| Nateni | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Benin |
| Ethnicity | Gurma |
Native speakers | 110,000 (2021)[1] |
| Official status | |
Recognised minority language in | |
| 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).
| Alphabet[2] | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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⟩.
