Tetela (Otetela, Kitetela, Kikitatela), also ''Sungu'', is a
Bantu language of northern
Kasai-Oriental Province,
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...
. It is spoken by the
Tetela people.
Phonology
Consonants
*
�is heard as an allophone of /k/ in intervocalic positions.
Vowels
Noun classes
Like other
Bantu languages
The Bantu languages (English: , Proto-Bantu language, Proto-Bantu: *bantÊŠÌ€), or Ntu languages are a language family of about 600 languages of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern, East Africa, Eastern and Southeast Africa, South ...
, Tetela
grammar
In linguistics, grammar is the set of rules for how a natural language is structured, as demonstrated by its speakers or writers. Grammar rules may concern the use of clauses, phrases, and words. The term may also refer to the study of such rul ...
arranges nouns into a number of
classes. The ancestral system had 22 classes (counting singular and plural as distinct according to the
Meinhof system), with most Bantu languages sharing at least ten of them.
::
References
Relevant literature
* Elysee Meta Okubo. 2016. ''A COLLECTION OF 100 TETELA PROVERBS.'
Proverb website* Mukanga, Ndjeka Elizabeth, Empenge Albert Shefu, Ambaye Albertine Tshefu. 2020. ''Great Collection of Tetela Proverbs on the African Wisdom''. Pittsburgh: Dorrance Publishers.
83 proverbs, 107 pages
Tetela languages
Languages of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
{{Bantu-lang-stub