Recordings of Vute: A Bantoid language of Cameroon
Mbam river. Photo by Gladys Guarisma, 1997. Click on image to access collection.
| Language | Vute |
| Depositor | Alexandre François, Gladys Guarisma |
| Affiliation | CNRS |
| Location | Cameroon |
| Collection ID | 0591 |
| Grant ID | LMG0001 |
| Funding Body | ELDP |
| Collection Status | Collection online |
| Landing Page Handle | http://hdl.handle.net/2196/a789fcf3-042e-457f-980d-753bc3ea3415 |
Summary of the collection
This collection includes mostly linguistic data (lexical, grammatical) on the Vute language (Cameroon). It also features a number of traditional stories.
This collection formed the basis of the publication Guarisma (1978).
Guarisma, Gladys. 1978. Études vouté, langue bantoïde du Cameroun: phonologie et alphabet pratique, synthématique, lexique vouté-français. Paris : SELAF. ISBN: 978-2-85297-040-3.
Group represented
The Vute territory is in Cameroon, currently limited to the north by the 6th parallel, to the south by the Sanaga river, and by the rivers Djerem to the east; Ndjim and Mpem to the west. The Vute are traditionally a population of hunters and warriors.
Language information
The Vute language [vɯ́tѐé], classified by Greenberg as a Bantoid language, is spoken in the Republic of Cameroon by about 14,000 people (estimate of 1971). This study concerns the Mbandjock dialect (also known as Vute Mbanjo), in the center of Vute country.
Collection contents
The recordings represent 17 reel tapes, totalling 12 hours 28’ (digitized as 20 Wav files). Their contents mostly consist in lexical, grammatical and thematic data. They concern the noun phrase; sentence-based questionnaires; verbal questionnaire; Vute texts and stories.
Collection history
This fieldwork allowed us to see the proximity between the Mbandjo and the Yoko dialects. A trip to Mangaï helped contrast the lexicon of Mbandjo from that collected in Ndjoré.
Acknowledgement and citation
Users of the Vute deposit should acknowledge Gladys Guarisma from CNRS–LaCiTO as the principal investigator and the data collector. Alexandre François was in charge of coordinating the deposit, in the broader framework of LAVAFLoW (Legacy audio video archival in fourteen languages of the world).
The audio recordings were made possible through the financial support of CNRS–LaCiTO. The ELDP funding helped our research assistant Ms Anne Armand prepare the archive for online display.
To refer to any data from the collection, please cite as follows:
Guarisma, Gladys. 2020. Recordings of Vute: A Bantoid language of Cameroon. Endangered Languages Archive. Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/2196/00-0000-0000-0013-E144-B. Accessed on [insert date here].
