Tegem, also Jebel Tekeim, is a Niger–Congo language spoken in Kordofan, Sudan. It is sometimes considered a dialect of Lafofa, which is poorly attested.
Tegem | |
---|---|
Jebel Tekeim | |
Region | Nuba Hills, Sudan |
Ethnicity | Lafofa |
Native speakers | (5,100 all Lalofa cited 1984)[1] |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | (included in Lafofa [laf]) |
Glottolog | jebe1249 |
Phonology
editConsonants
editLabial | Dental | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Plosive | voiceless | p | t̪ | ʈ | c | k | |||
voiced | b | d̪ | ɟ | ɡ | |||||
prenasal | ᵐb | ⁿd̪ | ᶯɖ | ᶮɟ | ᵑɡ | ||||
Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | |||||
Rhotic | r | ɽ | |||||||
Sonorant | w | l | ɫ | j | h |
- Labialization [ʷ] is also said to occur among sounds.
- The following sounds can occur as geminated, [bː, mː, t̪ː, d̪ː, rː, lː, ɫː, ʈː, cː, ɟː, kː].[2]
Vowels
editFront | Central | Back | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Close | i | u | ||
ɪ | ʊ | |||
Close-mid | e | o | ||
Open-mid | ɛ | ʌ | ɔ | |
Open | æ | a | ɑ |
- Vowel length is also distinctive.
References
edit- ^ Tegem at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ Sosal Altayeb Mohammed Ali, Ahmed (2018). A Phonological Study of the Tegem Language. University of Cape Town.
Sources
edit- Roger Blench, 2011 (ms), "Does Kordofanian constitute a group and if not, where does its languages fit into Niger-Congo?"[1]