Rendille language explained

Rendille
Also Known As:	Afi Renꞌdille
States:	Kenya
Region:	Eastern Province
Ethnicity:	Rendille
Script:	Latin alphabet
Date:	2019 census
Ref:	e25
Familycolor:	Afro-Asiatic
Fam2:	Cushitic
Fam3:	Lowland East
Fam4:	Macro-Somali
Iso3:	rel
Glotto:	rend1243
Glottorefname:	Rendille

Rendille (also known as Rendile, Randile) is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken by the Rendille people inhabiting northern Kenya. It is part of the family's Cushitic branch.^[1]

The Ariaal sub-group of the Rendille, who are of mixed Nilotic and Cushitic descent, speak the Nilo-Saharan Samburu language of the Samburu Nilotes, near whom they live.^{[1] [2]}

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Dental/ alveolar	Retroflex	Post-alv./ Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Glottal
Nasal		pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/		pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/
Plosive/ Affricate			pronounced as /ink/		pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	(pronounced as /link/)		pronounced as /ink/
		pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/
Fricative		pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/			pronounced as /ink/		pronounced as /ink/ ~ pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /ink/
Lateral			pronounced as /ink/
Trill			pronounced as /ink/
Glide		pronounced as /ink/			pronounced as /ink/

• /tɕ/ can be heard as [ɕ] by some speakers.
• Some speakers always pronounce /x/ as a uvular stop [q].
• [ʕ] can be heard as a free variant of /ħ/, or when /ħ/ is heard in intervocalic position.
• Voiced sounds become voiceless when in word-final position.
• /b/ can be pronounced as [p] when preceding /ħ/, or as a fricative [β] in intervocalic position.
• /r/ can also freely be devoiced as [r̥] in word-initial position, and is always heard as devoiced in word-final position.
• /d̪/ can freely be heard as an affricate [d̪ð], and can also be heard as a fricative [ð] in intervocalic position.
• /x/ can also be heard as an affricate [qχ] when following nasal sounds.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/		pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/
Mid	pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/		pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/
Open		pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /link/

• Vowels /i, u, e, o/ are commonly heard as lax [ɪ, ʊ, ɛ, ɔ].

References

• Harold C. Fleming, "Baiso and Rendille: Somali Outliers", Rassegna di Studi Etiopici, 20 (1964), pp. 35–96.
• Antoinette Oomen. 1981. "Gender and Plurality in Rendille," Afroasiatic Linguistics 8:35-75.
• Steve Pillinger & Letiwa Galboran. 1999. A Rendille Dictionary, Including a Grammatical Outline and an English-Rendille Index. Cushitic Language Studies Volume 14. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.
• Heine, Bernd. 1976. Notes on the Rendille Language. In Afrika und Übersee LIX. 176-223
• Günther Schlee. 1978. Sprachliche Studien zum Rendille. Hamburger Philologische Studien 46. Hamburg: Helmut Buske Verlag.
• Ronald J. Sim. 1981. "Morphophonemics of the Verb in Rendille," Afroasiatic Linguistics 8:1-33.

Notes and References

1. http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=rel Ethnologue - Rendille
2. Book: Parris, Ronald G.. Rendille. 1994. Rosen Publishing Group. 0823917630. 13. registration.