Kuria language

Kuria is a Bantu language spoken by the Kuria people of Northern Tanzania, with some speakers also residing in Kenya.

Kuria
Igikuria
Native to	Kenya, Tanzania[1]
Ethnicity	Kuria people
Native speakers	690,000 (2005–2009)[2]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta-Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Bantu Northeast Bantu Great Lakes Bantu Logooli–Kuria (E.40) Kuria
Dialects	Kuria proper Simbiti Hacha Surwa Sweta
Writing system	Latin, Arabic
Language codes
ISO 639-3	kuj
Glottolog	kuri1259
Guthrie code	JE.43,431–434[3]

Maho (2009) treats the Simbiti, Hacha, Surwa, and Sweta varieties as distinct languages.

Alphabet

	Kuria alphabet (Kenya)[4][5][6]
Uppercase	A	B	Ch	E	Ë	G	H	I	K	M	N	Nd	Ny	Ng'	O	Ö	R	Rr	S	T	U	W	Y
Lowercase	a	b	ch	e	ë	g	h	i	k	m	n	nd	ny	ng'	o	ö	r	rr	s	t	u	w	y
IPA Symbol	a	β	t͡ʃ	e	ɛ	ɣ	h	i	k	m	n	n͡d	ɲ	ŋ	o	ɔ	ɾ	r	s	t	u	w	j

Phonology

Consonants

Kuria consonant phonemes^[5]

	Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stop		t		k
Fricative	β	s		ɣ	h
Nasal	m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Trill		r
Flap		ɾ
Glide				j
Prenasalized Stops	m͡b	n͡d		ŋ͡g
Affricates			t͡ʃ

Vowels

Kuria vowels^[5]

	Advanced Tongue Root (+ATR)			-ATR
	Front	Central	Back	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Close-Mid	e		o
Open-Mid				ɛ		ɔ
Open					a

All vowels contrast length, and can be either short or long.

Bibliography

• Jelle Cammenga, Igikuria phonology and morphology : a Bantu language of South-West Kenya and North-West Tanzania, Köppe, Köln, 2004, 351 p. ISBN 3896450298 (revised text of a thesis)
• S. M. Muniko, B. Muita oMagige and M. J. Ruel (ed.), Kuria-English dictionary, LIT, Hambourg, 1996, 137 p. ISBN 3825829510
• W. H. Whiteley, The structure of the Kuria verbal and its position in the sentence, University of London, 1955, 161 p. (thesis)
• Phebe Yoder, Tata na Baba = Father and Mother : a first Kuria reader, Musoma Press, Musoma, Tanganyika, 1949, 44 p.

References

1. Ethnologue entry for Kuria
2. Kuria at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
3. Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
4. Rhonda L. Hartell, ed. 1993. The Alphabets of Africa. Dakar: UNESCO and Summer Institute of Linguistics
5. Nyauma, Shem (2014). "A Phonological Reconstruction Of Ekegusii And Egekuria Nouns: A Comparative Analysis" (PDF). Masters Thesis, University of Nairobi.
6. Hartell, Rhonda, ed. (1993). Alphabets of Africa. UNESCO Regional Office in Dakar (BREDA). p. 186. ISBN 92-9091-020-3.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ignored ISBN errors (link)