Bom-Kim

Abstract The Bom-Kim dialect cluster in Sierra Leone, a member of the South Atlantic family within Niger-Congo, features an areally common segmental structure with a labial-velar (labiovelar) stop and prenasalized consonants, whereas tone is only marginally distinct lexically. It has a rather classic Niger-Congo noun class system, but a restricted system of verbal extensions or derivational suffixes. It combines a system of prepositions with postpositions, the latter specifying the search domain for objects. Next to the major categories nouns and verbs, there is a small category of adjectives and adverbs. Limited knowledge of ideophonic words among modern speakers of Bom-Kim may be interpreted as an instantiation of language obsolescence, as Bom-Kim is an endangered language.