Kumam dialect

Kumam is a mixture of Ateker languages and broken Luo (Lwo) languages spoken by the Kumam people of Uganda. It is estimated that the Kumam dialect has 81 percent dialect with the Lango dialect and 20 percent with the Teso language.[2]

Kumam
Ikokolemu
Native toUganda
RegionTeso District
EthnicityKumam people
Native speakers
270,000 (2014 census)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3kdi
Glottologkuma1275

Phonology

Consonants
Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar
Stop voiceless p t c k
voiced b d ɟ g
Fricative (f)[decimal 1] (s)[decimal 1]
Lateral l
Trill r
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Semivowel w j
  1. Fricatives occur only in borrowed words.

Gemination can occur due to morphological processes, for example del 'skin' + -ná → dellá 'my skin'.[3]

Vowels

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]

Tone

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]

Basic lexicon

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" ).

References
  1. Kumam at Ethnologue (22nd ed., 2019) closed access
  2. "Kumam". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2020-09-28.
  3. Hieda, Osamu (2020). "Kumam". The Oxford Handbook of African Languages: 611–629. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199609895.001.0001.


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