Kanembu is a
Nilo-Saharan language
The Nilo-Saharan languages are a proposed family of around 210 African languages spoken by somewhere around 70 million speakers, mainly in the upper parts of the Chari and Nile rivers, including historic Nubia, north of where the two tributarie ...
spoken in
Chad
Chad, officially the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North Africa, North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to Chad–Libya border, the north, Sudan to Chad–Sudan border, the east, the Central Afric ...
by the
Kanembu people
The Kanembu are an ethnic group of Chad, generally considered the modern descendants of the Kanem–Bornu Empire. The Kanembu are estimated to number 1,815,270 people, located primarily in Chad's Lac Prefecture but also in Chari-Baguirmi a ...
. It is also spoken by a smaller number of people in
Niger
Niger, officially the Republic of the Niger, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is a unitary state Geography of Niger#Political geography, bordered by Libya to the Libya–Niger border, north-east, Chad to the Chad–Niger border, east ...
. It is closely related to
Kanuri.
Phonology
Consonants
* can also have allophones of .
Vowels
* Vowel length is also distributed.
Writing system
Kanembu is written with the
Latin script
The Latin script, also known as the Roman script, is a writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae in Magna Graecia. The Gree ...
and
Ajami alphabets.
In 2009, the Chadian government standardized both Latin and Ajami scripts for all indigenous languages of the country, including Kanembu, in what is known as
Chadian National Alphabet.
[Warren-Rothlin, Andy. (2014). West African Scripts and Arabic-Script Orthographies in Socio-Political Context. DOI]
10.1163/9789004256804_013
Archive
The letters are also used. The orthography also uses the digraphs .
The
Ajami script
Ajami (, ) or Ajamiyya (, ), which comes from the Arabic root for 'foreign' or 'stranger', is an Arabic script, Arabic-derived script used for writing Languages of Africa, African languages, particularly Songhai languages, Songhai, Mandé languages ...
has been used for Kanembu, since the time of
Dunama Dabbalemi, and still today in the
Tarjumo language or in religious works.
Notes
References
*
*
*
*
*
External links
PanAfriL10n page on Kanuri (includes Kanembu)"http://kanembou.net – photos and language recordings"Old Kanembu Islamic Manuscripts
{{Authority control
Saharan languages
Languages of Chad