Kpelle language

Kpelle
Kpɛlɛwoo
Region	Liberia, Guinea, Ivory Coast
Ethnicity	Kpelle people
Native speakers	(1.3 million cited 1991–2012)
Language family	Niger–Congo? Mande Southwestern Kpelle
Writing system	African Reference Alphabet, Kpelle syllabary
Language codes
ISO 639-2	kpe
ISO 639-3	kpe – inclusive code Individual codes: gkp – Guinea Kpelle xpe – Liberia Kpelle knu – Kono
Glottolog	kpel1252

A Kpelle speaker, recorded in Liberia.

The Kpelle /kəˈpɛlə/ language (endonym: "Kpɛlɛɛ") is spoken by the Kpelle people of Liberia, Guinea and Ivory Coast and is part of the Mande language family. Guinean Kpelle (also known as Guerze in French), spoken by half a million people, is concentrated primarily, but not exclusively, in the southeastern forest regions of Guinea bordering Liberia, Ivory Coast, and Sierra Leone. Half a million Liberians speak Liberian Kpelle, which is taught in Liberian schools.

Sample

The Lord's Prayer in Kpelle:

Kunâŋ gáa ŋele sui,

Tɔɔ ku iláai siɣe a maa waa.

Tɔɔ Ikâloŋ-laai é pá,

Tɔɔ ínîa-mɛni é kέ,

Nɔii ma ɓɛ yɛ̂ɛ berei gáa la Ɣâla-taai.

I kukɔ sâa a kuɣele-kuu tɔnɔ-tɔnɔ mii-sɛŋ;

I ipôlu fe kutɔ̂ŋ-karaa-ŋai dîa,

Yɛ̂ɛ berei kwa kupôlu fè la kuɓarâai ditɔ̂ŋ-karaa-ŋai dîai;

Tɔɔ kutúɛ kufe pili yee-laa-maa su,

Kέlɛ, i kukúla mɛni nyɔ́mɔɔ su.

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Labial–velar
Plosive	plain	p	t		k	k͡p
	voiced	b	d		ɡ	ɡ͡b
Implosive		ɓ
Fricative	plain	f	s
	voiced	v	z		ɣ
Trill			r
Lateral			l
Nasal		m	n		ŋ
Approximant				j		w

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Close-mid	e		o
Open-mid	ɛ		ɔ
Open		a

Tones

Kpelle is a tonal language with a three-way level tone distinction: high, mid, and low. Tone patterns within a word are limited, only including:

• High throughout: pέle 'also'
• Mid throughout pεlε 'to start'
• Low throughout pὲle 'small'
• High to low: p^εrε 'side of body'
• Mid to high-low: pɔmûn 'germinate'

These patterns apply to words without affixes, as affixes carry their own tone patterns.

Stress

Words with high, high-low, and low tone patterns are stress-initial. Mid to high-low have second-syllable stress.

Grammar

Alienability and Plurals

All nouns fall into either the alienable or inalienable category. Inalienable nouns are called dependent, and include integral parts of the possessor that cannot be discarded. This category encapsulates body parts, relatives, and membership names. Most Kpelle nouns have one form to represent both singular and plural, with number usually indicated by context. This is except for nouns for people, where the plural is indicated in different ways for dependent and independent nouns. While dependent nouns suffix -ni-, independent nouns have varied plurals.

Compounds

Compounds are formed by combining two or more words. The compounding process transforms the final stem into having a low tone, or the tone 'high-low' pattern if the preceding word contains a mid-tone. The compounds are head-final, meaning that the base word being modified is the last morpheme. (e.g. mii 'to eat' + sále 'medicine' → mii-sále 'pill')

Noun Phrases

The order in a noun phrase goes

1. possessor
2. noun
3. adjective
4. numeral
5. specificity suffix
6. demonstrative pronouns

External links

• PanAfriL10n page on Kpelle/Guerzé
• Omniglot: Kpelle syllabary