| Tetela | |
| Nativename: | Ɔtɛtɛla |
| States: | Democratic Republic of the Congo |
| Region: | Northern Kasai Oriental Province |
| Speakers: | 760,000 |
| Date: | 1991 |
| Ref: | e18 |
| Familycolor: | Niger-Congo |
| Fam2: | Atlantic–Congo |
| Fam3: | Volta-Congo |
| Fam4: | Benue–Congo |
| Fam5: | Bantoid |
| Fam6: | Southern Bantoid |
| Fam7: | Bantu (Zone C) |
| Fam8: | Tetela languages (C.70) |
| Lc1: | tll |
| Ld1: | Tetela |
| Lc2: | hba |
| Ld2: | Hamba |
| Glotto: | tete1250 |
| Glottoname: | Tetela |
| Glotto2: | hamb1245 |
| Glottoname2: | Hamba |
| Glottorefname2: | Hamba de Lomela |
| Guthrie: | C.71 |
| Ethnicity: | Tetela people |
Tetela (Otetela, Kitetela, Kikitatela), also Sungu, is a Bantu language of northern Kasai-Oriental Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is spoken by the Tetela people.
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Plosive/ Affricate | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /ink/ | (pronounced as /link/) | |||
| prenasal | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Fricative | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| prenasal | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| Lateral | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Close-mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Open-mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Open | pronounced as /link/ |
Like other Bantu languages, Tetela grammar arranges nouns into a number of classes. The ancestral system had 22 classes (counting singular and plural as distinct according to the Meinhof system), with most Bantu languages sharing at least ten of them.
| class | semantics | prefix | singular | translation | plural | translation | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1, 2 | persons | o-/ɔ-/w-, a- | omfúnjí | scribe, secretary | amfúnjí | scribes, secretaries | |
| 3, 4 | trees, etc | o-/ɔ-/w-, e-/ɛ- | ojja | place | ejja | places; region | |
| 5, 6 | various | di-/dy-, a- | dihamvú | fruit of Chrysophyllum lacourtianum | ahamvú | fruits of Chrysophyllum lacourtianum | |
| 7, 8 | various | ke-/e-, di-/dy- | kesashi | chief | disashi | chiefs | |
| 9, 10 | animals, etc | Ø-/N-, Ø-/N- | mbódí | goat | mbódí | goats | |
| 11, 10 | abstract concepts, etc | lo-, N- | lolémí | language | némí | languages | |
| 12, 13 | various | ka-/k-, to-/t- | kashikɛ | helmet (from French casque) | toshikɛ | helmets | |
| 19, 13 | various | °i- (complex morphology), to-/t- | jɔ́ndɔ́ | ??? | tɔlɔ́ndɔ́ | ??? |