Ethnicity Alur Glottolog alur1250 | ISO 639-3 alz | |
Region Orientale Province (Democratic Republic of Congo) and Uganda Native speakers 1.4 million (2001–2002) Language family Nilo-Saharan?
Eastern Sudanic
Nilotic
Western
Luo
Southern Luo
Luo–Acholi
Alur–Acholi
Alur | ||
Alur is a dialect of Southern Luo spoken in northwestern Uganda and northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo by the Alur people. Subdialects are Jokot, Jonam/Lo-Naam (mainly spoken in Congo), Mambisa, and Wanyoro.
Contents
Phonetics
Vowels
Alur has 9 vowels.
Note that all the vowels are paired except for /a/. Though all nine vowels are phonemic, each pair of vowels is represented by a single letter in the orthography:
/u/ and /ʊ/ are represented by 'u'.
/o/ and /ɔ/ are represented by 'o'.
/i/ and /ɪ/ are represented by 'i'.
/e/ and /ɛ/ are represented by 'e'.
Consonants
Alur has 23 consonants.
Orthography
The Alur language has no officially accepted orthography. However, informal conventions have been established in written materials and road signs.
First, there is usually no written tonal distinction. Second, the phonemic distinction between /ŋ/ and /ng/ is occasionally reflected in the orthography, with /ŋ/ represented by 'ŋ' and /ng/ represented by 'ng'. However, /ŋ/ is also frequently written as 'ng', confusing it orthographically with /ng/.