Alumu language
Alumu is a Plateau language spoken by approximately 7,000 people in Nassarawa State, Nigeria. It has lost the nominal affix system characteristic of the Niger–Congo family.
Alumu | |
---|---|
Native to | Nigeria |
Region | Nassarawa State |
Native speakers | 7,000 (1999)[1] |
Dialects |
|
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | aab |
Glottolog | alum1251 [2] |
Dialects
Two varieties, Alumu and Tesu, differ only in intonation.[1] Akpondu is closely related. Information for Alumu and Tesu is listed from Blench (2004).[3]
Arum, with 4,000 speakers, is spoken in the settlements of Arum-Kado (main settlement), Arum-Tsabo, Arum-Sarki, Arum-Tumara, Arum-Chugbu, Arum-Kurmi (Gbira), and Arum-Chine.
Tesu (Təsu) (Hausa: Chessu[4]), with just under 2,000 speakers, is spoken in the two villages of Chessu Sarki and Chessu Madaki, which are about one kilometre apart from each other on the Wamba - Fadan Karshi road.
Phonology
Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Labialized palatal |
Velar | Labialized velar |
Glottal | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | |||
Plosive | p b | t d | tʃ dʒ | k ɡ | kp ɡb | ||
Implosive | ɓ | ɗ | |||||
Fricative | f v | s z | ʃ ʒ | x | h | ||
Approximant | l | j | ɥ | w | |||
Tap | ɾ | ||||||
Trill | r |
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | i | u | |
Near-Close | ɪ | ʊ | |
Close-Mid | e | o | |
Open-Mid | ɛ | ə | ɔ |
Open | a | ||
It is unclear whether or not vowel nasality is phonemic in Alumu.[7]
References
- Alumu at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Alumu–Akpondu". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
- Blench, Roger. 2004. Tarok and related languages of east-central Nigeria.
- Blench, Roger. 2010. The Təsu language of Central Nigeria and its affinities.
- Roger Blench (2012:6)
- Roger Blench: The Təsu language of Central Nigeria and its affinities. (2012:5).
- Roger Blench (2012:5)