// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhat did Lango language say to its friend? "You lang-o for me.

Not to be confused with Lango language (South Sudan).

Lango
Lëblaŋo
Native to	Uganda
Region	Lango sub-region
Ethnicity	Lango
Native speakers	2.1 million (2014 census)
Language family	Nilo-Saharan? Eastern Sudanic Nilotic Western Nilotic Luo Southern Luo Lango-Kumam Lango
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	laj
Glottolog	lang1324
Glottopedia	Lango

Lango is a Nilotic language spoken in the Lango sub-region of Northern Uganda.

The origin of Lango people is strongly linked to the Karamojong and Teso speaking people.

Phonology

Consonants

		Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stop	voiceless	p	t		k	(ʔ)
	voiced	b	d		g
Affricate	voiceless			tɕ
	voiced			dʑ
Fricative		(ɸ)	(s)	(ɕ)	(x)
Lateral			l
Tap	voiceless		(ɾ̥)
	voiced		ɾ
Nasal		m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Semivowel		w		j

In addition to these consonants, the Lango language maintains a gemination [Cː] distinction in the stops, affricates, nasals and lateral.

Voiceless stops and affricates are slightly aspirated, whereas voiced stops and affricates are fully voiced, sometimes with a characteristic of breathy voice. Stops are normally unreleased at the end of an utterance.

Fricatives and the voiceless alveolar tap are found in complementary distribution with ungeminated voiceless stops and affricates:

• [p] alternates with [ɸ]
• [t] alternates with [ɾ̥]
• [tɕ] alternates with [s] and [ɕ]
• [k] alternates with [x]

A glottal stop [ʔ] can also be heard in word-initial position, or in other intervocalic positions. In slow speech, it may also be heard as a murmured fricative [ɦ].

Vowels

Kumam has ten vowels, forming an asymmetric vowel harmony system based on advanced and retracted tongue root, wherein the presence of advanced tongue root vowels [+ATR] may change retracted tongue root vowels [-ATR], but the reverse does not hold. Vowels can be lengthened but in a predictable manner.

	[+ATR]			[-ATR]
	Front	Central	Back	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u	ɪ		ʊ
Mid	e	ə	o	ɛ		ɔ
Open					a

Writing system

Lango alphabet

a

b

c

d

e

ë

g

i

ï

j

k

l

m

n

ŋ

ny

o

ö

p

r

t

u

ü

w

y

Long vowels are indicated by doubling the vowel: ⟨aa, ee, ëë, ii, ïï, oo, öö, uu, üü⟩.

References

• Okoth Okombo, Duncan (1997). A Functional Grammar of Dholuo. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag. ISBN 978-3-89645-130-9.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)