Guruntum language

Guruntum is a Chadic language spoken in Bauchi and Alkaleri LGAs, Bauchi State, Nigeria. In 1993 it was spoken by about 15,000 people.

Guruntum
Guruntum-Mbaaru
gùrdùŋ
Region	Nigeria
Native speakers	(15,000 cited 1993)
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Chadic West Barawa (B.3) Guruntum languages Guruntum
Language codes
ISO 639-3	grd
Glottolog	guru1271
ELP	Guruntum

Classification

Guruntum is a West Chadic language of the Barawa (B.3) group.

Major dialects include Kuuku, Gayar, Mbaaru, Dooka, Gar and Karakara.

Phonology

Vowels

Guruntum contrasts long and short forms for all vowels except for /ɨ/. In addition, two nasalized vowel phonemes exist: /ũː/ /ãː/.

	Front		Central		Back
	short	long	short	long	short	long
Close	i	iː	ɨ		u	uː ũː
Mid	e	eː			o	oː
Open			a	aː ãː

There are two diphthongs, /ai/ and /au/.

Consonants

		Labial			Alveolar	Postalveolar or palatal	Velar
		Plain	Palatalized	Labialized			Plain	Palatalized	Labialized
Nasal		m	mʲ	mʷ	n	nʲ	ŋ
Stop	prenasalized	ᵐb			ⁿd	ᶮdʒ	ᵑɡ	ᵑɡʲ	ᵑɡʷ
	voiceless	p	pʲ		t		k	kʲ	kʷ
	voiced	b	bʲ		d	dʒ	ɡ	ɡʲ	ɡʷ
	implosive	ɓ			ɗ
Fricative	voiceless	f	fʲ	fʷ	s	ʃ
	voiced	v		vʷ	z	ʒ
Trill					r
Approximant					l	j			w

/r/ is realized as a flap intervocalically before back vowels; elsewhere it is a trill.

Tone

Guruntum has four tones: high, low, rising (low-high) and falling (high-low).

References

• Jaggar, Philip J. (1998). "Guruntum (gùrdùŋ) (West Chadic-B): Linguistics notes and wordlist". African Languages and Cultures. 1 (2): 169–189. doi:10.1080/09544168808717689.