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 toNigeria
RegionNassarawa State
Native speakers
7,000 (1999)[1]
Dialects
  • Akpondu
Language codes
ISO 639-3aab
Glottologalum1251[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
Consonant phonemes[5]
  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
Vowel phonemes[6]
  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
  1. Alumu at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Alumu–Akpondu". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. Blench, Roger. 2004. Tarok and related languages of east-central Nigeria.
  4. Blench, Roger. 2010. The Təsu language of Central Nigeria and its affinities.
  5. Roger Blench (2012:6)
  6. Roger Blench: The Təsu language of Central Nigeria and its affinities. (2012:5).
  7. Roger Blench (2012:5)
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