Guruntum is a

Chadic language The Chadic languages form a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken in parts of the Sahel. They include 150 languages spoken across northern Nigeria, southern Niger, southern Chad, the Central African Republic, and northern Cam ...

spoken in

Bauchi Bauchi (earlier Yakoba) is a city in northeast Nigeria, the Administrative center of Bauchi State, of the Bauchi Local Government Area within that State, and of the traditional Bauchi Emirate. It is located on the northern edge of the Jos Plate ...

and

Alkaleri Alkaleri is a Local Government Area of Bauchi State, Nigeria. Its headquarters are in the town of Alkaleri (or Alkalere) on the A345 highway in the north of the area at. The northeasterly line of equal latitude and longitude passes through the LGA ...

LGAs,

Bauchi State Bauchi State (Fula: ''Leydi Bauchi'' 𞤤𞤫𞤴𞤣𞤭 𞤦𞤢𞤵𞤷𞥅𞤭) is a state in the North-East geopolitical zone of Nigeria, bordered by Kano and Jigawa to the north, Taraba and Plateau to the south, Gombe and Yobe to the ...

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of G ...

. In 1993 it was spoken by about 15,000 people.

Classification

Guruntum is a

West Chadic language The West Chadic languages of the Afro-Asiatic family are spoken principally in Niger and Nigeria. They include Hausa, the most populous Chadic language and a major language of West Africa. Languages The branches of West Chadic go either by ...

of the Barawa (B.3) group. Major

dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that ...

s include Kuuku, Gayar, Mbaaru, Dooka,

Gar Gars are members of the family Lepisosteidae, which are the only surviving members of the Ginglymodi, an ancient holosteian group of ray-finned fish, which first appeared during the Triassic, over 240 million years ago. Gars comprise seven livin ...

and

Karakara Karakara is a town and commune in the Dosso Region of southern Niger ) , official_languages = , languages_type = National languages

Phonology

Vowels

Guruntum contrasts long and short forms for all vowels except for . In addition, two nasalized vowel phonemes exist: . There are two

diphthong A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech ...

s, and .

Consonants

is realized as a

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intervocalically before back vowels; elsewhere it is a

trill TRILL (Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links) is an Internet Standard implemented by devices called TRILL switches. TRILL combines techniques from bridging and routing, and is the application of link-state routing to the VLAN-aware cust ...

Tone

Guruntum has four tones: high, low, rising (low-high) and falling (high-low).

References

* West Chadic languages Languages of Nigeria {{WChadic-lang-stub