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 | |
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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?
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Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | Either:tll – Tetelahba – Hamba |
Glottolog | tete1250 Tetelahamb1245 Hamba |
C.71 [2] |
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 |
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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 | ??? |
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Note: The Guthrie classification is geographic and its groupings do not imply a relationship between the languages within them. |
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