Tupuri language

Not to be confused with Tuburi language.

Tupuri (or Toupouri) is a language mostly spoken in the Mayo-Kebbi Est Region of southern Chad and in small parts of northern Cameroon. It is an Mbum language spoken by the Tupuri people with approximately 300,000 speakers.

Tupuri
Native to	Chad, Cameroon
Ethnicity	Tupuri people
Native speakers	320,000 (2005–2019)[1]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Mbum–Day Mbum Northern Mbum Tupuri–Mambai Tupuri
Language codes
ISO 639-3	tui
Glottolog	tupu1244

Tupuri was erroneously classified as a Chadic language by Joseph Greenberg, due to a vocabulary list that is actually that of Kera (cf. K. Ebert 1974).^[2]

Distribution

Tupuri is predominantly spoken in the southeastern part of the Moulvouday plain, in:^[2]

• Kaélé, Porhi, Taibong villages in Moulvouday commune
• Guidigis commune, in Mayo-Kani department
• Kar-Hay, Kalfou, Datcheka, Tchatibali communes in Mayo-Danay department

The Viri or Wina are ethnically Tupuri, but today they speak a Massa dialect.^[2]

Tupuri is also spoken in Chad. In Cameroon, it has about 125,000 speakers (SIL 2000).^[2]

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive/ Affricate	voiceless	p	t	t͡ʃ	k	ʔ
	voiced	b	d	d͡ʒ	ɡ
	prenasal	ᵐb	ⁿd		ᵑɡ
	implosive	ɓ	ɗ
Fricative		f	s			h
Nasal		m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Rhotic			r
Lateral			l
Approximant				j	w

Vowels

Oral vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i iː		u uː
Close-mid	e eː		o oː
Open-mid	ɛ ɛː		ɔ ɔː
Open		a aː

Nasal vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	ĩ ĩː		ũ ũː
Close-mid	ẽ ẽː		õ õː
Open		ã ãː

^[3]