Ruund language

See also: Lunda language

Ruund
Chiluwunda
Native to	Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola
Region	Copperbelt
Native speakers	250,000 (2000)[1]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Bantu (Zone L) Lunda (L.50) Ruund
Language codes
ISO 639-3	rnd
Glottolog	ruun1238
Guthrie code	L.53[2]

Ruund (Ruwund), also known as Northern Lunda or Uruund, is a Bantu language of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Angola. It is highly unusual among Bantu languages for allowing consonantal codas and for its reduced vowel system, in which short /e/ and /o/ have become [i] and [a] respectively, leaving only 3 short vowels.^[3]

Another interesting feature of Ruund is that, as with the related Ciluba language, the tones of Proto-Bantu have reversed, so that High has become Low and vice versa.^[4] In this language therefore the accented syllables are Low and the default tone is High.

References

1. Ruund at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
3. Hyman, Larry. "Segmental Phonology" (PDF). p. 8. Retrieved 22 March 2014.
4. Nash, J.A. (1994), "Underlying Low Tones in Ruwund". Studies in African Linguistics Volume 23, Number 3,1992-1994.