Morphological and Syntactic Insights into Shupamem Numerals
Abass Ngoungouo Yiagnigni
University of Yaoundé 1, Cameroun
abass.ngoungouo@univ-yaounde1.cm
ORCID: 0009-0007-2321-9717
Abstract
This paper provides an in-depth analysis of the complex numerical system in Shupamem, a Grassfield Bantu language spoken in Cameroon. It explores the formation of both elemental and compound cardinal numbers, elucidating the morphological processes involved, such as the use of prefixes and specific linking morphemes. The study further examines how cardinals function as modifiers of noun phrases, highlighting their nuanced positional flexibility and the associated morphological changes contingent upon the complexity of the numeral. Moreover, the paper investigates the systematic derivation of ordinal numbers from their cardinal counterparts. Grounded in a descriptive linguistic methodology based on authentic native speaker data, this research uncovers a highly structured and yet nuanced numerical system. The findings reveal Shupamem’s distinct strategies for number formation, nominal modification, and ordinal derivation, thereby contributing to the typological understanding of numeral systems, particularly within the vast and diverse landscape of Bantu languages. This analysis offers empirical data that can inform broader theories of quantification and linguistic encoding of numerical concepts.
Keywords: Bantu Languages, cardinals, counting system, Linguistic Typology, Morphology, numerals, ordinals, quantification, Shupamem, Syntax
How to Cite this Paper :
Yiagnigni, A. N.(2026). Morphological and Syntactic Insights into Shupamem Numerals. Atras Journal, 7(1), 199-216
References:
Bernander, R., Laine, A. O., & Aunio, L. (2020). The numeral system(s) in Western Serengeti: Formal, functional, and historical inferences. Languages and Cultures, 54, 20–43.
Binam Bikoi, C. (2012). Atlas linguistique du Cameroun (ALCAM). CERDOTOLA.
Comrie, B. (2005). Numeral systems. In M. Haspelmath, M. Dryer, D. Gil, & B. Comrie (Eds.), The world atlas of language structures online. Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. https://wals.info/chapter/131
Croft, W. (2003). Typology and universals (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Currie, T. E., et al. (2022). Phylogeographic analysis of the Bantu language expansion. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(31), e2112853119. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2112853119
Dieu, M., & Renaud, P. (Eds.). (1983). Atlas linguistique de l’Afrique centrale (ALAC): Atlas linguistique du Cameroun (ALCAM). Agence de Coopération Culturelle et Technique.
Doke, C. M. (1935). Bantu linguistic terminology. Longman, Green and Co.
Greenberg, J. H. (1978). Generalizations about numeral systems. In J. H. Greenberg (Ed.), Universals of human language: Volume 3, Word structure (pp. 249–295). Stanford University Press.
Güldemann, T. (2023). Animacy-based gender systems in Central Africa. Africana Linguistica, 29, 67–123.
Guthrie, M. (1967–1971). Comparative Bantu: An introduction to the comparative linguistics and prehistory of the Bantu languages (Vols. 1–4). Gregg International.
Kofi, A., et al. (2025). Semantic and morphophonological productivity in the Kîîtharaka noun class system. Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics, 10(1), 1–32. https://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.XXXX
Maho, J. F. (2003). The Bantu bibliography. Department of Oriental and African Languages, Göteborg University.
Morphosyntactic variation in East African Bantu languages: Descriptive and comparative approaches. (2024). Contemporary African Linguistics, 8, 1–250.
Nchare, N. (2012). The grammar of Shupamem (Unpublished Doctoral dissertation). City University of New York, NY.
Nurse, D., & Philippson, G. (Eds.). (2003). The Bantu languages. Routledge.
Copyright for all articles published in ATRAS belongs to the author. The authors also grant permission to the publisher to publish, reproduce, distribute, and transmit the articles. ATRAS publishes accepted papers under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) License. Authors submitting papers for publication in ATRAS agree to apply the CC BY-NC 4.0 license to their work. For non-commercial purposes, anyone may copy, redistribute material, remix, transform, and construct material in any media or format, provided that the terms of the license are observed and the original source is properly cited.