Nyangatom language

Nyangatom
Native to	Ethiopia
Region	Omo River region
Ethnicity	Nyangatom
Native speakers	24,000 (2007 census)
Language family	Nilo-Saharan? Eastern Sudanic? Southern Eastern Nilotic Eastern Ateker–Lotuko–Maa Ateker Turkanic Nyangatom
Writing system	none
Language codes
ISO 639-3	nnj
Glottolog	nyan1315
ELP

Nyangatom (also Inyangatom, Donyiro, Dongiro, Idongiro) is a Nilotic language spoken in Ethiopia by the Nyangatom people. It is an oral language only, having no working orthography at present. Related languages include Toposa and Turkana, both of which have a level of mutual intelligibility; Blench (2012) counts it as a dialect of Turkana.

Phonology

Vowels

	Front	Back
Close	i	u
Near-close	ɪ	ʊ
Close-mid	e	o
Open-mid	ɛ	ɔ
Open	a

• Vowel length is contrastive in Nyangatom, as in dʒík 'completely' vs. dʒíík 'always'
• Before a pause, short vowels carrying a single, simple tone are devoiced.

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal		m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Plosive/ Affricate	Voiceless	p	t	t͡ʃ	k
	Voiced	b	d	d͡ʒ	ɡ
Fricative			s
Flap			r
Approximant		w	l	j

Moges Yigezu, however, analyzes Nyangatom as having implosive stops, rather than voiced egressive stops.

Bibliography

• Dimmendaal, Gerrit J. 2007. "Ñaŋatom language" in Siegbert Uhlig (ed.) Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, Vol 3. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. pp. 1131–1132.