| Gungu | |
| Nativename: | Rugungu |
| States: | Uganda |
| Region: | Buliisa District |
| Ethnicity: | Gungu people |
| Speakers: | 49,000 |
| Date: | 2002 census |
| Ref: | e18 |
| Familycolor: | Niger-Congo |
| Fam2: | Atlantic–Congo |
| Fam3: | Volta-Congo |
| Fam4: | Benue–Congo |
| Fam5: | Bantoid |
| Fam6: | Southern Bantoid |
| Fam7: | Bantu |
| Fam8: | Northeast Bantu |
| Fam9: | Great Lakes Bantu |
| Protoname: | Pre-Rugungu |
| Iso3: | rub |
| Glotto: | gung1250 |
| Glottorefname: | Gungu |
| Guthrie: | JE.101 |
Gungu is a Bantu language spoken by the Gungu (or Bagungu) people in western Uganda.
Casali and Diprose tentatively argue that the labialized (Cʷ) and palatalized (Cʲ) sequences may be sequences of CuV and CiV, respectively.
| Bilabial | Labio-dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | lab. | pal. | plain | lab. | pal. | plain | lab. | pal. | plain | lab. | pal. | plain | lab. | pal. | |||||
| Nasal | -nas | pronounced as /ink/ (m) | pronounced as /ink/ (mw) | pronounced as /ink/ (my) | pronounced as /ink/ (n) | pronounced as /ink/ (nw) | pronounced as /ink/ (ni̱) | pronounced as /ink/ (ny) | pronounced as /ink/ (nyi̱) | pronounced as /ink/ (ngh) | pronounced as /ink/ (nghy) | ||||||||
| +nas | pronounced as /ink/ (mm) | pronounced as /ink/ (mmw) | pronounced as /ink/ (mmy) | pronounced as /ink/ (nn) | pronounced as /ink/ (nnw) | pronounced as /ink/ (nni) | pronounced as /ink/ (nny) | pronounced as /ink/ (nnyw) | |||||||||||
| Stop/ Affricate | -voice | -nas | pronounced as /ink/ (p) | pronounced as /ink/ (pw) | pronounced as /ink/ (py) | pronounced as /ink/ (f) | pronounced as /ink/ (t) | pronounced as /ink/ (tw) | pronounced as /ink/ (ty) | pronounced as /ink/ (t͡ʃ) | pronounced as /ink/ (cw) | pronounced as /ink/ (cy) | pronounced as /ink/ (k) | pronounced as /ink/ (kw) | pronounced as /ink/ (ky) | ||||
| +nas | pronounced as /mp/ (mp) | pronounced as /ink/ (mpw) | pronounced as /ink/ (mpy) | pronounced as /ink/ (nf) | pronounced as /ink/ (nt) | pronounced as /ink/ (ntw) | pronounced as /ink/ (nty) | pronounced as /ink/ (nc) | pronounced as /ink/ (ncw) | pronounced as /ŋk/ (nk) | pronounced as /ink/ (nkw) | pronounced as /ink/ (nky) | |||||||
| +voice | -nas | pronounced as /ink/ (bb) | pronounced as /ink/ (bbw) | pronounced as /ink/ (bby) | pronounced as /ink/ (v) | pronounced as /ink/ (d) | pronounced as /ink/ (dw) | pronounced as /ink/ (dy) | pronounced as /ink/ (j) | pronounced as /ink/ (jw) | pronounced as /ink/ (jy) | pronounced as /ink/ (g) | pronounced as /ink/ (gw) | pronounced as /ink/ (gy) | |||||
| +nas | pronounced as /mb/ (mb) | pronounced as /ink/ (mbw) | pronounced as /ink/ (mby) | pronounced as /ink/ (nv) | pronounced as /ink/ (nd) | pronounced as /ink/ (ndw) | pronounced as /ink/ (ndy) | pronounced as /ink/ (nj) | pronounced as /ink/ (njw) | pronounced as /ŋg/ (ng) | pronounced as /ink/ (ngw) | pronounced as /ink/ (ngy) | |||||||
| Fricative | -voice | -nas | pronounced as /ink/ (s) | pronounced as /ink/ (sw) | pronounced as /ink/ (sy) | pronounced as /ink/ (h) | pronounced as /ink/ (hw) | pronounced as /ink/ (hy) | |||||||||||
| +nas | pronounced as /ink/ (ns) | pronounced as /ink/ (nsw) | pronounced as /ink/ (nsy) | ||||||||||||||||
| +voice | -nas | pronounced as /ink/ (b) | pronounced as /ink/ (by) | pronounced as /ink/ (z) | pronounced as /ink/ (zw) | pronounced as /ink/ (zy) | |||||||||||||
| +nas | pronounced as /ink/ (nz) | pronounced as /ink/ (nzw) | pronounced as /ink/ (nzy) | ||||||||||||||||
