Alumu language

Alumu is a Plateau language spoken by approximately 7,000 people in Nassarawa State, Nigeria. It has lost the nominal affix system characteristic of the Niger–Congo family.

Alumu-Tesu
Təsu
Native to	Nigeria
Region	Nassarawa State
Native speakers	(7,000 cited 1999)[1]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Plateau Alumic Alumu-Toro Alumu-Akpondu Alumu-Tesu
Dialects	Alumu Tesu
Language codes
ISO 639-3	aab
Glottolog	alum1246

Dialects

Two varieties, Alomoh and Tesu, differ only in intonation.^[1] Information for Alomoh and Tesu is listed from Blench (2004).^[2]

Alomoh (or Arum), with 4,000 speakers, is spoken in the settlements of Anji-Mara (main settlement),Tsavoh, Tapha,Tumara, Chugbu, Shu'a (Gbira),Chini.

Tesu (Təsu) (Hausa: Chessu^[3]), with just under 2,000 speakers, is spoken in the two villages of Chessu Sarki and Chessu Madaki, which are about one kilometre apart from each other on the Wamba - Fadan Karshi road.

Akpondoh is also closely related (also Babur, Nisam and Nigbo) but moribund or extinct, and its classification as a separate language or as a shifting dialect or sociological group of related dialects is not clear.^[4]

Phonology

Consonant phonemes^[5]

	Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Labialized palatal	Velar	Labialized velar	Glottal
Nasal	m	n	ɲ		ŋ
Plosive	p b	t d	tʃ dʒ		k ɡ	kp ɡb
Implosive	ɓ	ɗ
Fricative	f v	s z	ʃ ʒ		x		h
Approximant		l	j	ɥ		w
Tap		ɾ
Trill		r

Vowel phonemes^[6]

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Near-Close	ɪ		ʊ
Close-Mid	e		o
Open-Mid	ɛ	ə	ɔ
Open		a

It is unclear whether or not vowel nasality is phonemic in Alumu.^[7]