Fang language

Fang /ˈfɒŋ/ is a Central African language spoken by around 1 million people in

Cameroon, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, São Tomé and Príncipe, and the Congo
Fang
Republic. It is the dominant Bantu language of Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. It Pangwe
is related to the Bulu and Ewondo languages of southern Cameroon. Fang is Faŋ, Paŋwe
spoken in northern Gabon, southern Cameroon, throughout Equatorial Guinea, in Native to Equatorial Guinea,
the Republic of the Congo, and small fractions of the islands of São Tomé and Gabon, Republic of the
Príncipe. Under President Macías Nguema, Fang was the official language of Congo, Cameroon, and
Equatorial Guinea. São Tomé and Príncipe
Ethnicity Fang people
There are many different variants of Fang in Gabon and Cameroon. Maho (2009)
Native 1 million (2006–2013)[1]
lists Southwest Fang as a distinct language. The other dialects are Ntoumou,
speakers
Okak, Mekê, Atsi (Batsi), Nzaman (Zaman), Mveni, and Mvaïe.
Language Niger–Congo
family
Atlantic–Congo
Benue–Congo
Contents
Southern Bantoid
Corpus and lexicology
Bantu (Zone A)
Phonology[5]
Vowels Beti
Diphthongs Fang
Tone
Consonants Dialects Southwest Fang
Phrases Ntoumou-Fang
See also Okak-Fang
References Mekê-Fang
External links Mvaïe-Fang
Atsi-Fang
Nzaman-Fang
Corpus and lexicology Mveni-Fang
Despite lacking any truly certain corpus of Fang's literary body, it is of note that Language codes
linguists have, in the past, made attempts to compile dictionaries and lexicons ISO 639-2 fan (https://www.loc.g
for the Fang language. The two most notable ones to be either proposed or fully ov/standards/iso639-2/
compiled were made by Maillard (2007)[4] and Bibang (2014). Neither created a php/langcodes_name.ph
direct Fang-English dictionary, but opted instead to separate the two languages p?code_ID=136)
via a third European language as a bridge for various loanwords. ISO 639-3 fan

The translation efforts to English have been done through Romance languages: Glottolog fang1246 (http://glott

specifically, Spanish and French. The latter of the two languages would likely olog.org/resource/lang

have had the most impact on the language, given the occupation of Gabon by the uoid/id/fang1246)[2]

French during the existence of French Equatorial Africa (itself part of French Guthrie A.75,751[3]
West Africa), which lasted 75 years from 1885 to 1960. To a lesser extent, in São code
Tomé and Príncipe, Portuguese also likely has influenced the dialects of Fang
present there, due to the country being occupied by Portugal for most of the
islands' history of habitation.

Phonology[5]

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

Vowel Phonemes
Front (short/long) Back (short/long)
Close i iː (ĩ) u uː (ũ)
Close-mid e eː (ẽ) o oː (õ)

Open-mid ɛ ɛː (ɛ̃) ɔ ɔː (ɔ̃ )

Open a aː (ã)

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

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

Tone
Fang distinguishes between 4 different tones, conventionally called: high, low, rising and falling. The former two are simple
tones, while the latter are compound tones. One vowel in a sequences of vowels can be elided in casual speech, though its tone
remains and attaches to the remaining vowel. [6]

Consonants
In Fang, there are 24 plain consonants. The majority of them can become prenasalized:
 Consonant phonemes
Labial Dental Alveolar Alveopalatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
kɡ
pb td ŋk ŋg
Stop ʔ
mp mb nt nd k͡p ɡ͡b
ŋk͡p ŋɡ͡b
t͡s d͡z
Affricate
nt͡s nd͡z
fv sz
Fricative h
ɱf ɱv ns nz
j w
Approximant l
ɲj nw
Tap ɾ

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

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

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

Phrases
Although the Fang language does not have an official orthography, native speakers happen to use the extended Latin alphabet
with specific accents. Due to the enormous geographic region it covers, and the large amount of Fang dialects, the following list
may not be entirely accurate; one issue of note is the lack of marking for tones. Regardless, common phrases for the Oyem area of
northern Gabon include:
 English Fang
Hello (to one person) M'bolo/Mbolo
Hello (to several people) M'bolani/Mbolo'ani
Hello (response) Am'bolo; Am'bolani
How are you? Y'o num vah?
response M'a num vah
Where are you going Wa kuh vay?; Wa ke vé?
I'm going home Ma kuh Andah
Are you okay? Onevoghe?
I'm going to school Ma ke see-kolo
I'm going for a walk Ma ke ma woolou
I'm hungry Ma woh zeng
I'm sick Ma kwan
I understand French Ma wok Flacci
I don't understand Fang Ma wok ki Fang
I don't speak Fang Ma kobe ki Fang
What did you say Wa dzon ah dzeh?
I said... Ma dzon ah...
Holy cow! A tara dzam!
I want to eat Ma cuma adji/adzi
Thank you Akiba
Thank you very much Abora

See also
Beti-Pahuin

References
1. Fang (https://www.ethnologue.com/18/language/fan/) at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Fang (Equatorial Guinea)" (http://glottol
og.org/resource/languoid/id/fang1246). Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of
Human History.
3. Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online (https://web.archive.org/web/20180203191542/http://go
to.glocalnet.net/mahopapers/nuglonline.pdf)
4. Ella, Edgar Maillard (2007-03). A Theoretical Model For a Fang-French-English Specialized Multi-Volume School
Dictionary.
5. Bibang Oyee, Julián-Bibang (2014). Diccionario Español-Fang/Fang-Español. Akal.
6. Bibang Oyee, Julián (1990). Curso de lengua fang. Centro Cultural Hispano-Guineano

External links
 Bantulanyi (http://www.bantu-languages.com/fr/)
http://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/1229
https://web.archive.org/web/20080630064631/http://monefang.com/parlons1.html Monefang, archived from the
original (2008). Note: This site is mostly in French.
https://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~jcgood/Mve-2013-Fang.pdf

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This page was last edited on 13 August 2018, at 09:34 (UTC).

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