Limba language

Limba
Yimba
Native toSierra Leone, Guinea
Native speakers
(520,000 cited 1993-2019)
Dialects
  • East Limba
  • West–Central Limba
Language codes
ISO 639-3Either:
lia – West–Central
lma – East
Glottologlimb1267

The Limba language, Hulimba, is a Niger–Congo language of Sierra Leone and Guinea. It is not closely related to other languages and appears to form its own branch of the Atlantic–Congo family. Dialects include Tonko, Sela, Kamuke (or Ke), Wara-wara, Keleng, Biriwa, and Safroko. The eastern variety, spoken primarily in Guinea, is quite distinct. Limba has a system of noun classes, marked by an old, eroded set of prefixes augmented by a newer set of enclitics.

Distribution

Ethnologue lists the following two varieties of Limba, spoken in Guinea and Sierra Leone.

East Limba is spoken in Ouré-Kaba, Guinea.

West-Central Limba is spoken in northern Sierra Leone. It is spoken in the Little Scarcies River area in east Bombali District and northeast Kambia District, as well as north of Makeni.

Phonology

Like neighboring Temne, Limba has an unusual contrast among its consonants. It distinguishes dental and alveolar, but the dental consonants are apical and the alveolar consonants are laminal, the opposite of the general pattern.

Consonants

Labial Dental Alveolar Palatal Velar Labio-
velar		 Glottal
Plosive voiceless p t̪ t k
voiced b d (ɡ) ɡ͡b
Nasal m n ŋ
Fricative (f) s h
Approximant l j w
Trill r

Vowels

Front Central Back
High i u
High-mid e o
Low-mid ɛ ɔ
Low a

Grammar

Noun classes

Noun classes are distinguished by the form of the definite article (class particle) which follows the noun, and sometimes also by a prefix. Roughly, the following classes can be deduced from the examples given by Mary Lane Clarke:

A. Person class

Definite article (follows the noun): wo; pronoun ("he, she, it" as subject): wunde, wun

B. People class

Definite article: be; pronoun: bende, ben

C. Language class

Definite article: ha; pronoun: -?- (presumably this is neuter according to class, and so on through the neuter classes)

D. Country class

Definite article: ka

E. Bodkins class

Definite article: ta

F. Cascade class

Definite article: ko

G. Dogs class, plurals of F.

Definite article: ňa

H. Arrival class

Definite article: ma

I. Needles class, plurals of H.

Definite article: ma

J. Yam class

Definite article: ki

K. Bracelets class, plurals of J.

Definite article: ki

L. Meat class

Definite article: ba

M. Boxes class, plurals of L.

Definite article: ba

N. Yarn class

Definite article: mu

O. Waves class

Definite article: mu

P. Kusini-fruits class

Definite article: bu

Q. A class with definite article wu

Other nouns, including nouns of quantity, etc., take no article. It may be that they are classless:

References

  1. ↑ "Limba, East". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2018-08-11.
  2. ↑ "Limba, West-Central". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2018-08-11.
  3. ↑ Güldemann, Tom (2018). "Historical linguistics and genealogical language classification in Africa". In Güldemann, Tom (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of Africa. The World of Linguistics series. Vol. 11. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 58–444. doi:10.1515/9783110421668-002. ISBN 978-3-11-042606-9. S2CID 133888593.
  4. ↑ Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. p. 42. ISBN 0-631-19815-6.
  5. ↑ Rolle, Nicholas (2024). A report on Limba, a Niger-Congo isolate of Sierra Leone.
  6. ↑ Mary Lane Clarke, A Limba–English Dictionary, or, Tampeň ta ka Taluň ta ka Hulimba ha in Huiňkilisi ha, Houghton, New York, 1922, reprinted 1971 by Gregg International Publishers, Farnborough, England. [page needed] This information is based on the Biriwa and Safroko dialects.

Further reading