Giryama dialect

Giryama
Native to	Kenya
Region	Kilifi district
Ethnicity	Mijikenda, Giryama
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta-Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Bantu Northeast Bantu Northeast Coast Bantu Mijikenda Giryama
Language codes
ISO 639-3	nyf
Glottolog	giry1241

Giryama is a dialect variety of the Mijikenda language spoken along the southern coast of Kenya, predominantly in the Kilifi district.

Phonology

Consonants

		Bilabial		Labio- dental	Dental/Alveolar		Post-alv./ Palatal	Velar		Glottal
		plain	lab.		plain	sibilant		plain	lab.
Nasal		m	mʷ		n		ɲ	ŋ
Plosive/ Affricate	voiceless	p			t	t͡s	t͡ʃ	k	kʷ	( ʔ )
	aspirated	pʰ			tʰ	t͡sʰ	tʃʰ	kʰ	kʷʰ
	voiced	b			d	d͡z	d͡ʒ	ɡ	ɡʷ
	prenasal	ᵐb			ⁿd	ⁿd͡z	ᶮd͡ʒ	ᵑɡ	ᵑɡʷ
Fricative	voiceless			f		s	ʃ			h
	voiced	β		v	ð	z	ʒ
Rhotic					ɾ ~ r
Lateral					l
Approximant							j		w

• Labialized sounds /mʷ,kʷ,kʷʰ,ɡʷ,ᵑɡʷ/ can alternatively be pronounced as labio-velar stops [ŋ͡m,k͡p,k͡pʰ,ɡ͡b,ᵑɡ͡b] among speakers in free variation.
• /ɾ/ may have allophones as either [ ɾ ], [ r ], or [ ɹ ], all heard interchangeably.
• [ ʔ ] is only heard in between vowel sounds, to break up a sequence of two vowels. ^[1]
• Taylor (1891), noted two dental stops [t̪,d̪], however they were not easy to identify and therefore are not considered as phonemes.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e		o
Open		a

References

1. Volk, Erez (2007). High, low and in between: Giryama tonology (MA thesis). Tel Aviv University.

Sources

• Taylor, William Ernest. 1891. Giryama vocabulary and collections. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK).