ pipe

Sóπ (pl Besóπ) pipe

Sωq m© =Sěq

Sø saw

Sø spitefulness

ta. one

Ta(2) (potato, cocoyam etc.) one unit

Ta(3) 1. male parent 2. a term of addressfor a man éMu

Ták =Válé

Taq 1. metal 2. prison

tè 1. adv without, sans: tè Ta without afather 2. prefix (showing negation) un-:tèla without crying 3. prep (a) (se-quence in time) before (b) expectedbut not yet passed: tè la still to cry

Téki. wife’s father

Teπ pond, pool

Lë Muòk


Téq foreign land

Tèšœσ 1. garden egg 2. berry

Tetà 1. yard 2. playing �eld

Tíæ tobacco

Tæ container for fetching a liquid, espwater

tæ. adv very o lèfáπ tæ. to be very big

Tœě tree

Tø Bangang

Tø drum

Tø stone; rock

tsà adj, pron (sometimes tsa) some o tsàzéqsomething • tsaπeq somebody

Tsa. ground, earth

Tsaπ Dschang

Tsa. te greetings; compliments o lë Tsa. teadv with greetings

Tsetseı 1. belongings, things 2. compo-nents; ingredients

Tsoπ 1. the 2. deceptive action

Tsóp �ne, penalty

Tsσ(2) (pl Tsσ) 1. head 2. upper partéCœeπ (6) 3. one end of a thing

Tsσ(6) (pl Betsσ) intelligence, head, sense,common sense

Tsσ(3) antelope

tú. adv by night, at night

Tú.(3) juju

Túó. container, esp with a lid

Tuòk big intestine

tu. tú. adv at dawn, before break of day

u pers pron, subjective you

Válé obfuscation; confusion

Wá. epilepsy

Wúmé bottle

Wuo. te acclaim, praise

Xiakle breath

Xiale kindling

Xi.le sweat

Xœe. place

Xœe. 1. pl of Xœe. 2. times; circum-stances, conditions

Xúó. yam

y adv (reply) yes

Yık odour, smell

Zàlènáπ (welcome greeting) éZàlèsæ.

Zàlèsæ. welcome

Záπ lungs

Żéq(2) thing

żæ 1. adv thus 2. pron the one

Żøte insult

Appendix C

Names

¿is addendum lists the spellings of some common proper names, as well asthe names of days of the Mmuock week.

C.1 Common �rst names

1. Z¢lœé

2. Tsa.mú

3. Πkœaπáfák

4. Tœa.afák

5. Šuπmbaπ

6. Šuπmú

7. Ciafíæ

8. Ciámú

9. Ciaπgeq

10. Tàπmú

11. Z¢mú

12. Z¢fák

13. Tàπèfák

14. Tœa.mú

15. Téndoπmú

16. Yimnaì

17. Fiælefák

18. Føz¢

19. Njùò. ntsóp

65

66 The Sound of Mmuock C. Names

20. Njœefíæ

21. Nkemfíæ

22. Mnèìmú

23. Πguò.πie

24. Zaqmú

25. Mo.mú

26. Πgeqπgım

27. Mbuπeq

28. Zaπgeq

29. Ndémez¢

30. Njùò.πkœaπ

31. Πkwatetàπ

32. Nduπelá

33. Betà

34. Zσtáπ

35. Nςteta.

36. Nςlémeπ

37. Loπntsě

38. Z¢léfák

39. Πeqndz¢

40. Xuo. oséí

41. Belašœé

42. Πguo. njuó

43. Πkeqmbúó.

44. Πkeqndém

45. Yutá.

46. Ndémenσ

47. Ndéméfák

48. Wandém

49. Z¢πkœaπ

C.2 Days of the week

1. Πgaπé

2. Mbeqπúá

3. Mbeqlěq

4. Njœeπgoπ

5. Mbeqπkœó

6. Njœelekœr

7. Fa.à

8. Télaπ

C.3 Places Tano Fotang 67

C.3 Places

1. Mbamuòk

2. Njœeπgoπ

3. Tœa.cia

4. Kóπó

5. Ntemndzem

6. Mbvσ

7. Belaπ

8. Tendælembeπ

Lë Muòk

Appendix D

Numerals

D.1 Cardinal numbers

1 mo. , ta.

2 mbíæ

3 ntàt

4 lekua

5 ntå

6 ntuqó

7 šiambíæ

8 lefa

9 lepu. ú

10 leqém

11 ntsopmo.

12 ntsoppíæ

13 ntsoptàt

14 ntsoplekua

15 ntsoptå

16 ntsopntuqó

17 ntsopšiambíæ

18 ntsoplefa

19 ntsoplepu. ú

20 beqémmbíæ

21 ntsopmo. beqémmbíæ

22 ntsoppiæbeqémmbíæ

23 ntsoptàtbeqémmbíæ

69

70 The Sound of Mmuock D. Numerals

24 ntsoplekuabeqémmbíæ

25 ntsoptåbeqémmbíæ

26 ntsopntuqobeqémmbíæ

27 ntsopšiambiæbeqémmbíæ

28 ntsoplefabeqémmbíæ

29 ntsoplepu. ubeqémmbíæ

30 beqémńtàt

40 beqemlekua

50 beqémńtå

60 beqemntuqó

70 beqemšiambíæ

80 beqemlefa

90 beqemlepu. ú

100 πkœe

200 πkœepíæ

300 πkœetàt

400 πkœelekua

500 πkœeta

600 πkœentúqó

700 πkœešiambíæ

800 πkœeléfá

900 πkœelepu. ú

D.2 Ordinal numbers

mbvie �rst

Example Index

Πeq, 28Πgěq, 25Πgu. , 10Πgeq, 23, 25Πgoπ, 13, 25Πgóπ, 14, 25Πgie, 28Πgu, 10, 12Πgwáπ, 39Πka, 14, 24, 25Πka, 25Πkáp, 14Πka, 12, 17, 24, 25Πkeq, 24Πka, 20Φ, 4Φϕ-ϕ, 4Tsσ, 25Cú. , 30Fς, 12Fæ. , 32Fa. , 30Faq, 40Kaı, 13, 30

