Mono language (Congo)

For other uses, see Mono language.

Mono is a language spoken by about 65,000 people in the northwestern corner of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is one of the Banda languages, a subbranch of the Ubangian branch of the Niger–Congo languages. It has five dialects: Bili, Bubanda, Mpaka, Galaba, and Kaga.

Mono
Native to	Democratic Republic of the Congo
Region	Northwestern corner of Congo (DRC)
Native speakers	(65,000 cited 1984 census)
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta–Congo Savanna? Ubangian Banda Central Banda Mid-Southern Mono
Language codes
ISO 639-3	mnh
Glottolog	mono1270
ELP	Mono (Democratic Republic of the Congo)

Mono has 33 consonant phonemes, including three labial-velar stops (/k͡p/, /ɡ͡b/, and prenasalized /ᵑ͡ᵐɡ͡b/), an asymmetrical eight-vowel system, and a labiodental flap /ⱱ/ (allophonically a bilabial flap [ⱱ̟]) that contrasts with both /v/ and /w/. It is a tonal language.

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Post-alv./ Palatal	Velar	Labial- Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m ⟨m⟩	n ⟨n⟩	ɲ ⟨ny⟩
Plosive/ Affricate	Voiceless	p ⟨p⟩	t ⟨t⟩	tʃ ⟨tsh⟩	k ⟨k⟩	k͡p ⟨kp⟩	ʔ ⟨'⟩
	Voiced	b ⟨b⟩	d ⟨d⟩	dʒ ⟨dj⟩	g ⟨g⟩	ɡ͡b ⟨gb⟩
	Prenasalized	ᵐb ⟨mb⟩	ⁿd ⟨nd⟩	ⁿdʒ ⟨ndj⟩	ᵑɡ ⟨ng⟩	ᵑ͡ᵐɡ͡b ⟨ngb⟩
	Implosive	ɓ ⟨'b⟩	ɗ ⟨'d⟩
Fricative	Voiceless	f ⟨f⟩	s ⟨s⟩	ʃ ⟨sh⟩			h ⟨h⟩
	Voiced	v ⟨v⟩	z ⟨z⟩	ʒ ⟨j⟩
Trill/Tap		ⱱ ~ ⱱ̟ ⟨vw⟩	r ⟨r⟩
Approximant			l ⟨l⟩	j ⟨y⟩		w ⟨w⟩

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i ⟨i⟩	ɨ ⟨ɨ⟩	u ⟨u⟩
Close-mid	e ⟨e⟩	ə ⟨œ⟩	o ⟨o⟩
Open-mid			ɔ ⟨ɔ⟩
Open		a ⟨a⟩

Tones

	High	Mid	Low
IPA	˥ ⟨á⟩	˧ ⟨ā⟩	˩ ⟨à⟩
Description	High Level	Mid Level	Low Level
Transcription	á	a	à
Example	áwá ⟨áwá⟩	āwā ⟨awa⟩	àwà ⟨àwà⟩
English Meaning	"diarrhea"	"road"	"fear"

References

• Kamanda-Kola, Roger. 2003. Phonologie et morpho-syntaxe du mono: Langue oubanguienne du Congo R.D. (LINCOM Studies in African Linguistics 60). Munich: LINCOM EUROPA.
• Olson, Kenneth S. (2004), "Mono" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34 (2): 233–238, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001744
• Olson, Kenneth S. 2005. The phonology of Mono (SIL International and the University of Texas at Arlington Publications in Linguistics 140). Dallas: SIL & UTA.
• Olson, Kenneth S. & Brian E. Schrag. 2000. 'An overview of Mono phonology'. In H. Ekkehard Wolff & Orin Gensler (eds.), Proceedings from the 2nd World Congress of African Linguistics, Leipzig 1997, 393–409. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.

External links

• SIL article on new phonetic symbol for labiodental flap