| Tetela | |
|---|---|
| Ɔtɛtɛla | |
| Native to | Democratic Republic of the Congo |
| Region | Northern Kasai Oriental Province |
| Ethnicity | Tetela people |
Native speakers | (760,000 cited 1991)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Either:tll – Tetelahba – Hamba |
| Glottolog | tete1250 Tetelahamb1245 Hamba |
C.71[2] | |
Tetela (Otetela, Kitetela, Kikitatela), also Sungu, is a Bantu language of northern Kasai-Oriental Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is spoken by the Tetela people.
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||
| Plosive/ Affricate |
voiceless | p | t | t͡ʃ | k | |
| voiced | b | d | d͡ʒ | (ɡ) | ||
| prenasal | ᵐb | ⁿd | ᶮd͡ʒ | ᵑɡ | ||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ʃ | h | |
| voiced | v | |||||
| prenasal | ᶬv | |||||
| Lateral | l | |||||
| Approximant | j | w | ||||
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Close-mid | e | o | |
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɔ | |
| Open | a |
Like other Bantu languages, Tetela grammar arranges nouns into a number of classes. The ancestral system had 22 classes (counting singular and plural as distinct according to the Meinhof system), with most Bantu languages sharing at least ten of them.
| class | semantics | prefix | singular | translation | plural | translation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1, 2 | persons | o-/ɔ-/w-, a- | omfúnjí | scribe, secretary | amfúnjí | scribes, secretaries |
| 3, 4 | trees, etc | o-/ɔ-/w-, e-/ɛ- | ojja | place | ejja | places; region |
| 5, 6 | various | di-/dy-, a- | dihamvú | fruit of Chrysophyllum lacourtianum | ahamvú | fruits of Chrysophyllum lacourtianum |
| 7, 8 | various | ke-/e-, di-/dy- | kesashi | chief | disashi | chiefs |
| 9, 10 | animals, etc | Ø-/N-, Ø-/N- | mbódí | goat | mbódí | goats |
| 11, 10 | abstract concepts, etc | lo-, N- | lolémí | language | némí | languages |
| 12, 13 | various | ka-/k-, to-/t- | kashikɛ | helmet (from French casque) | toshikɛ | helmets |
| 19, 13 | various | °i- (complex morphology), to-/t- | jɔ́ndɔ́ | ??? | tɔlɔ́ndɔ́ | ??? |
