Temne (also ''Themne, Timne''; ) is a language of the Mel branch of the Niger–Congo language family. Temne speakers live mostly in the Northern Province and Western Area,

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...

. Temne people can be found in a number of other

West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Mau ...

n countries as well, including Guinea and

The Gambia The Gambia,, ff, Gammbi, ar, غامبيا officially the Republic of The Gambia, is a country in West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 c ...

. Some Temnes have also migrated beyond West Africa seeking educational and professional opportunities, especially in

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

, the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

, and

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Med ...

Phonology

Temne is a

tonal language Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning – that is, to distinguish or to inflect words. All verbal languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information and to convey emph ...

, with four tones. Among consonants, Temne distinguishes dental and alveolar, but, unusually, the dental consonants are apical and the alveolar consonants are

laminal A laminal consonant is a phone (speech sound) produced by obstructing the air passage with the blade of the tongue, the flat top front surface just behind the tip of the tongue in contact with upper lip, teeth, alveolar ridge, to possibly, as ...

(and slightly

affricated An affricate is a consonant that begins as a stop and releases as a fricative, generally with the same place of articulation (most often coronal). It is often difficult to decide if a stop and fricative form a single phoneme or a consonant pair. ...

), the opposite of the general pattern, though one found also in the nearby language Limba.

Consonants

Vowels

Writing

The alphabet of Temne includes the following characters and digraphs:Peace Corps, 1987, ''Sierra Leone Temne Language Manual.''
/ref> Earlier, Ȧȧ was used instead of Ʌʌ

References

Bibliography

*Bai-Sharka, Abou (1986)
Temne names and proverbs
' (Stories and songs from Sierra Leone vol. 19). Freetown: People’s Educational Association of Sierra Leone. *Kamarah, Sheikh Umarr (2007) ''A descriptive grammar of KʌThemnɛ (Temne)''. Munich: Lincom Europa. *Peace Corps (1987)
''Sierra Leone Temne Language Manual''
Washington, DC: Peace Corps. *Turay, Abdul Karim (1989) ''Temne stories''. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag. *Wilson, W.A.A. (1961) ''An outline of the Temne language''. London: University of London / SOAS. *Yillah, M. Sorie (1992) ''Temne phonology and morphology'' npublished thesis. New York: City University of New York Ann Arbor: UMI.

External links

Temne Words and PhrasesGrammar of the Temne language, 1864 - Rev. C. F. SchlenkerCIA Sierra Leone filePanAfrican L10n page on TemneListening example: Kassirie StoriesTemne page on JoshuaProject.netResources in the Temne languageOLAC resources in and about the Timne languageTemne story "Mr. Spider and the Rotten Skin" with English rough translationGlottolog page for TimnePeace Corps Sierra Leone Temne Language ManualLets Learn Thaymneh (Temne)
{{Authority control Mel languages Languages of Sierra Leone