Tetela language
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Tetela (Otetela, Kitetela, Kikitatela), also Sungu, is a Bantu language of northern Kasai-Oriental Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is spoken by the Tetela people.
Phonology
Consonants
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||
| Plosive/ Affricate | voiceless | p | t | t͡ʃ | k | |
| voiced | b | d | d͡ʒ | (ɡ) | ||
| prenasal | ᵐb | ⁿd | ᶮd͡ʒ | ᵑɡ | ||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ʃ | h | |
| voiced | v | |||||
| prenasal | ᶬv | |||||
| Lateral | l | |||||
| Approximant | j | w |
- [ɡ] is heard as an allophone of /k/ in intervocalic positions.
Vowels
Noun classes
Like other Bantu languages, Tetela grammar arranges nouns into a number of classes. The ancestral system had 22 classes (counting singular and plural as distinct according to the Meinhof system), with most Bantu languages sharing at least ten of them.
classsemanticsprefixsingulartranslationpluraltranslation 1, 2 persons o-/ɔ-/w-, a-omfúnjíscribe, secretaryamfúnjíscribes, secretaries 3, 4 trees, etc o-/ɔ-/w-, e-/ɛ-ojjaplaceejjaplaces; region 5, 6 various di-/dy-, a-dihamvúfruit of Chrysophyllum lacourtianumahamvúfruits of Chrysophyllum lacourtianum 7, 8 various ke-/e-, di-/dy-kesashichiefdisashichiefs 9, 10 animals, etc Ø-/N-, Ø-/N-mbódígoatmbódígoats 11, 10 abstract concepts, etc lo-, N-lolémílanguagenémílanguages 12, 13 various ka-/k-, to-/t-kashikɛhelmet (from French casque)toshikɛhelmets 19, 13 various °i- (complex morphology), to-/t-jɔ́ndɔ́???tɔlɔ́ndɔ́???
Relevant literature
- Elysee Meta Okubo. 2016. A COLLECTION OF 100 TETELA PROVERBS.
- Mukanga, Ndjeka Elizabeth, Empenge Albert Shefu, Ambaye Albertine Tshefu. 2020. Great Collection of Tetela Proverbs on the African Wisdom. Pittsburgh: Dorrance Publishers. [283 proverbs, 107 pages]