Lendu language

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The Lendu language is a Central Sudanic language spoken by the Balendru, an ethno-linguistic agriculturalist group residing in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo in the area west and northwest of Lake Albert, specifically the Ituri Province. It is one of the most populous of the Central Sudanic languages. There are three-quarters of a million Lendu speakers in the DRC. A conflict between the Lendu and the Hema was the basis of the Ituri conflict.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Besides the Balendru, Lendu is spoken as a native language by a portion of the Hema, Alur, and Okebu. In Uganda, the Lendu tribe live in the districts of Nebbi and Zombo districts, northwest of Lake Albert.Template:Citation needed

Names

Ethnologue gives Bbadha as an alternate name of Lendu, but Blench (2000) lists Badha as a distinct language. A draft listing of Nilo-Saharan languages, available from his website and dated 2012, lists Lendu/Badha.

Phonology

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link
Near-close	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link
Mid	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Open		Template:IPA link

Consonants

		Labial	Dental/ Alveolar		Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Labial- velar	Glottal
			Template:Small	Template:Small
Nasal		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link			Template:IPA link	(Template:IPA link)
Stop/ Affricate	Template:Small	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
	Template:Small	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
	Template:Small	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
	Template:Small	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link			Template:IPA link
	Template:Small	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link			Template:IPA link
Fricative	Template:Small	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link				Template:IPA link
	Template:Small	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
	Template:Small			Template:IPA link
Rhotic			Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link
Approximant	Template:Small		Template:IPA link			Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link
	Template:Small							Template:IPA link

• {{#invoke:IPA|main}} is mainly heard as an allophone of {{#invoke:IPA|main}} when preceding velar consonants.

Implosives

Demolin (1995)<ref>Demolin, Didier. 1995. The phonetics and phonology of glottalized consonants in Lendu. In Connell, Bruce and Arvaniti, Amalia (eds.), Phonology and Phonetic Evidence. Papers in Laboratory Phonology IV, 368-385. Cambridge Univ. Press.</ref> posits that Lendu has voiceless implosives, {{#invoke:IPA|main}} ({{#invoke:IPA|main}}). However, Goyvaerts (1988)<ref>Goyvaerts, Didier L. 1988. Glottalized Consonants a New Dimension. Belgian Journal of Linguistics 3. 97-102. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.</ref> had described these as creaky-voiced implosives {{#invoke:IPA|main}}, as in Hausa, contrasting with a series of modally voiced implosives {{#invoke:IPA|main}} as in Kalabari, and Ladefoged judges that this seems to be a more accurate description.<ref>Template:SOWL</ref>

References

• Kutsch-Lojenga, Constance. 1989. The Secret behind Vowelless Syllables in Lendu. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 11. 115–126. Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter.
• Tucker, Archibald N. 1940. Lendu. In The Eastern Sudanic Languages: Volume I, 380–418. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Trifkovic, Mirjana. 1977. Tone preserving vowel reduction in Lendu. Studies in African Linguistics 8. 121–125.