Ruund (Ruwund), also known as Northern Lunda or ''Uruund'', is a
Bantu language of the
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 ...
and
Angola
, national_anthem = " Angola Avante"()
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, capital = Luanda
, religion =
, religion_year = 2020
, religion_ref =
, coordina ...
. It is highly unusual among
Bantu languages for allowing
consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced wi ...
al
codas and for its reduced vowel system, in which short /e/ and /o/ have become
and
respectively, leaving only 3 short vowels.
Another interesting feature of Ruund is that, as with the related
Ciluba language, the tones of Proto-Bantu have reversed, so that High has become Low and vice versa.
[Nash, J.A. (1994)]
"Underlying Low Tones in Ruwund"
''Studies in African Linguistics'' Volume 23, Number 3,1992-1994. In this language therefore the accented syllables are Low and the default tone is High.
References
Lunda languages
Languages of Angola
Languages of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
{{Bantu-lang-stub