Nyamu language

Nyamu
Nyamu
Pronunciation	[ˈɲamu]
Native to	Khobeh
Ethnicity	Nyamu
Native speakers	xxx xxx
Language family	Juru Bossoid Bosso Nyamu
Writing system	xxx
Official status
Official language in	Khobeh

Nyamu (/ˈɲámú/) is a Juru language native to the Nyamu people of eastern Nkungu, and one of the official languages of Khobeh. While majority of Nyamu speakers are of Nyamu ethnicity, most populations of Hlong, Gara, and Nganka people, among others, also speak Nyamu as a second language. Out of the Juru languages, Nyamu is most closely related to the Hlong language spoken in northern Khobeh. Being the widest spoken Juru language, it is used as a lingua franca within the eastern Nkungu area.

Varieties

Ṣalā

Ṣalā (from ṣa ilā, "high tongue"), also known as ṣa felila ("noble tongue") is the highest register of Nyamu, spoken amongst and towards nobles, religious officials, kings, and gods. This register of Nyamu is often distinguished by the use of past tense pronouns retained from Bosso, which are obsolete in standard speech, and the frequent use of lengthy honorifics and phrases. Ṣalā is also used in formal writing.

Kafue Nyamu

Kafue Nyamu is the main urban dialect spoken in the Kafue province of Khobeh. The dialect is heavily influenced by Hlong and Gara due to the prevalence of their respective diasporas in the area.

Phonology

Nyamu consonants

			Labial	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Palatal	Velar
							plain	labial
Nasal			m	n		ɲ	ŋ
Plosive	normal	voiceless	p	t			k	k͡p
		aspirated	pʰ	tʰ			kʰ	k͡pʰ
		voiced	b	d			g	ɡ͡b
	prenasalized	voiceless	ᵐp	ⁿt			ᵑk
		voiced	ᵐb	ⁿd			ᵑg
Fricative	normal	voiceless	f	s	ɕ		x
		voiced	v	z	ʑ
	prenasalized	voiceless		ⁿs
		voiced		ⁿz
Affricate	normal	voiceless		ts	t͡ɕ
		voiced		dz	d͡ʑ
	prenasalized	voiceless			ⁿt͡ɕ
		voiced			ⁿd͡ʑ
Tap				ɾ
Approximant			w			j

• In certain dialects of Nyamu (especially Kafue), tapped /ɾ/ is realized as an approximant [ɹ~l]

Nyamu vowels

	Front	Back
Closed	i	u
Closed-mid	e	o
Open-mid	ɛ	ɔ
Open	a

Word-final vowels are deleted when followed by a vowel-initial word (e.g. dama ɔmɔ /ˈdám ɔ́mɔ́/), unless the word is a single-syllable word (e.g. ña ɔmɔ /ˈɲá ɔ́mɔ́/). Prepositions and conjunctions are exempt from this.

Tones

Nyamu has two tones; high and low. In romanization, high tone is left unmarked while low tone is marked with a grave accent ⟨à⟩

Morphology

Nouns

Nyamu nouns inflect by case, number, and class. Nyamu has two noun classes - denoted as “class 1” or “C1” and “class 2” or “C2” - corresponding to different inflections. C1 inflections are also used for pronouns as well as nouns. Nyamu has six cases: nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, instrumental/comitative, and locative.

	class 1 / pronominal ex: ùdu ("fish")		class 2 ex: canda ("goat")
	singular	plural	singular	plural
nominative	∅ ùdu	-i ùdi	∅ canda	-na candana
accusative	-a ùda	-ì* ùdì	-u candu	-ū̀* candū̀
genitive	-la ùdula	-ru ùduru	-u candu	-wu candawu
dative	-u ùdū		-yi candayi
instrumental/ comitative	-wu ùduwu	-nu ùdunu	-cù* candacù	-cà* candacà
locative	-da ùduda	-yi ùduyi	-ra candara	-li candali

Case suffixes usually assimilate in tone with the syllable preceding it or the vowel it's replacing, except in forms marked with an asterisk (*), which stay as low tones regardless

Many nouns (as well as other parts of speech in Nyamu) have irregular stems, e.g mbɔ̀lù, which becomes mbɔ̀lɔ̀(m)- when inflected

Verbs

Nyamu verbs inflect by tense, mood, and polarity.

ex: la [la(r)-] ("to do")

	positive		negative
	nonpast	past	nonpast	past
indicative	∅ la	-a lara	-wu lawu	-mɔ lamɔ
desiderative	-lu lalu	-ŋi laŋi	-li lali	-la lala
conditional	-ra lara	-ɔ larɔ	-ri lari

Gerund is formed through affixes -bì (positive) and -bò (negative). They can be combined with singular C1 case suffixes; for example:

• màra jūbìlà ("place for/of eating"), from verb jū (to eat), -bì gerund affix, and -la C1 genitive affix
• Nṣe mbàbìdà ɔ̀kɔbata ("They went away crying", lit. "in crying"), from verb mbà (to cry), -bì gerund affix, and -da C1 locative affix

Pronouns

Nyamu personal pronouns

		singular		plural
		nonpast	past	nonpast	past
first person		ya		kà	kɛ
second person	informal	wa		cū
	formal	kɔ	ku	ñū
third person		kù	kɛ̀	nṣe	ŋa
indefinite		ca	cū	nṣe
demonstrative	proximal	ka nsà	sī nsà	ca nsà	ce nsà
	distal	ka lū̀	sī lū̀	ka lū̀	sī lū̀
interrogative		tà	te	ti	te

Past tense pronouns are obsolete in standard speech, reserved for ṣalā.