Lele
Native toChad
Native speakers
(26,000 cited 1991)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3lln
Glottologlele1276

Lele is an East Chadic language spoken in the Tandjilé Region, in the Tandjilé Ouest department, south of Kélo.[1]

Phonology

Vowels

Lele has five underlying vowels. The mid vowels are lower mid rather than higher mid. All vowels may have long variants.[2]

IPA Chart for Vowels of Lele
  Front Central Back
High [i][u]
Mid [e][o]
Low [a]

Consonants

There are some asymmetries in Lele's consonant inventory.

Lele consonants
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Labio-velar Glottal
Nasal [m] [n] [ɲ] [ŋ]
Plosive voiceless [p] [t] [k] [kp]
voiced [b] [d] [ɡ] [ɡb]
implosive [ɓ] [ɗ]
prenasalized [mb] [nd] [ŋb]
Fricative [s] [h]
Trill [r]
Approximant central [w] [j]
lateral [l]

Grammar

Nouns

Nouns are grammatically masculine or feminine, but there are no morphological markings of gender on the nouns.[2]: 55  This distinction is only seen in the agreement system (covert gender). Only a subset of nouns are marked for plural: large animals, kinship terms and a few inanimate objects. Plurals nouns are marked in a variety of ways including a suffix /-e/ or /-we/ and an infix /-a-/.[2]: 56  There are three nouns that have irregular plural forms: "woman", "hen" and "person".[2]: 58 

There is a grammatical distinction between alienable and inalienable possession in the noun phrase. In inalienable possession, a singular possessor is marked by a suffix on the noun indexing the possessor (possessor agreement suffix). In plural inalienable possession and all alienable, the possessor is indexed by a pronominal word following the noun.[2]: 61 

Verbs

The tense-aspect-mood system includes four verbal forms labeled "past", "future", "nominal" and "imperative". The "past" form normally has a stem-final vowel /i/. The "future" and "nominal" forms both have a stem-final vowel /e/. They are distinguished from each other by a high tone on the first syllable of the "future" form. The imperative form normally has a stem-final vowel /a/ or /u/.[2]: 44 

Some verbs also have a plural form indicated by a suffix /-wi/ or a devoiced initial consonant. The plural form of the verb can indicate the plurality of an action, a plural intransitive subject, or a plural object.[2]: 124  Verbs can also be modified by adverbs, including a class of ideophones,[2]: 164  by a "ventive" marker (derived from the verb "come") following the verb, or an "inceptive" marker (derived from the verb "leave") preceding the verb.

Pronouns

The reference system makes a 10-way distinction. Gender is distinguished in second and third person singular pronouns. The first person non-singular pronouns include a dual inclusive form, a plural inclusive form, and a plural exclusive form. The plural inclusive form is a bimorphemic pronoun which combines the first person dual inclusive form with the second person plural form.[2]: 100 

Word order

In a pragmatically neutral sentence, nominal arguments occur in a SVO word order. However, third person subject pronouns usually follow the verb.

References

  1. 1 2 Lele at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Frajzyngier, Zygmunt (2001). A Grammar of Lele. Stanford, California: CSLI Publications.

Bibliography

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