Temne language


Temne is a language of the Mel branch of the Niger–Congo language family, spoken in Sierra Leone by about 2.5 million first-language speakers. One of the country's most widely spoken languages, it is spoken by 36% of the country’s population. It also serves as a lingua franca for an additional 1,800,000 people living in areas near the Temne people. It is closely related to the neighboring Landouma language.
It is related to the Baga languages spoken in Guinea and to Bullom languages spoken in Sierra Leone. Themne speakers live mostly in the Northern Province and Western Area of Sierra Leone. Temne people can be found in a number of other West African countries as well, including Guinea and The Gambia. Some Temnes have also migrated beyond West Africa seeking educational and professional opportunities, especially in Great Britain, the United States, and Egypt.

Phonology

Temne is a tonal language, with four tones. Among consonants, Temne distinguishes dental and alveolar, but, unusually, the dental consonants are apical and the alveolar consonants are laminal, the opposite of the general pattern, though one found also in the nearby language Limba.

Consonants

Vowels

FrontMidBack
Closeiu
Close-mideəo
Open-midɛʌɔ
Opena

Writing

The alphabet of Temne includes the following characters and digraphs:
aʌbdeɛəfgbhiklmnŋoɔprstthuw
AɅBDEƐƏFGbHIKLMNŊOƆPRSTThUW

Earlier, Ȧȧ was used instead of Ʌʌ