Duala language


Duala is a dialect cluster spoken by the Duala and Mungo peoples of Cameroon. Douala belongs to the Bantu language family, in a subgroup called Sawabantu. Maho treats Douala as a cluster of five languages: Douala proper, Bodiman, Oli, Pongo and Mongo. He also notes a Douala-based pidgin named Jo.

Popular culture

The song "Soul Makossa", as well as pop songs that repeated its lyrics, internationally popularised the Duala word for " dance", "makossa". The song Alane by artist Wes Madiko is sung in Duala and reached #1 position in at least 10 European countries.

Dictionaries

  1. E. Dinkelacker, Wörterbuch der Duala-Sprache, Hamburg, 1914.
  2. Paul Helmlinger, Editions Klincksieck, Paris, 1972.
  3. 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.