Ngeté-Herdé language

Not to be confused with Lame language or Peve language.

Ngeté-Herdé, also known as Lamé, is an Afro-Asiatic dialect cluster of Chad. Varieties are:

• Dzəpaw, or Lamé
• Ngeté (Nguetté), or Sorga-Ngeté
• Herdé (He’dé), or Heɗe-Rong^[2]

Ngeté-Herdé
Lame
Zime
Native to	Chad
Native speakers	(50,000 cited 1991–1999)[1]
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Chadic Masa South Peve–Kaɗo Ngeté-Herdé
Dialects	Dzəpaw Ngeté He’dé
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either: nnn – Ngete hed – Herdé
Glottolog	nget1241  Ngete herd1236  Herde

Zime is a generic name.

Phonology

The following is the He’dé dialect:

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar		Post-alv./ Palatal		Velar	Glottal
			plain	lateral
Nasal		m	n		ɲ		ŋ
Stop/ Affricate	voiceless	p	t		t͡ʃ		k	ʔ
	voiced	b	d		d͡ʒ		ɡ
	prenasal	ᵐb	ⁿd		ⁿd͡ʒ		ᵑɡ
	implosive	ɓ	ɗ
Fricative	voiceless	f	s	ɬ				h
	voiced	v	z	ɮ				ɦ
Tap/Trill		ⱱ	r
Approximant				l	j	ˀj	w

/w/ may occasionally be heard as a labio-palatal [ɥ] when before front vowels.

Sounds /t͡ʃ, d͡ʒ, ⁿd͡ʒ/ are realized as affricates [t͡s, d͡z, ⁿd͡z] among other dialects.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i ĩ		u ũ
Mid	e ẽ	ə ə̃	o õ
Open		a ã

Sounds /e, ẽ/ and /o, õ/ may also be realized as more open [ɛ, ɛ̃] and [ɔ, ɔ̃], when in syllable-final positions.^[3]