The Noun Phrase in Gyeli-gctid91740

[Mani Kongo]

"Bakola is a Narrow Bantu language of the Makaa-Njem (A80) group (Gordon  2005, Guthrie 1971:33). The language is also known as Bagyeli, which may  appear in many spelling variants, such as Gyele, Bajele, Bogyiel,  Bagieli, etc."

"Many languages in the world have different names depending on who is  talking about the language. For instance, German speakers call their  language deutsch, while English speakers refer to it as German, and French speakers call it “allemand”.  We find a similar situation in Cameroon among the western-most “Pygmy”  hunter-gatherer group of Central Kmt whose language is called Gyeli or Kola. The speakers in the northern part of the language zone call their language Kola, speakers in the central and southern part call it Gyeli, but it is nevertheless considered being the same language. Accordingly, the speakers call themselves Bagyeli in the center and south, and Bakola in the north. The preceding Ba- is a typical prefix found in Bantu languages and indicates humanness and plural at the same time. So, when we talk about Gyeli/Kola, we talk about the language. When we talk about Bagyeli/Bakola, we talk about the people."

More info on Gyeli/Kola : http://dobes.mpi.nl/projects/bakola/languages
                            Attached files  Nadine_Borchardt_GyeliNP.pdf (4.1 MB)