Yemba language


Yɛmba or Yemba, also Yémba or Bamiléké Dschang, is a major Grassfields language of Cameroon. It was spoken by 300,000 or so people in the West Region ca. 1990.
Despite originally being a spoken language exclusively, Yemba writing was developed by Maurice Tadadjeu and Steven Bird. Their team developed a small Yemba - French Dictionary covering French translations of over 3,000 Yemba words and expressions. The Yemba alphabet is a subset of the International Phonetic Alphabet.
A machine backwards transformation of the dictionary was performed by independent scientists who created the French translation of Yemba words. The resulting dictionary was extended with French synonyms from the French version of the WordNet database. Furthermore, over 6,000 English, German, Czech, Spanish, Italian and Chinese words and expressions were translated into Yemba. A major outcome of this project is a collaborative online platform for extending Yemba translations and promoting Yemba learning.

Phonology

Consonants

Three tones are marked as high , mid , or low . Low tones are unmarked when written.