Lele language (Chad)

Not to be confused with Lele language (Papua New Guinea), Lele language (Democratic Republic of the Congo), or Lele language (Guinea).
Lele
Native to Chad
Native speakers
 26,000  (1991)[1]
Afro-Asiatic
Language codes
ISO 639-3 lln
Glottolog lele1276[2]

Lele is an East Chadic language spoken in the Tandjilé Region, in the Tandjilé Ouest department, south of Kélo.[1]

Phonology

[3]

Vowels

Lele has five underlying vowels. The mid vowels are lower mid rather than higher mid. All vowels may have long variants.

IPA Chart for Vowels of Lele
  Front Central Back
High [i] [u]
Mid [e] [o]
Low [a]

Consonants

There are some asymmetries in Lele's consonant inventory.

Lele consonants
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Labio-velar Glottal
Nasal [m] [n] [ɲ] [ŋ]
Plosive voiceless [p] [t] [k] [kp]
voiced [b] [d] [ɡ] [ɡb]
implosive [ɓ] [ɗ]
prenasalized [mb] [nd] [ŋb]
Fricative [s] [h]
Trill [r]
Approximant central [w] [j]
lateral [l]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lele at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. ↑ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Lele (Chad)". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
  3. ↑ Frajzyngier, Zygmunt (2001). A Grammar of Lele. Stanford, California: CSLI Publications.

External links