| Tap | pronounced as /ink/ (r) | pronounced as /ink/ (rw) | pronounced as /ink/ (ry) | ||||||||||||||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /ink/ (b̯) | pronounced as /ink/ (b̯w) | pronounced as /ink/ (l) | pronounced as /ink/ (lw) | pronounced as /ink/ (ly) | pronounced as /ink/ (y) | pronounced as /ink/ (yw) | pronounced as /ink/ (w) | |||||||||||
Gungu has 14 vowel phonemes. The mid vowels are variants of the open-mid vowels. Vowels before prenasalized consonants and after labialized and palatalized consonants are always long but are written short. The close and mid vowels are considered "hard", and the others are considered "soft." Gungu has a form of vowel harmony, in which the mid vowels generally only appear in words with the "hard" close vowels.
| Front | Central | Back | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Short | Long | Short | Long | Short | Long | ||
| Close | pronounced as /ink/ (i̱) | pronounced as /ink/ (i̱i̱) | pronounced as /ink/ (u̱) | pronounced as /ink/ (u̱u̱) | |||
| Near-close | pronounced as /ink/ (i) | pronounced as /ink/ (ii) | pronounced as /ink/ (u) | pronounced as /ink/ (u) | |||
| Mid | (pronounced as /ink/ (e)) | (pronounced as /ink/ (ee)) | (pronounced as /ink/ (o)) | (pronounced as /ink/ (oo)) | |||
| Open-mid | pronounced as /ink/ (e) | pronounced as /ink/ (ee) | pronounced as /ink/ (o) | pronounced as /ink/ (oo) | |||
| Open | pronounced as /ink/ (a) | pronounced as /ink/ (aa) | |||||
Gungu has eight diphthongs.
| Front Hard | Front Soft | Back Hard | Back Soft | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mid | pronounced as /ink/ (ei̱) | pronounced as /ink/ (ei) | pronounced as /ink/ (oi̱) | pronounced as /ink/ (oi) | |
| Open | pronounced as /ink/ (ai̱) | pronounced as /ink/ (ai) | pronounced as /ink/ (au̱) | pronounced as /ink/ (au) |
Tone is only marked on Gungu verbs indicating the recent past. This tense is marked with a plus symbol (+).
| Capital | Lowercase | IPA | |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | a | pronounced as /link/ | |
| Aa | aa | pronounced as /link/ | |
| B | b | pronounced as /link/ | |
| B̯ | b̯ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| Bb | bb | pronounced as /link/ | |
| C | c | pronounced as /link/ | |
| D | d | pronounced as /link/ | |
| E | e | pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/ | |
| Ee | ee | pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/ | |
| F | f | pronounced as /link/ | |
| G | g | pronounced as /link/ | |
| H | h | pronounced as /link/ | |
| I | i | pronounced as /link/ | |
| II | ii | pronounced as /link/ | |
| I̱ | i̱ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| I̱I̱ | i̱i̱ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| J | j | pronounced as /link/ | |
| K | k | pronounced as /link/ | |
| L | l | pronounced as /link/ | |
| M | m | pronounced as /link/ | |
| N | n | pronounced as /link/ | |
| Ngh | ngh | pronounced as /link/ | |
| Ny | ny | pronounced as /link/ | |
| O | o | pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/ | |
| Oo | oo | pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/ | |
| P | p | pronounced as /link/ | |
| R | r | pronounced as /link/ | |
| S | s | pronounced as /link/ | |
| T | t | pronounced as /link/ | |
| U | u | pronounced as /link/ | |
| Uu | uu | pronounced as /link/ | |
| U̱ | u̱ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| U̱U̱ | u̱u̱ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| V | v | pronounced as /link/ | |
| W | w | pronounced as /link/ | |
| Y | y | pronounced as /link/ | |
| Z | z | pronounced as /link/ |