Rendille language (original) (raw)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Afro-Asiatic language of Kenya
| Rendille | |
|---|---|
| Afi Renꞌdille | |
| Native to | Kenya |
| Region | Eastern Province |
| Ethnicity | Rendille |
| Native speakers | 96,000 (2019 census)[1] |
| Language family | Afro-Asiatic CushiticLowland EastRendille–Boni[1]Rendille |
| Writing system | Latin |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | rel |
| Glottolog | rend1243 |
Rendille (also known as Rendile, Randile) is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken by the Rendille people inhabiting northern Kenya. It is part of the family's Cushitic branch.[2]
The Ariaal sub-group of the Rendille, who are of mixed Nilotic and Cushitic descent, speak the Nilo-Saharan Samburu language of the Samburu Nilotes, near whom they live.[2][3]
| | Labial | Dental/alveolar | Retroflex | Post-alv./Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Pharyngeal | Glottal | | | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------- | | Nasal | m | n̪ | | ɲ | ŋ | | | | | | Plosive/Affricate | voiceless | | t̪ | | tɕ | k | (q) | | ʔ | | voiced | b | d̪ | ɖ | dʑ | g | | | | | | Fricative | f | s | | | x | | ħ ~ ʕ | h | | | Lateral | | l | | | | | | | | | Trill | | r | | | | | | | | | Glide | w | | | j | | | | | |
- /tɕ/ can be heard as [ɕ] by some speakers.
- Some speakers always pronounce /x/ as a uvular stop [q].
- [ʕ] can be heard as a free variant of /ħ/, or when /ħ/ is heard in intervocalic position.
- Voiced sounds become voiceless when in word-final position.
- /b/ can be pronounced as [p] when preceding /ħ/, or as a fricative [β] in intervocalic position.
- /r/ can also freely be devoiced as [r̥] in word-initial position, and is always heard as devoiced in word-final position.
- /d̪/ can freely be heard as an affricate [d̪ð], and can also be heard as a fricative [ð] in intervocalic position.
- /x/ can also be heard as an affricate [qχ] when following nasal sounds.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i iː | u uː | |
| Mid | e eː | o oː | |
| Open | a aː |
- Vowels /i, u, e, o/ are commonly heard as lax [ɪ, ʊ, ɛ, ɔ].
The Rendille alphabet has 26 letters:[4]
| Rendille alphabet | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Letter | A | B | Ch | D | Dh | E | F | G | H | H' | I | J | K |
| a | b | ch | d | dh | e | f | g | h | h' | i | j | k | |
| Phoneme | /a/ | /b/ | /tʃ/ | /ɖ/ | /d̪/ | /e/ | /f/ | /g/ | /ħ/ | /h/ | /i/ | /ʤ/ | /k/ |
| Letter | Kh | L | M | N | Ng' | Ny | O | R | S | T | U | W | Y |
| kh | l | m | n | ng' | ny | o | r | s | t | u | w | y | |
| Phoneme | /x/ | /l/ | /m/ | /n/ | /ŋ/ | /ɲ/ | /ɔ/ | /r/ | /s/ | /t/ | /u/ | /w/ | /j/ |
Long vowels are written doubled. Tone is phonemic, and high tone can be written as an acute accent ( ́), while low tone is not marked.[4]
- ^ a b Rendille at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ a b Ethnologue - Rendille
- ^ Parris, Ronald G. (1994). Rendille. Rosen Publishing Group. pp. 13. ISBN 0823917630.
- ^ a b Rhonda L. Hartell, ed. (1993). "The Alphabets of Africa" (PDF). SIL Global. Dakar: UNESCO and Summer Institute of Linguistics. p. 187. Retrieved 2026-03-30.
- Harold C. Fleming, "Baiso and Rendille: Somali Outliers", Rassegna di Studi Etiopici, 20 (1964), pp. 35–96.
- Antoinette Oomen. 1981. "Gender and Plurality in Rendille," Afroasiatic Linguistics 8:35-75.
- Steve Pillinger & Letiwa Galboran. 1999. A Rendille Dictionary, Including a Grammatical Outline and an English-Rendille Index. Cushitic Language Studies Volume 14. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.
- Heine, Bernd. 1976. Notes on the Rendille Language. In Afrika und Übersee LIX. 176-223
- Günther Schlee. 1978. Sprachliche Studien zum Rendille. Hamburger Philologische Studien 46. Hamburg: Helmut Buske Verlag.
- Ronald J. Sim. 1981. "Morphophonemics of the Verb in Rendille," Afroasiatic Linguistics 8:1-33.