Kuteb language

Kuteb
Ati
Native to Nigeria, Cameroon
Region Taraba State
Ethnicity Kuteb people
Native speakers
 46,000 (2000)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3 kub
Glottolog kute1248[2]

Kuteb (Also known as Kutep or Ati) is a Jukunoid language of Nigeria, spoken by the Kuteb people, with a thousand-or-so speakers across the border in Cameroon.

Phonology

In Kuteb, there are 27 consonant phonemes, 12 vowels , and five tones.[3]

Vowels

In Kuteb, there are two different sets of vowels, oral, and nasal. Phonemically, each set has six different vowels. In total, there are 12 separate phonemes. The status of ɨ being a phoneme in Kuteb is uncertain. This phoneme only occurs in closed syllables, some noun prefixes, and in verbal reduplication where there is neutralization of u and i.[3]

Table of vowel phonemes in Kuteb
Oral Vowels Nasal Vowels
Front Central Back Front Central Back
Close i

/i/

 ɨ

/ɨ/

 u

/u/

 ĩ

/ĩ/

 ũ

/ũ/

Close Mid e

/e/

 o

/o/

 ē

/ẽ/

 ō

/õ/

Near Open ae

/æ/

 ãe

/æ̃/
Open a

/a/

 ã

/ã/

Consonants

Kuteb has 27 different consonant phonemes. The italicized entries are found in common loan words, or, in the case of /v/ and /z/, subdialectical variation. Like most Jukunoid languages, Kuteb has velarized consonants. In one study, these are included not as modifications on the base-phoneme, but as their own separate sound.[4][5]

Table of consonant phonemes in Kuteb
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m

/m/

 n

/n/

 ny

/ɲ/

 ŋ

/ŋ/
Plosive voiced b

/b/

 d

/d/

 g

/g/
unvoiced p

/p/

 t

/t/

 c

/c/

 k

/k/
pre-nasal
voiced		 mb

/m͡b/

 nd

/n͡d/

 nj

/n͡ʒ/

 ŋg

/ŋ͡g/
Affricate ts

/t͡s/
Fricative voiced v

/v/

 z

/z/

 j

/ʒ/
unvoiced f

/f/

 s

/s/

 sh

/ʃ/

 h

/h/

Approximant y

/j/

 w

/w/
Flap r

/ɾ/
Lateral-Approximant l

/l/

Tones

In Kuteb, there are either four or five different tones, depending on how they are counted. The tones that are accepted by multiple studies are the low (unmarked), mid (¯), high (´), and falling (ˆ) tones.

Arguments

According to Roger Blench, there are five different tones in Kuteb, these are: low (unmarked), mid (¯), high (´), falling (ˆ), and rising (ˇ). The fifth tone, (rising) is only created through sandhi changes that affect some vocabulary after an "upstep".[3] According to W.E. Welmers, this sandhi change does not occur, and if it did, only the pronunciation would change, not the written diacritic as well.[6]

Syllable Boundries

In Kutep, like in other Jukunoid language, most consonantal phonemes can either be labialized or palatal. If these changes are taken to be consonantal phonemic clusters, the syllabic boundaries are as follows:[7]

Kuteb (divided syllabically) Kuteb English Translation
N ḿ.m ḿm no
V u.fu ufu door
CV bá bá come
CVC mūm mūm dig
CCV u.kwe ukwe chief
CCVC kwáb kwáb try

N - syllabic nasal, V - vowel, C - consonant

References

  1. ↑ Kuteb at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Kutep". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. 1 2 3 Blench, Roger. Kuteb grammar. p. 19
  4. ↑ Kiyoshi, Shimizu (1980). Comparative Jukunoid. Vienna, Austria: Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für Afrikanistik und Ägyptlogie der Universität Wien. p. 66.
  5. ↑ Blench, Roger. Kuteb grammar. p. 20
  6. ↑ Welmers, W.E. (1948). The Phonology and Morphology of Kuteb (unpublished). Sudan United Mission. pp. 105 & 173.
  7. ↑ Blench, Roger. Kuteb grammar. p. 53-54


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