Guruntum language
Guruntum is a Chadic language spoken in Bauchi and Alkaleri LGAs, Bauchi State, Nigeria. In 1993 it was spoken by about 15,000 people.
| Guruntum | |
|---|---|
| Guruntum-Mbaaru | |
| gùrdùŋ | |
| Region | Nigeria |
Native speakers | (15,000 cited 1993)[1] |
Afro-Asiatic
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | grd |
| Glottolog | guru1271 |
| ELP | Guruntum |
Classification
Guruntum is a West Chadic language of the Barawa (B.3) group.
Major dialects include Kuuku, Gayar, Mbaaru, Dooka, Gar and Karakara.
Phonology
Vowels
Guruntum contrasts long and short forms for all vowels except for /ɨ/. In addition, two nasalized vowel phonemes exist: /ũː/ /ãː/.
| Front | Central | Back | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| short | long | short | long | short | long | |
| Close | i | iː | ɨ | u | uː ũː | |
| Mid | e | eː | o | oː | ||
| Open | a | aː ãː | ||||
There are two diphthongs, /ai/ and /au/.
Consonants
| Labial | Alveolar | Postalveolar or palatal |
Velar | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plain | Palatalized | Labialized | Plain | Palatalized | Labialized | ||||
| Nasal | m | mʲ | mʷ | n | nʲ | ŋ | |||
| Stop | prenasalized | ᵐb | ⁿd | ᶮdʒ | ᵑɡ | ᵑɡʲ | ᵑɡʷ | ||
| voiceless | p | pʲ | t | k | kʲ | kʷ | |||
| voiced | b | bʲ | d | dʒ | ɡ | ɡʲ | ɡʷ | ||
| implosive | ɓ | ɗ | |||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | fʲ | fʷ | s | ʃ | |||
| voiced | v | vʷ | z | ʒ | |||||
| Trill | r | ||||||||
| Approximant | l | j | w | ||||||
/r/ is realized as a flap intervocalically before back vowels; elsewhere it is a trill.
Tone
Guruntum has four tones: high, low, rising (low-high) and falling (high-low).
References
- Guruntum at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- Jaggar, Philip J. (1998). "Guruntum (gùrdùŋ) (West Chadic-B): Linguistics notes and wordlist". African Languages and Cultures. 1 (2): 169–189. doi:10.1080/09544168808717689.
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