Lyélé language

Last updated • 1 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia
Lyélé
Lele
Region Burkina Faso
Native speakers
210,000 (2009) [1]
Niger–Congo?
Language codes
ISO 639-3 lee
Glottolog lyel1241

The Lyélé language (Lele) is spoken in the Sanguié Province of Burkina Faso by approximately 130,000 people known as Lyéla, Léla, Gourounsi or Gurunsi. It is spoken in the towns of Réo, Kyon, Tenado, Dassa, Didyr, Godyr, Kordié, Pouni and Zawara. The language is also sometimes known by the wider term Gurunsi.

Contents

Syntactically, Lyélé is a SVO language with postpositions. Determiners and adjectives are placed after the noun.

Unlike most other languages, Lyélé has only one paradigm for all pronouns, including demonstratives, interrogatives, and relatives. Tone can sometimes differentiate between an interrogative and a demonstrative, but this may be a result of interrogative intonation rather than tone marked on the word itself. [2]

Writing system

Lyélé alphabet. [3]
abcdeəɛfghijkllymnŋwnyoɔprrhsshtuvwyzzh

The nasalization is indicated with the tilde on the vowel nasalized ã, ẽ, ɛ̃, ĩ, õ, ɔ̃, ũ. [3]

Tones are indicated using accents, except for the midtone [3]  :

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References

  1. Lyélé at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed Access logo transparent.svg
  2. Bhat, D.N.S. 2004. Pronouns. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 8
  3. 1 2 3 Nikiema 1993, p. 50.
  4. Nikiema 1993 does not list the circumflex accent but it is used in the 2001 Bible translation published by Wycliffe Bible Translators.

Works cited