Medumba speaker-linguists, including (in chronological order): Keupdjio 2011, MA thesis (University of Yaounde) on content questions Kouankem 2011, PhD dissertation (University of Yaounde) on nominal syntax Kouankem 2013 on concord Recent work on Medumba is part of a more general push towards documenting the languages of Africa, in the face of rising levels of language endangerment. Cameroon — along with Nigeria, Sudan, and Ethiopia — is reported to have one of the highest language mortality rates in Africa. Literacy and orthography Efforts to develop a Medumba orthography date back to the beginning of the 20th century, and are associated with the following milestones: 1926: Protestant missionaries develop an orthography for use in primary schools to facilitate the penetration of the Christian Bible in the region. 1957: The French administration prohibits the use of local languages in the territories of the Union Française. 1973, 20 December: CEPOM (Comité de Langue pour l'Etude et la Production des Œuvres Bamiléké-Medumba) is created; its mission is to promote research on Medumba and develop literacy materials. Currently, educational materials, literature and dictionaries for the language are produced by CEPOM, based in Bangangte. The combined output of missionary and CEPOM work has produced more than 80 publications on Medumba language and culture; these are published in French, English, and Medumba. Over time, publications in Medumba have used six different orthographies: 1926: published in a collection of 12 songs 1945: published in a book on religious history (Nu Yawe Nsi) and a syllabary 1967: publication of the New Testament (Kàn nswe) and Tshô Pangante 1973: publication of Cam Medumba and zi'te nkite. 1979: publication of Mbwog NkUd MedUmbA and Tons, Textes... 1985, 2 February: adoption of the current orthography at the 4th CEPOM Council The current alphabet is given in Table 1. In addition to simplex consonants, Medumba has numerous complex consonants, and these are represented as digraphs or trigraphs; see Table 2. Nasals, stops, and fricatives can be labialized; in the orthography this is represented as a CW digraph. Stops and fricatives can be pre-nasalized; in the orthography this is represented as an NC digraph or an NCW trigraph. Orthographic conventions for tone-marking are as follows: High-tone is not marked Low-tone is marked as a grave accent on the vowel, e.g. à Rising Low-High is marked as a hatcheck on a single vowel, e.g. ɛˇ Falling High-Low is marked as circumflex on a single vowel, e.g.