Nateni language

Nateni
Native to	Benin
Ethnicity	Gurma
Native speakers	110,000 (2021) [1]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Gur Northern Oti–Volta Gurma Nateni
Official status
Recognised minority language in	Benin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ntm
Glottolog	nate1242

Nateni (Natemba) is a language of the Gurma people spoken in Benin. It is named after its principal dialect; the others are Tayari (Tayaba), Kunteni (Kuntemba), Okoni (Okoma).

Phonology

Consonants ^[2]

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Labial–velar	Glottal
Plosive	voiced	b [a]	d [a]	ɟ [a] [b]
	voiceless	p	t	c	k [c]	k͡p ⟨kp⟩
Continuant		f	s	j ⟨y⟩		w	h

1. When preceding nasal vowels, the voiced plosives become nasal consonants:
   • /b/ > [ m ]
   • /d/ > [ n ]
   • /ɟ/ > [ ɲ ]
2. According to Nédellec & Bukies (2008), the voiced palatal plosive /ɟ/ is disappearing in Nateni. Before oral vowels, it has completely merged to [j], while the nasal realization [ɲ] before nasal vowels is undergoing a similar process, but has not yet completely merged.
3. The voiceless velar plosive /k/ is realized as voiced [ ɡ ] between vowels (as well as following the syllabic nasal).

Vowels ^[2]

	Front	Back
Close	i , ĩ ⟨ḭ⟩	u , ũ ⟨ṵ⟩
Close-mid	e	o
Open-mid	ɛ , ɛ̃ ⟨ɛ̰⟩	ɔ , ɔ̃ ⟨ɔ̰⟩
Open	a , ã ⟨a̰⟩
Syllabic	n̩ [a] ⟨n⟩

1. The syllabic nasal only occurs in medial and final positions. Its place of articulation depends on the sounds that follow it:
   • [ m ] preceding bilabials
   • [ ɱ ] preceding labiodentals
   • [ n ] preceding alveolars
   • [ ɲ ] preceding palatals
   • [ ŋ ] preceding velars
   It may also be analyzed as a /CV/ cluster with the vowel [ũ], as in [Nũ], where ⟨N⟩ is any realization of the syllabic nasal.

Writing system

Alphabet [3]
uppercase	A	B	C	D	E	Ɛ	F	H	I	K	Kp	M	N	O	Ɔ	P	S	T	U	W	Y
lowercase	a	b	c	d	e	ɛ	f	h	i	k	kp	m	n	o	ɔ	p	s	t	u	w	y

The low tone is indicated with the grave accent and the high tone with the acute accent on the vowel ⟨à è ɛ̀ ì ò ɔ̀ ù á é ɛ́ í ó ɔ́ ú⟩ or the syllabic n ⟨ǹ ń⟩. The nasalization is indicated with the help of the tilde under the vowel ⟨a̰ ɛ̰ ḭ ɔ̰ ṵ⟩ which can be combined with the acute or grave accent indicating the tone ⟨á̰ ɛ̰́ ḭ́ ɔ̰́ ṵ́ à̰ ɛ̰̀ ḭ̀ ɔ̰̀ ṵ̀⟩.

References

1. Nateni at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
2. Nédellec, Brigitte; Bukies, Ulrich (December 2008), La Phonologie du Naténi (PDF), SIL Working Papers, vol. 2008–005, SIL Global
3. "Nateni written with Latin script: Symbols & Characters". ScriptSource.org.