Tetela language

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.

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 family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta-Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Bantu (Zone C) Tetela languages (C.70) Tetela
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either: tll – Tetela hba – Hamba
Glottolog	tete1250  Tetela hamb1245  Hamba
Guthrie code	C.71[2]

Phonology

Consonants

		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

• [ɡ] is heard as an allophone of /k/ in intervocalic positions.^[3]

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Close-mid	e		o
Open-mid	ɛ		ɔ
Open		a

Noun classes

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	???

References

1. Tetela at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
   Hamba at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
3. Kamomba, Michel Wetshemongo (2020). Parler, lire et écrire la langue bantoue otetela. L'Harmattan.

Relevant literature

• Elysee Meta Okubo. 2016. A COLLECTION OF 100 TETELA PROVERBS. Proverb website
• Mukanga, Ndjeka Elizabeth, Empenge Albert Shefu, Ambaye Albertine Tshefu. 2020. Great Collection of Tetela Proverbs on the African Wisdom. Pittsburgh: Dorrance Publishers. [283 proverbs, 107 pages]