Variation in the realization of /t/ in Babanki Tungoh

International audience In Babanki, a Grassfields Bantu language of Cameroon (Hyman 1980, Akumbu and Chibaka 2012), the voiceless alveolar plosive /t/ is realized before high vowels in the Babanki Tungoh variety either as [t], [tʃ], or [ty], as in the following words. (1)ə̀tí‘grinding stone’ tɨ́m‘send’ tú‘pierce’(2)kə̀tʃɨ́ ~kə̀tyɨ́‘stick’ ə̀tʃʉ̀ ~ə̀tyʉ̀‘mouth’ tʃʉ́ŋ ~tyʉ́ŋ‘tie’While this kind of variation has been reported in Medʉmba, another Grassfields Bantu language (Belew 2021), the social variables such as age and gender that condition the variation in Medʉmba do not show any significant effects in the Babanki Tungoh variety. WhatsApp recordings of the realization of 12 lexical items containing the alveolar plosive in various environments by 56 native speakers from the two Babanki villages in December 2023 were coded impressionistically and examined. Additional data were taken from existing literature and from conversations with native speakers. The study suggests that the speakers’ place of birth, residence and socialization (contact with speakers of the Big Babanki, and family) play a greater role in conditioning the form produced. An examination of the conditions that determine the choice of one or the other variable suggests that the sociophonetic variation in the realization of Babanki Tungoh /t/ has spread widely through the community overriding the social factors such as gender and age that may have been at its origin. It is unclear whether the change was originated and led by men or women (see, for example, Labov 2001) or whether there are any social meanings to the change (e.g., Feldman-Savelsburg 2003).