Oluʼbo language

Oluʼbo or Lolubo is a Central Sudanic language spoken by 33,000 Oluʼbo people in Southern Sudan.

Oluʼbo
Lolubo
Native to	South Sudan
Ethnicity	Oluʼbo
Native speakers	33,000 (2017)[1]
Language family	Nilo-Saharan? Central Sudanic Eastern Moru–Madi Southern Madi Oluʼbo
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	lul
Glottolog	olub1238

Phonology

Consonants

Consonants^[2]

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Labial- velar	Glottal
Implosive		ɓ		ɗ			ʄ
Plosive/ Affricate	voiceless	p	t̪		tʃ	ʈ		k	kp	ʔ
	voiced	b	d̪		dʒ	ɖ		g	gb
	prenasalized	ᵐb	ⁿd̪		ⁿdʒ	ᶯɖ		ᵑg	ᵑᵐgb
Fricative	voiceless	f		s
	voiced	v		z
Approximant				l			j		w

Vowels

Vowels^[3]

	Front	Back
Close	i	u
Near-close	ɪ	ʊ
Close-mid	e	o
Open-mid	ɛ	ɔ
Open	a

Vowels form two vowel harmony sets, based on advanced and retracted tongue root. The [-ATR] group is /ɪ, ɛ, ɔ, ʊ/, and the [+ATR] group is /i, e, o, u/.^[3] /a/ is phonetically [-ATR] but is found in roots of both sets.^[4]

There is a tenth vowel quality [ɤ], which only occurs after /u/. When /u/ and [ɤ] are in separate morphemes, [ɤ] is in free variation with [o].^[5]

Tones

Oluʼbo has high /˦/, mid /˧/, and low /˨/ tones.There are also six compound tones, low-mid /˨˧/, low-high /˨˦/, mid-low /˧˨/, mid-high /˧˦/, high-low /˦˨/, and high-mid /˦˧/.^[6]

Notes

1. Oluʼbo at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
2. Andersen 1987, p. 45.
3. Andersen 1987, p. 40.
4. Andersen 1987, p. 41.
5. Andersen 1987, p. 44.
6. Andersen 1987, p. 48.

References

• Andersen, Torben (1987). "An outline of Lulubo phonology". Studies in African Linguistics. 18: 39–65. doi:10.32473/sal.v18i1.107478.