Kumam | |
---|---|
Ikokolemu | |
Native to | Uganda |
Region | Teso District |
Ethnicity | Kumam people |
Native speakers | 270,000 (2014 census) [1] |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 |
kdi |
Glottolog |
kuma1275 |
Kumam is a language of the Southern Lwoo group [3] spoken by the Kumam people of Uganda. It is estimated that the Kumam dialect has 82 percent lexical similarity with the Acholi dialect, 81 percent with the Lango dialect. [4]
Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Stop | voiceless | p | t | c | k |
voiced | b | d | ɟ | g | |
Fricative | ( f) [1] | ( s) [1] | |||
Lateral | l | ||||
Trill | r | ||||
Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | |
Semivowel | w | j |
Gemination can occur due to morphological processes, for example del 'skin' + -ná → dellá 'my skin'. [3]
Kumam has ten vowels, with a vowel harmony system based on presence or absence of advanced tongue root (ATR). [3]
[-ATR] | [+ATR] | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Front | Back | Front | Back | |
Close | ɪ | i | u | |
Mid | ɛ | ɔ | e | o |
Open | a | ɑ |
Vowels have no distinction in length, except due to some morphological processes, for instance compensatory lengthening that occurs when applying the transitive infinitive suffix -nɔ: ted- 'cook' + -ne → *ted-do → teedo 'to cook'. [3]
There exist six tones: low, high, falling, rising, downstep high and double downstep high. [3]
Tone | Transcription |
---|---|
low | [à] |
high | [á] |
falling | [â] |
rising | [ǎ] |
downstep high | [!á] |
double downstep high | [!!á] |
Kumam exhibits tone sandhi in two ways. The first is the spreading of high tonemes rightwards to the following words beginning with a low tonemes, as in ɑbúké 'eyelash' + waŋ 'eye' → abúké wâŋ 'eyelash'. The second is when a floating high toneme is followed by a word beginning in a low toneme, where the floating tone is assigned to the following word and not the word bearing the floating tone: cogó 'bone' + rac 'bad' → cogo râc 'The bone is bad.' [3]
Transitive stems are constructed by applying the suffix -ɔ (yɛŋ 'be satisfied' → yɛŋ-ɔ 'satisfy'). A subset of transitive verbs can have the suffix -ɛ́rɛ́ applied to form what Hieda calls a 'middle form' (nɛ́n-ɔ → nɛ́!nɛ́rɛ́ 'be seen'). [3]
Hello – yoga
How are you? –Itiye benyo (singular), Itiyenu benyo (plural)
Fine, and you? – Atiye ber, arai bon yin?
Fine – Atiye ber or just ber
What is your name? – Nying in en Ngai?
My name is ... – Nying ango en ...
Name --- Nying
Nice to see you. --- Apwoyo Neno in (also: Apwoyo Neno wun)
See you again --- Oneno bobo
Book – Itabo
Because – Pi Ento
The first sentence in the bible can be translated as I ya gege, Rubanga ocweo wi polo kede piny ("In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth" ).
Kumam | |
---|---|
Ikokolemu | |
Native to | Uganda |
Region | Teso District |
Ethnicity | Kumam people |
Native speakers | 270,000 (2014 census) [1] |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 |
kdi |
Glottolog |
kuma1275 |
Kumam is a language of the Southern Lwoo group [3] spoken by the Kumam people of Uganda. It is estimated that the Kumam dialect has 82 percent lexical similarity with the Acholi dialect, 81 percent with the Lango dialect. [4]
Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Stop | voiceless | p | t | c | k |
voiced | b | d | ɟ | g | |
Fricative | ( f) [1] | ( s) [1] | |||
Lateral | l | ||||
Trill | r | ||||
Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | |
Semivowel | w | j |
Gemination can occur due to morphological processes, for example del 'skin' + -ná → dellá 'my skin'. [3]
Kumam has ten vowels, with a vowel harmony system based on presence or absence of advanced tongue root (ATR). [3]
[-ATR] | [+ATR] | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Front | Back | Front | Back | |
Close | ɪ | i | u | |
Mid | ɛ | ɔ | e | o |
Open | a | ɑ |
Vowels have no distinction in length, except due to some morphological processes, for instance compensatory lengthening that occurs when applying the transitive infinitive suffix -nɔ: ted- 'cook' + -ne → *ted-do → teedo 'to cook'. [3]
There exist six tones: low, high, falling, rising, downstep high and double downstep high. [3]
Tone | Transcription |
---|---|
low | [à] |
high | [á] |
falling | [â] |
rising | [ǎ] |
downstep high | [!á] |
double downstep high | [!!á] |
Kumam exhibits tone sandhi in two ways. The first is the spreading of high tonemes rightwards to the following words beginning with a low tonemes, as in ɑbúké 'eyelash' + waŋ 'eye' → abúké wâŋ 'eyelash'. The second is when a floating high toneme is followed by a word beginning in a low toneme, where the floating tone is assigned to the following word and not the word bearing the floating tone: cogó 'bone' + rac 'bad' → cogo râc 'The bone is bad.' [3]
Transitive stems are constructed by applying the suffix -ɔ (yɛŋ 'be satisfied' → yɛŋ-ɔ 'satisfy'). A subset of transitive verbs can have the suffix -ɛ́rɛ́ applied to form what Hieda calls a 'middle form' (nɛ́n-ɔ → nɛ́!nɛ́rɛ́ 'be seen'). [3]
Hello – yoga
How are you? –Itiye benyo (singular), Itiyenu benyo (plural)
Fine, and you? – Atiye ber, arai bon yin?
Fine – Atiye ber or just ber
What is your name? – Nying in en Ngai?
My name is ... – Nying ango en ...
Name --- Nying
Nice to see you. --- Apwoyo Neno in (also: Apwoyo Neno wun)
See you again --- Oneno bobo
Book – Itabo
Because – Pi Ento
The first sentence in the bible can be translated as I ya gege, Rubanga ocweo wi polo kede piny ("In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth" ).