Budu language

Budu (Ɨbʉdhʉ) is a Bantu language spoken by the Budu people in the Wamba Territory in the Orientale Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its orthography uses the special characters ɨ, ʉ, ɛ and ɔ, as well as modifier letters colon ꞉ and equal sign ꞊ for grammatical tone, marking past and future tense, respectively.

For the language spoken in China, see Budu language (China). For the language of Mali, see Budu Dogon.
Budu
Ɨbʉdhʉ
Native toDemocratic Republic of the Congo
RegionOrientale Province
EthnicityBudu
Native speakers
(180,000 cited 1991)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3buu
Glottologbudu1250
D.332[2]

A variety of this language is called Matta and is spoken locally both north and south of Maboma.

Phonology

Consonants
Labial Alveolar (Alveolo-)
palatal		 Velar Labio-
velar		 Glottal
Plosive voiceless p t c k
voiced b d ɟ ɡ
prenasal ᵐb ⁿd ᶮɟ ᵑɡ
implosive ɓ ɗ ʄ
Affricate voiceless t͡ɕ k͡p
voiced d͡ʑ ɡ͡b
prenasal ᶮd͡ʑ ᵑᵐɡ͡b
Fricative voiceless f s h
voiced v z
prenasal ᶬv
Nasal m n ɲ
Approximant (l) j w
  • [z] only occurs in the Koya dialect of Budu.
  • /h/ can be heard as either a voiced [ɦ] or voiceless [h] among different speakers.[3]
  • /ɗ/ can be heard as [l] or a tap [ɾ] in free variation.[4]

    Vowels
    Front Central Back
    Close i u
    Near-close ɪ ʊ
    Close-mid e o
    Open-mid ɛ ɔ
    Open a

    Notes
    1. Budu at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
    2. Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
    3. Koehler, Loren S. (1995). An Underspecification Approach To Budu Vowel Harmony. Ann Arbor: UMI.
    4. Lojenga, Constance K. (1994). Kibudu: A Bantu Language with nine Vowels. Africana Linguistica XI: Tervuren. pp. 127–133.


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