North Teke language

North Teke
Tɛgɛ
Native to	Congo, Gabon
Native speakers	140,000 (2000–2011)
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Southern Bantoid Bantu (Zone B) Teke (B.70) North Teke
Language codes
ISO 639-3	teg
Glottolog	teke1275
Guthrie code	B.71

North Teke, or Tɛgɛ (Tege, Teghe, Itege), is a member of the Teke languages dialect continuum of the Congolese plateau.

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Plosive	voiceless	p	t		k
	voiced	b	d		ɡ
	prenasal vl.	ᵐp	ⁿt		ᵑk
	prenasal vd.	ᵐb	ⁿd		ᵑɡ
Affricate	voiceless	p͡f	t͡s	t͡ʃ
	voiced	b͡v	(d͡z)	d͡ʒ
	prenasal vl.	ᶬp͡f	(ⁿt͡s)	ⁿt͡ʃ
	prenasal vd.		(ⁿd͡z)	ⁿd͡ʒ
Fricative	voiceless	f	s	ʃ
	voiced	v			(ɣ)
	prenasal vl.	ᶬf
	prenasal vd.	ᶬv
Nasal		m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Rhotic	tap		ɾ
	trill		r
Approximant		w	l	j

• /b/ can also be heard as [ɓ] in free variation.
• /ɡ/ can be heard as [ɣ] when in between vowels.
• Sounds /d͡ʒ, ⁿt͡ʃ, ⁿd͡ʒ/ can also be heard as alveolar [d͡z, ⁿt͡s, ⁿd͡z] in free variation.
• The following sounds can be labialized as [bʷ, kʷ, fʷ, sʷ, d͡zʷ, ɲʷ, lʷ, mʷ, ᵐbʷ, ⁿt͡ʃʷ, ⁿd͡ʒʷ, ᵑkʷ, ᵑɡʷ].
• The labialized sounds /kʷ, ᵑkʷ/ can also be heard as [ᵑk͡p, ᵑk͡p].
• The following sounds can be palatalized as [pʲ, bʲ, kʲ, fʲ, sʲ, t͡sʲ, lʲ, mʲ, ᵐpʲ, ᵐbʲ, ⁿt͡ʃʲ].

Vowels

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

• Sounds /i, a, u/ can be heard as [ɪ, ə, ʊ] in lax position.

Alphabet

North Teke alphabet

Uppercase	A	B	D	DZ	E	F	G	I	K	L	M	N	NY	Ŋ	O	P	PF	R	S	T	TS	U	V	W	Y
Lowercase	a	b	d	dz	e	f	g	i	k	l	m	n	ny	ŋ	o	p	pf	r	s	t	ts	u	v	w	y

References

Works cited

• Linton, Pauline (2013). "L'alphabet latege". Dictionnaire latege.