Alumu language

Alumu is a Plateau language spoken by approximately 7,000 people in Nassarawa State, Nigeria. It has lost the nominal affix system characteristic of the Niger–Congo family.

Alumu-Tesu
Native to	Nigeria
Region	Nassarawa State
Native speakers	(7,000 cited 1999)
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Plateau Alumic Alumu-Toro Alumu-Akpondu Alumu-Tesu
Dialects	Alumu Tesu
Language codes
ISO 639-3	aab
Glottolog	alum1246

Dialects

Two varieties, Alumu and Tesu, differ only in intonation. Information for Alumu and Tesu is listed from Blench (2004).

Alumu (or Arum), with 4,000 speakers, is spoken in the settlements of Arum-Kado (main settlement), Arum-Tsabo, Arum-Sarki, Arum-Tumara, Arum-Chugbu, Arum-Kurmi (Gbira), and Arum-Chine.

Tesu (Təsu) (Hausa: Chessu), with just under 2,000 speakers, is spoken in the two villages of Chessu Sarki and Chessu Madaki, which are about one kilometre apart from each other on the Wamba - Fadan Karshi road.

Akpondu is also closely related (also Babur, Nisam and Nigbo) but moribund or extinct, and its classification as a separate language or as a shifting dialect or sociological group of related dialects is not clear.

Phonology

Consonant phonemes

	Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Labialized palatal	Velar	Labialized velar	Glottal
Nasal	m	n	ɲ		ŋ
Plosive	p b	t d	tʃ dʒ		k ɡ	kp ɡb
Implosive	ɓ	ɗ
Fricative	f v	s z	ʃ ʒ		x		h
Approximant		l	j	ɥ		w
Tap		ɾ
Trill		r

Vowel phonemes

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Near-Close	ɪ		ʊ
Close-Mid	e		o
Open-Mid	ɛ	ə	ɔ
Open		a

It is unclear whether or not vowel nasality is phonemic in Alumu.