Alur dialect

Alur
Lur
Region	Orientale Province (Democratic Republic of Congo) and Uganda
Ethnicity	Alur
Native speakers	1.4 million (2001–2002)[1]
Language family	Nilo-Saharan? Eastern Sudanic Nilotic Western Luo Southern Luo Luo–Acholi Alur–Acholi Alur
Language codes
ISO 639-3	alz
Glottolog	alur1250[2]

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.

Phonetics

Vowels

Alur has 9 vowels.

.	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Near-close	ɪ		ʊ
Close-mid	e		o
Open-mid	ɛ		ɔ
Open		a

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.

Phonetic inventory of consonants in Alur

		Labial	Labio-dental	Inderdental	Alveolar	Palato-Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m			n		ɲ	ŋ
Plosive		p b		t̟ d̟	t d			k ɡ
Fricative			f v		s z			h
Affricate						tʃ dʒ
Trill					r
Approximant		w			l		j

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/.

References

1. Alur at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
2. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Alur". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

External links

• Examples of Alur.