Kpelle language
The Kpelle /kəˈpɛlə/[3] language (endonym: "Kpɛlɛɛ"[4]) is spoken by the Kpelle people and is part of the Mande family of languages. Guinean Kpelle (known as Guerze in French), spoken by half a million people, concentrated primarily, but not exclusively, in the forest regions of Guinea, whose capital, Nzérékoré, is the third largest city in Guinea and the largest city in the Guinée forestière region of south-eastern Guinea bordering Liberia, Ivory Coast, and Sierra Leone. Liberian Kpelle, spoken by half again as many, is currently taught in schools in Liberia.
| Kpelle | |
|---|---|
| Kpɛlɛwoo | |
| Region | Liberia, Guinea |
Native speakers | (1.3 million cited 1991–2012)[1] |
Niger–Congo ?
| |
| Kpelle syllabary, African reference alphabet | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | kpe |
| ISO 639-3 | kpe – inclusive codeIndividual codes: gkp – Guinea Kpellexpe – Liberia Kpelleknu – Kono |
| Glottolog | kpel1252[2] |
Sample
The Lord's Prayer in Kpelle:[5]
- Kunâŋ gáa ŋele sui,
- Tɔɔ ku iláai siɣe a maa waa.
- Tɔɔ Ikâloŋ-laai é pá,
- Tɔɔ ínîa-mɛni é kέ,
- Nɔii ma ɓɛ yɛ̂ɛ berei gáa la Ɣâla-taai.
- I kukɔ sâa a kuɣele-kuu tɔnɔ-tɔnɔ mii-sɛŋ;
- I ipôlu fe kutɔ̂ŋ-karaa-ŋai dîa,
- Yɛ̂ɛ berei kwa kupôlu fè la kuɓarâai ditɔ̂ŋ-karaa-ŋai dîai;
- Tɔɔ kutúɛ kufe pili yee-laa-maa su,
- Kέlɛ, i kukúla mɛni nyɔ́mɔɔ su.
Phonology
Consonants
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labial-Velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | plain | p | t | k | k͡p | |
| voiced | b | d | ɡ | ɡ͡b | ||
| Implosive | ɓ | |||||
| Fricative | plain | f | s | |||
| voiced | v | z | ɣ | |||
| Trill | r | |||||
| Lateral | l | |||||
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |||
| Approximant | j | w | ||||
gollark: You can rewrite it 5 times and it'll still be quicker than making it work in C.
gollark: But there's no talk of a Python 4 soon.
gollark: I have never actually had this problem aside from the 2/3 split.
gollark: Python is unlikely to change core features around ever and there's tons of warning if they deprecate functions.
gollark: This would be faster and segfault less in Python.
References
- Kpelle at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
Guinea Kpelle at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
Liberia Kpelle at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
Kono at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) - Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Kpelle". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
- Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student’s Handbook, Edinburgh
- "Kpɛlɛɛ Kɔlɔi 2" [Kpelle reader #2]. 2nd ed. Totota: Kpelle Literacy Center, 1959, 1.
- Matthew 6:9-13 in the Gbanaŋ-woo-kɛɛ ninai ["Kpelle New Testament"]. Monrovia: Bible Society in Liberia and United Bible Societies, 1992. Online link.
- Thach, Sharon V.; Dwyer, David J. (1981). Kpelle: A Reference Handbook of Phonetics, Grammar, Lexicon, and Learning Procedures (PDF).
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.