Duala language

Duala (also spelt Douala, Diwala, Dwela, Dualla and Dwala) 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 (2009) treats Douala as a cluster of five languages: Douala proper, Bodiman, Oli (Ewodi, Wuri), 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 "(I) dance", "makossa". The song Alane by artist Wes Madiko is sung in Duala and reached #1 position in over 9 European countries.

Dictionaries 
 E. Dinkelacker, Wörterbuch der Duala-Sprache, Hamburg, 1914.
 Paul Helmlinger, Dictionnaire duala-français, suivi d'un lexique français-duala. Editions Klincksieck, Paris, 1972.
 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.

References

External links
 Duala alphabet, Omniglot
 DUALA SUN : language and culture
 Ya Jokwa Duala (short dictionary of the French – Duala)
 la langue Duala
 Wiktionnaire, français – duala lemmas
Map of Duala language from the LL-Map project
 Christian films in Douala (video)
 Portail Douala-douala
Résurrection des langues minoritaires
Alphabet camerounais

 
Category:Sawabantu languages
Category:Languages of Cameroon