Native to Cameroon ISO 639-2 dua | Ethnicity Douala, Mungo | |
Native speakers (90,000 cited 1982)
2 million L1 and L2 speakers in Douala (2013) Language family Niger–Congo
Atlantic–Congo
Benue–Congo
Southern Bantoid
Bantu (Zone A)
Sawabantu (A.20)
Douala Dialects Duala proper
Bodiman
Oli (Ewodi, Wuri)
Pongo
Mongo (Muungo) | ||
Douala (also spelled "Duala Diwala, Dwela, Dualla, and Dwala) is a dialect cluster spoken by the Duala and Mungo peoples of Cameroon. The song "Soul Makossa", as well as pop songs that repeated its lyrics, internationally popularized the Duala word for "(I) dance", "makossa".[1] The song Alane by artist Wes Madiko is sung in Duala and reached #1 position in over 9 European countries.
Douala belongs to the Bantu language family, in a subgroup called Sawabantu. Maho (2009) treats Douala as a cluster of five languages: Douala proper, Bodiman, Oli (Ewodi, Wuri), Pongo, and Mongo. He also notes a Douala-based pidgin named Jo.
Dictionaries
- E. Dinkelacker, Wörterbuch der Duala-Sprache, Hamburg, 1914.
- Paul Helmlinger, Dictionnaire duala-français, suivi d'un lexique français-duala. Editions Klincksieck, Paris, 1972.
- Johannes Ittmann, edited by E. Kähler-Meyer, Wörterbuch der Duala-Sprache, Dictionnaire de la langue duala, Dictionary of the Duala Language, Dietrich Reimer, Berlin, 1976. The preface evaluates ref. 1 above as terse, but good, while ref. 2 has missing and erroneous tone marks.
References
Duala language Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA