Pokomo language

Pokomo
Kipfokomo
Native to	Kenya
Region	Tana River District
Ethnicity	Pokomo
Native speakers	95,000 (2009 census)[1]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta-Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Bantu Northeast Bantu Northeast Coast Bantu Sabaki Pokomo
Dialects	Gwano Kinakomba Malalulu Ndera Ndura Zubaki
Language codes
ISO 639-3	pkb
Glottolog	poko1261
Guthrie code	E.71[2]

Pokomo (Kipfokomo) is a Bantu language spoken primarily along the East African coast near Tana River in the Tana River District by the Pokomo people of Kenya. Kipfokomo language originated from "Kingozi" the language, which Kiswahili was built from. "Kingozi" language is the precursor of Kiswahili.^{[citation needed]} Pokomos are the only tribe in the world that speak "Kingozi" and sometimes are referred to as wangozi because they used to wear skins (Ngozi). All adult speakers of Pokomo are bilingual in Swahili, parts of East Africa's lingua franca.

There is high of lexical similarity between other languages like Mvita (63%), Amu (61%), Mrima (60%), Kigiryama (59%), Chidigo (58%) or Bajun (57%).

Phonology

Consonants^[3]

	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	p b		t̪ d̪	t d		k g
Affricate				ts dz	tʃ dʒ
Implosive	ɓ			ɗ	ʄ
Fricative	f v	ɸ β	ð	s z	ʃ	ɣ	h
Nasal	m			n	ɲ
Trill				r̥ r
Approximant	w			l	j

Vowels^[3]

	Front	Central	Back
High	i iː		u uː
Mid	e eː		o oː
Low		a aː

Pokomo does not have phonemic tone.^[3]

References

1. Pokomo at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
3. Ipu, Hyslop P. (1982). A phonological description of the sounds of Lower Kipfokomo (MA thesis). University of Nairobi.