Kanembu language

Category:Articles with short descriptionCategory:Short description is different from Wikidata
Kanembu
Kanembou
كَنٜݦُ
Native toChad
RegionBarh el Gazel, Hadjer-Lamis
EthnicityKanembu
Native speakers
880,000 (2019)[1]
Early form
Dialects
  • Karkawu
  • Mando
  • Nguri
Language codes
ISO 639-2kbl
ISO 639-3Either:
kbl – Kanembu
txj – Old Kanembu
Glottologkane1243
Linguasphere02-AAA-bCategory:Language articles with Linguasphere code
Category:Languages with ISO 639-2 code

Kanembu is a Nilo-Saharan language spoken in Chad by the Kanembu people. It is also spoken by a smaller number of people in Niger. It is closely related to Kanuri.

Phonology

Consonants

Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Plosive voiceless p t c k ʔ
voiced b d ɟ ɡ
prenasal ᵐb ⁿd ᶮɟ ᵑɡ
Fricative f s ʃ h
Trill r
Approximant w l j

Vowels

Front Central Back
Close i u
Near-close ɪ ʊ
Close-mid e ə o
Open-mid ɛ ɜ ɔ
Open a
  • Vowel length is also distributed.

Writing system

Kanembu is written with the Latin script and Ajami alphabets.

In 2009, the Chadian government standardized both Latin and Ajami scripts for all indigenous languages of the country, including Kanembu, in what is known as Chadian National Alphabet.[3][4]

Kanembu Latin alphabet [5][6]
A aB bC cD dE e Ə əF fG gH hI iJ jK k
[a][b][t͡ʃ][d][e][ə][f][g][h][i][d͡ʒ][k]
L lM mN nO oPp R rS sT tU uW wY y
[l][m][n][o][p][r][s][t][u][w][j]

The letters ⟨â, ê, î, ô, û⟩ are also used. The orthography also uses the digraphs ⟨ch, mb, nd, ng, nj⟩.

The Ajami script has been used for Kanembu, since the time of Dunama Dabbalemi, and still today in the Tarjumo language or in religious works.

Kanembu Arabic alphabet[3][4]
Arabic
(Latin)
[IPA]		 أ إ‎
‌( - )
[∅]/[ʔ]		 ب‎
(B b)
[b]		 ت‎
(T t)
[t]		 ث‎
(S s)
[s]		 ج‎
(J j)
[ɟ]		 ڃ‎
(Nj nj)
[ᶮɟ]
Arabic
(Latin)
[IPA]		 چ‎
(C c)
[t͡ʃ]		 ح‎
(H h)
[h]		 خ‎
(Kh kh)
[x]		 د‎
(D d)
[d]		 ڊ‎
(Nd nd)
[ⁿd]		 ذ‎
(S s)
[s]
Arabic
(Latin)
[IPA]		 ر‎
(R r)
[r]		 ز‎
(S s)
[s]		 س‎
(S s)
[s]		 ش‎
(Ch ch)
[ʃ]		 ص‎
(S s)
[s]		 ض‎
(D d)
[d]
Arabic
(Latin)
[IPA]		 ط‎
(T t)
[t]		 ظ‎
(Z z)
[z]		 ع‎
( - )
[ʔ]		 غ‎
(Kh kh)
[x]		 ڠ‎
(Ng ng)
[ᵑɡ]		 ف‎
(F f)
[f]
Arabic
(Latin)
[IPA]		 ق‎
(G g)
[g]		 ك‎
(K k)
[k]		 ل‎
(L l)
[l]		 م‎
(M m)
[m]		 ݦ‎
(Mb mb)
[ᵐb]		 ن‎
(N n)
[n]
Arabic
(Latin)
[IPA]		 ه‎
(H h)
[h]		 و‎
(W w)
[w]		 ؤ‎
‌( - )
[ʔ]		 ي‎
(Y y)
[j]		 ئ‎
‌( - )
[ʔ]
Vowel at beginning of word
AEƏIOU
أَ‎ إٜ‎ أ٘‎ إِ‎ أٗ‎ أُ‎
AaEeƏəIiOoUu
آ‎ إٜيـ‎ - إِيـ‎ أٗو‎ أُو‎
Vowel at middle and end of word
aeəiou
◌َ‎ ◌ٜ‎ ٘◌‎ ◌ِ‎ ٝ◌‎ ◌ُ‎
aaeeəəiioouu
◌َا / ـَا‎ ◌ٜيـ / ـٜيـ‎
◌ٜي / ـٜي‎		 ٘◌ا / ـ٘ا‎ ◌ِيـ / ـِيـ‎
◌ِي / ـِي‎		 ٝ◌و / ـٝو‎ ◌ُو / ـُو‎

Notes

  1. ↑ Kanembu at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access iconCategory:Language articles citing Ethnologue 25
    Old Kanembu at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access iconCategory:Language articles citing Ethnologue 25
  2. ↑ Jouannet 1982.
  3. 1 2 Warren-Rothlin, Andy. (2014). West African Scripts and Arabic-Script Orthographies in Socio-Political Context. DOI: 10.1163/9789004256804_013.
  4. 1 2 Priest, Lorna A.; Hosken, Martin (12 August 2010). Proposal to add Arabic script characters for African and Asian languages (PDF). (Archive)
  5. ↑ SIL Chad 2017a.
  6. ↑ SIL Chad 2017b.

References

Category:Saharan languages Category:Languages of Chad
Category:Articles with short description Category:CS1 French-language sources (fr) Category:Language articles citing Ethnologue 25 Category:Language articles with Linguasphere code Category:Languages of Chad Category:Languages with ISO 639-2 code Category:Pages with plain IPA Category:Saharan languages Category:Short description is different from Wikidata