| Lendu | |
|---|---|
| Badha | |
| Spoken in | Congo (DRC) |
| Ethnicity | Lendu, Hema, Alur, Okebu |
| Native speakers | 760,000 (1996) |
| Language family |
Nilo-Saharan?
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | led |
| Linguasphere | 03-BAD |
The Lendu, or Balendru, are an ethno-linguistic agriculturalist group residing in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in the area west and northwest of Lake Albert, in particular the Ituri region of Orientale province. Their language is one of the most populous of the Central Sudanic languages. There are three-quarters of a million Lendu speakers in the DRC, and 10,000 more in Uganda. A conflict between the Lendu and Hema people was the basis of the Ituri conflict.
Ethnologue gives Badha as an alternative name of Lendu, but Blench (2000) lists it as a distinct language.
Besides the Balendru themselves, Lendu is spoken as a native language by a portion of the Hema, Alur, and Okebu.
Demolin (1995) posits that Lendu has voiceless implosives, /ɓ̥ ɗ̥ ɠ̊/ (/ƥ ƭ ƙ/). However, Goyvaerts (1988) had described these as creaky-voiced implosives /ɓ̰ ɗ̰ ɠ̰/, as in Hausa, contrasting with a series of modally voiced implosives /ɓ ɗ ɠ/ as in Kalabari, and Lagefoged judges that this seems to be a more accurate description.[1]