The Lendu language is a
Central Sudanic
Central Sudanic is a family of about sixty languages that have been included in the proposed Nilo-Saharan language family. Central Sudanic languages are spoken in the Central African Republic, Chad, South Sudan, Uganda, Congo (DRC), Nigeria and ...
language spoken by the Balendru, an ethno-linguistic agriculturalist group residing in eastern
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...
in the area west and northwest of
Lake Albert, specifically the
Ituri Region
The Ituri Interim Administration is an interim body that administers the Ituri region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It was established in 2003 by the Ituri Pacification Commission and supported by the UN mission in the DRC.
History ...
of
Orientale Province
Orientale Province ( French: ''Province orientale'', "Eastern province") is one of the former provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and its predecessors the Congo Free State and the Belgian Congo. It went through a series of boundary ...
. It is one of the most populous of the
Central Sudanic languages
Central Sudanic is a family of about sixty languages that have been included in the proposed Nilo-Saharan language family. Central Sudanic languages are spoken in the Central African Republic, Chad, South Sudan, Uganda, Congo (DRC), Nigeria and ...
. There are three-quarters of a million Lendu speakers in the DRC. A conflict between the Lendu was the basis of the
Ituri conflict
The Ituri conflict (french: Guerre d'Ituri) is an ongoing conflict between the agriculturalist Lendu and pastoralist Hema ethnic groups in the Ituri region of the north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). While the two groups had ...
.
Besides the Balendru, Lendu is spoken as a native language by a portion of the Hema,
Alur, and
Okebu.
Names
''Ethnologue'' gives ''Bbadha'' as an alternate name of Lendu, but
Blench (2000) lists ''Badha'' as a distinct language. A draft listing of Nilo-Saharan languages
available from his websiteand dated 2012, lists ''Lendu/Badha''.
Phonology
Demolin (1995) posits that Lendu has
voiceless implosive
Implosive consonants are a group of stop consonants (and possibly also some affricates) with a mixed glottalic ingressive and pulmonic egressive airstream mechanism.''Phonetics for communication disorders.'' Martin J. Ball and Nicole Müller. ...
s, (). However, Goyvaerts (1988) had described these as
creaky-voiced implosives , as in
Hausa
Hausa may refer to:
* Hausa people, an ethnic group of West Africa
* Hausa language, spoken in West Africa
* Hausa Kingdoms, a historical collection of Hausa city-states
* Hausa (horse) or Dongola horse, an African breed of riding horse
See also
* ...
, contrasting with a series of modally voiced implosives as in
Kalabari, and Ladefoged judges that this seems to be a more accurate description.
References
{{Authority control
Central Sudanic languages
Languages of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Ethnic groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo