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 in the area west and northwest of
Lake Albert, specifically the
Ituri Region of
Orientale Province. It is one of the most populous of the
Central Sudanic languages. There are three-quarters of a million Lendu speakers in the DRC. A conflict between the Lendu was the basis of the
Ituri conflict.
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 implosives, (). However, Goyvaerts (1988) had described these as
creaky-voiced implosives , as in
Hausa, 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