Lá. , 30Læ, 14, 25Male, 30Nσ, 6Na, 18, 30Πak, 30Pu. , 9, 30Pa, 13, 29Pfσ, 30Pfσ, 5Pfσ, 13Pfσ, 14Qák, 30Qu, 5, 17Sø, 15, 25Saqè, 30Šuok, 13, 28, 30Tø, 5, 6, 14, 25Ták, 30Teπ, 12, 28Tetà, 10, 14Tsσ, 30Tsσ, 6, 25Wá. , 30

71

72 The Sound of Mmuock EXAMPLE INDEX

Xœe. , 18Xúó. , 30Yık, 30Żøte, 6, 13Żéq, 30xìà, 29£, 4Mπki., 14mbuo, 12mbuo Nděm, 12tsaπe, 26F, 4, 5Ñě, 20Ñia, 28

Bešœé, 18bešœebešœé, 18Belaπ, 20Belěm, 26Bela, 18, 28Bela ma . . . , 18

Fěπ, 20Fø, 6, 25Fò, 14Fæ. , 9, 32Fø, 6, 13, 25Foπ, 28

ha, 18, 28

ka, 19Kì, 14Kó. , 28

Ki., 5, 9

la, 19Loπ, 25lèla, 20, 24lèpó, 25Læ, 25lècú, 14lèfa. , 9lèfı., 10lèfσ, 6lèfø, 19, 21, 22lèfa, 9, 25lèfem, 19lèfı, 10lèfá, 25lèfém, 19lèkeq, 21, 22, 24lèkéq, 21, 22lèkaı, 24lèlæ. , 23lèl¢, 5, 13, 19–22, 24, 25lèla, 19–22, 24lèl¢, 25lèlá, 19, 21, 22, 24lèpá. , 10lèpa, 20lèpı, 13, 17, 18, 25lèpéí, 19lèpá, 10lèpáté, 33lèpátté, 33lèpí, 14, 25, 26

EXAMPLE INDEX Tano Fotang 73

lèpi Kendoπ, 18lèpiæ. , 13lèqœr, 4, 5, 7lèqa, 21, 23lèqáqlé, 17lèsω. , 5, 9lètú. , 10lètø, 6lèta, 10lèt¢, 6lètá, 10, 19lètú, 10lètá, 17lèyíé, 25lèzáπ, 28lèzéq, 19lèzeı, 19, 24Lòπ, 25Lå, 15, 25Loπ, 15, 25Lepfσ, 6, 28Lešu, 13Lefa, 20lefa, 25Lefø, 6Leka, 20Lekot, 18Lekoπ, 12Lekot fíé, 18lekua, 10, 13Lepı, 15, 20, 25Lepeı, 18Lepei tsa . . . , 18

Let¢, 20Letæ. , 12Letá, 10Lewúá, 28Lexuπè, 28Leyíé, 25Leyie, 25Lez¢, 14

Mæ, 15Mu, 15, 20, 25, 28Mù, 14, 25Mba, 20, 25Mba. , 9Mba, 5, 10, 23, 25, 28Mbem, 5Mbá, 25Mbúö Nděm, 12Mbúó, 10, 12Mbúó Ńdém, 12Mbiyàπ, 28

Ndzaπ, 20Ndzěm, 28Ná. , 28nσ, 6Nσq, 6Ntsσ, 28Ncœa. , 28Nděm, 24Ndaz¢, 25Nděm, 12, 15, 20, 24Ndoπ, 15, 25nda. , 18

Lë Muòk

74 The Sound of Mmuock EXAMPLE INDEX

nda. , 28Ndø, 6ndä lefa, 25ndä tå, 10Ndóπ, 5, 25nda, 10, 18ndandã, 10, 18ndeπ, 13, 18ndeπndeπ, 12, 18ndiændiæ, 18Ndiæ, 18Njíé, 14, 25Njiè, 14, 25Njie, 13, 25, 28Ntá. , 10, 40ntå, 25Ntá, 10, 40Ntáπ, 25Ntóπ, 25Ntaπ, 25ntoπ, 25

p£.£, 5Po. , 9Pæ, 5, 13paπ, 10, 13, 28paπpãπ, 10, 12Puo. , 18Puo. wa . . . , 18

Qemle, 28

Sěq, 20Sø, 25

Sáπ, 28

Ta, 23Ta, 10, 20Tø, 14Tà, 10ta. , 39ta. , 34Tă., 10tå, 10Tø, 25Télaπ, 20

Válé, 28

Xěk, 18xěkxék, 18xœe.xœe. , 18

Z¢, 14Z¢lœé, 15, 25

Index

œ, 7

alphabet, 2

consonants, 28π, 29š, 29ñ, 29c, 28q, 29x, 29

glottal stop, 8

in�ection, 37

tones, 10notation, 11occurance, 16Tone 0, 12, 17Tone 1, 13Tone 10, 15, 23Tone 11, 16, 24Tone 12, 16, 25Tone 2, 12Tone 3, 14

Tone 4, 14Tone 5, 14, 19Tone 6, 15Tone 7, 15, 20Tone 8, 15, 21Tone 9, 15, 22

verb groups, 17vowels, 5

æ, 6ς, 6£, 6ø, 6r, 7ϕ, 6ω, 6¢, 6a, 5e, 5i, 5o, 6u, 6

y, 33

75

The Sound of Mmuock: Orthography

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