Nyole (also LoNyole, Lunyole, Nyuli) is a Bantu language spoken by the Banyole in Butaleja District, Uganda. There is 61% lexical similarity with a related but different Nyole language in Kenya.
Phonology
Consonants
Nyole has series of voiceless, voiced, and prenasalized stops. is labio-velar.
Vowels
Historical changes
Nyole has an interesting development from Proto-Bantu *p → Nyole . Schadeberg (1989) connects this sound change to rhinoglottophilia, where the sound change developed first as → → . Then, given the acoustic similarity of and breathy voice to nasalization, the sound change progressed as → → . The velar place of articulation development is due to velar nasals being the least perceptible of the nasals and its marginal status in (pre-)Nyole and other Bantu languages. In closely related neighboring languages, *p developed variously into or or was deleted.
This historical development results in so-called "crazy" alternations, like resulting in as in the following:
n-ŋuliira ("hear" stem form) : puliira "I hear" n-ŋumula ("rest" stem form) : pumula "I rest"
In the above two words, when the first person singular subject prefix is added to the stem starting with , the initial consonant surfaces as . In other forms (like "to hear" and "to rest"), the original stem-initial can be seen.
Writing System
See also
Luhya language
References
Eastman, Carol M. (1972). Lunyole of the Bamenya, JAL, 11 (3), 63-78. Morris, H. F. (1963). A note on Lunyole. Uganda Journal, 27, 127-134. Schadeberg, Thilo C. (1989). The velar nasal in Nyole (E. 35). Annales Aequatoria, 10, 169-179. (Available online).