Gwere language

Gwere, or Lugwere, is the language spoken by the Gwere people (Bagwere), a Bantu people found in the eastern part of Uganda. It has a close dialectical resemblance to Soga and Ganda, which neighbour the Gwere.

Gwere
(O)lugwere
Native to	Uganda
Region	Eastern Region
Ethnicity	Bagwere
Native speakers	410,000 (2002 census)[1]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta-Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Bantu Northeast Bantu Great Lakes Bantu West Nyanza North Nyanza Gwere
Language codes
ISO 639-3	gwr
Glottolog	gwer1238
Guthrie code	JE.17[2]

Phonology

Consonants

Gwere has 20 consonant phonemes.^[3]

	Bilabial	Labio-dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Plosive/ Affricate	p b		t d	t͡ʃ d͡ʒ	k g
Fricative	β	f v	s z
Nasal	m		n	ɲ	ŋ
Approximant	w		l	j

Vowels

Gwere has ten vowel phonemes, 5 short and 5 long.^[4]

	Front	Back
Close	i iː	u uː
Mid	e eː	o oː
Open		ɑ ɑː

Orthography and alphabet

The Gwere alphabet has 31 letters.^[5][6]

• a - a - [ɑ]
• aa - aa - [ɑː]
• b - ba - [β]
• bb - bba - [b]
• c - ca - [c]
• d - da - [d]
• e - e - [e]
• ee - ee - [eː]
• f - fa - [f]
• g - ga - [g]
• i - i - [i]
• ii - ii - [iː]
• j - ja - [ɟ]
• k - ka - [k]
• l - la - [l]
• m - ma - [m]
• n - na - [n]
• ny - nya - [ɲ]
• ŋ - ŋa - [ŋ]
• o - o - [o]
• oo - oo - [oː]
• p - pa - [p]
• r - ra - [r]
• s - sa - [s]
• t - ta - [t]
• u - u - [u]
• uu - uu - [uː]
• v - va - [v]
• w - wa - [w]
• y - ya - [j]
• z - za - [z]