| Alur | |
|---|---|
| Lur | |
| Region | Orientale Province (Democratic Republic of Congo), Nebbi and Zombo districts of Uganda |
| Ethnicity | Alur |
Native speakers | 1.7 million (2001–2014)[1] |
Nilo-Saharan?
| |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | alz |
| Glottolog | alur1250 |
Alur (Dho-Alur [d̟ɔ.a.lur]) is a Western Nilotic language spoken in the southern West Nile region of Uganda and the northeastern Ituri Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The language's subdialects are Jokot, Jonam/Lo-Naam (mainly spoken in the Democratic Republic of the Congo), Mambisa and Wanyoro.
Alur has 9 vowels.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Near-close | ɪ | ʊ | |
| Close-mid | e | o | |
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɔ | |
| Open | ä |
Alur has 23 consonants.
| Labial | Labio-dental | Dental | Alveolar | Palato-alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||||
| Plosive | p b | t̟ d̟ | t d | k ɡ | ||||
| Fricative | f v | s z | h | |||||
| Affricate | tʃ dʒ | |||||||
| Trill | r | |||||||
| Approximant | w | l | j |
Alur has an SVO word order.
The Alur language has no officially accepted orthography. However, informal conventions have been established in written materials and road signs.
First, there is usually no written tonal distinction. Second, the phonemic distinction between /ŋ/ and /ng/ is occasionally reflected in the orthography, with /ŋ/ represented by 'ŋ' and /ng/ represented by 'ng'. However, /ŋ/ is also frequently written as 'ng', confusing it orthographically with /ng/.
