Bongo language

Not to be confused with Bongo language (Indonesia).

Bongo (Bungu), also known as Dor, is a Central Sudanic language spoken by the Bongo people in sparsely populated areas of Bahr al Ghazal in South Sudan.

Bongo
Ndüü Böngö
Native to	South Sudan
Ethnicity	Bongo
Native speakers	21,000 (2017)[1]
Language family	Nilo-Saharan? Central Sudanic Bongo–Bagirmi Bongo–Baka Bongo
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	bot
Glottolog	bong1285
ELP	Bongo

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Dental/Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Labial-velar	Glottal
Nasal		m ⟨m⟩	n ⟨n⟩	ɲ ⟨ny⟩	ŋ ⟨ꞌng⟩
Stop	Voiceless	p ⟨p⟩	t̪ ⟨t⟩	c~s ⟨c⟩	k ⟨k⟩	k͡p ⟨kp⟩
	Voiced	b ⟨b⟩	d̪ ⟨d⟩	ɟ ⟨j⟩	g ⟨g⟩	g͡b ⟨gb⟩
	Nasalized	ᵐb ⟨mb⟩	ⁿd ⟨nd⟩	ᶮɟ ⟨nj⟩	ᵑg ⟨ng⟩	ᵑg͡b ⟨ngb⟩
	Implosive	ɓ ⟨ꞌb⟩	ɗ ⟨ꞌd⟩	ʄ ⟨ꞌj⟩
Tap			ɾ ⟨r⟩
Fricative		f ⟨f⟩					h ⟨h⟩
Approximant			l ⟨l⟩	j ⟨y⟩		w ⟨w⟩

Vowels

Bongo has ten vowel qualities,^[2] which can be long or short.^[3]

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i ⟨ï⟩		u ⟨ü⟩
Near-close	ɪ ⟨i⟩		ʊ ⟨u⟩
Mid	e ⟨ë⟩	ə ⟨ä⟩	o ⟨ö⟩
Near-open	ɛ ⟨e⟩		ɔ ⟨o⟩
Open		a ⟨a⟩

Bongo also has vowel harmony. The "heavy" vowels, written with diaereses, (/i/, /u/, /e/, /o/, /ə/) contrast with the "light" vowels (/ɪ/, /ʊ/, /ɛ/, /ɔ/, /a/).^[4]

Tone

Bongo is tonal language that has the high (á), mid (ā), low (à) and falling (â) tones.

All falling tones occur on either long vowels or on vowel clusters or glides. When the tonal fall is not due to a preceding high tone, it can be indicated by a high tone followed by a low tone.

Tone	Example	Translation
high	bʊ́	'hungry'
low	tɪ̀ɪ̀	'pounded sesame'
falling	tââ /táà/	'when'

Numerals

Bongo has a quinary-vigesimal numeral system.^[5]

Number	Bongo word
1	kɔ̀tʊ́
2	ŋɡɔ̀r
3	mʊ̀tːà
4	ʔɛ́w
5	múì
6	dɔ̀kɔtʊ́
7	dɔ́ŋɡɔr
8	dɔ̀mʊ́tːà
9	dɔ̀mʔɛ́w
10	kɪ̀ː
11	kɪː̀ (dɔ̀ː) kɔ̀tʊ́
12	kɪː̀ (dɔ̀ː) ŋɡɔ̀r
13	kɪː̀ (dɔ̀ː) mʊ̀tːà
14	kɪː̀ (dɔ̀ː) ʔɛ́w
15	kɪː̀ (dɔ̀ː) múì
16	kɪː̀ (dɔ̀ː) dɔ̀kɔtʊ́
17	kɪː̀ (dɔ̀ː) dɔ́ŋɡɔr
18	kɪː̀ (dɔ̀ː) dɔ̀mʊ́tːà
19	kɪː̀ (dɔ̀ː) dɔ̀mʔɛ́w
20	mbàba kɔ̀tʊ́
21	mbàba kɔ̀tʊ́ dɔ̀ː kɔ̀tʊ́
22	mbàba kɔ̀tʊ́ dɔ̀ː ŋɡɔ̀r
23	mbàba kɔ̀tʊ́ dɔ̀ː mʊ̀tːà
24	mbàba kɔ̀tʊ́ dɔ̀ː ʔɛ́w
25	mbàba kɔ̀tʊ́ dɔ̀ː múì
26	mbàba kɔ̀tʊ́ dɔ̀ː dɔ̀kɔtʊ́
27	mbàba kɔ̀tʊ́ dɔ̀ː dɔ́ŋɡɔr
28	mbàba kɔ̀tʊ́ dɔ̀ː dɔ̀mʊ́tːà
29	mbàba kɔ̀tʊ́ dɔ̀ː dɔ̀mʔɛ́w
30	mbàba kɔ̀tʊ́ dɔ̀ː kɪ̀ː
40	mbàba ŋɡɔ̀r
50	mbàba ŋɡɔ̀r dɔ̀ː kɪ̀ː
60	mbàba mʊ̀tːà
70	mbàba mʊ̀tːà dɔ̀ː kɪ̀ː
80	mbàba ʔɛ́w
90	mbàba ʔɛ́w dɔ̀ː kɪ̀ː
100	mbàla múì
200	mbàba múì dɔ̀ː múì
1000	mbuda kɔ̀tʊ́
2000	mbuda ŋɡɔ̀r

Scholarship

The first ethnologists to work with the Bongo language were John Petherick, who published Bongo word lists in his 1861 work, Egypt, the Soudan, and Central Africa; Theodor von Heuglin, who also published Bongo word lists in Reise in das Gebiet des Weissen Nil, &c. 1862-1864 in 1869; and Georg August Schweinfurth, who contributed sentences and vocabularies in his Linguistische Ergebnisse, Einer Reise Nach Centralafrika in 1873.^[6] E. E. Evans-Pritchard published additional Bongo word lists in 1937.^[7]

More recent scholarship has been done by Eileen Kilpatrick, who published a phonology of Bongo in 1985.^[8]