// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhy did Sumo languages go to therapy? It had a heavy accent.

Sumo
Sumu
Native to	Nicaragua, Honduras
Region	Huaspuc River and its tributaries
Ethnicity	Sumo people
Native speakers	(9,000 cited 1997–2009)
Language family	Misumalpan Sumalpan Sumo
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either: yan – Mayangna ulw – Ulwa
Glottolog	sumu1234
ELP	Sumo

Sumo (also known as Sumu) is the collective name for a group of Misumalpan languages spoken in Nicaragua and Honduras. Hale & Salamanca (2001) classify the Sumu languages into a northern Mayangna, composed of the Tawahka and Panamahka dialects, and southern Ulwa. Sumu specialist Ken Hale considered the differences between Ulwa and Mayangna in both vocabulary and morphology to be so considerable that he prefers to speak of Ulwa as a language distinct from the northern Sumu varieties.

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar		Palatal	Velar	Glottal
			plain	lateral
Nasal	voiceless	m̥	n̥			ŋ̊
	voiced	m	n			ŋ
Plosive	voiceless	p	t			k
	voiced	b	d
Fricative			s				h
Liquid	voiceless		r̥	l̥
	voiced		r	l
Semivowel		w			j

Vowels

	Front		Back
	short	long	short	long
Close	i	iː	u	uː
Open	a	aː

Sources

• Hale, Ken, and Danilo Salamanca (2001) "Theoretical and Universal Implications of Certain Verbal Entries in Dictionaries of the Misumalpan Languages", in Frawley, Hill & Munro eds. Making Dictionaries: Preserving indigenous Languages of the Americas. University of California Press.
• Norwood, Susan (1997). Gramática de la lengua sumu. Managua: CIDCA.