Rendille (also known as Rendile, Randile) is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken by the Rendille people inhabiting northern Kenya. It is part of the family's Cushitic branch.Ethnologue - Rendille
The Ariaal sub-group of the Rendille, who are of mixed Nilotic and Cushitic descent, speak the Nilo-Saharan Samburu language of the Samburu Nilotes, near whom they live.
Phonology
Consonants Labial Dental/alveolarRetroflex Post-alv./Palatal VelarUvularPharyngeal Glottal Nasal Plosive/Affricate () Fricative ~ Lateral Trill Glide
/tɕ/ can be heard as [ɕ] by some speakers. Some speakers always pronounce /x/ as a uvular stop [q]. [ʕ] can be heard as a free variant of /ħ/, or when /ħ/ is heard in intervocalic position. Voiced sounds become voiceless when in word-final position. /b/ can be pronounced as [p] when preceding /ħ/, or as a fricative [β] in intervocalic position. /r/ can also freely be devoiced as [r̥] in word-initial position, and is always heard as devoiced in word-final position. /d̪/ can freely be heard as an affricate [d̪ð], and can also be heard as a fricative [ð] in intervocalic position. /x/ can also be heard as an affricate [qχ] when following nasal sounds.
Vowels FrontCentral Back Close Mid Open
Vowels /i, u, e, o/ are commonly heard as lax [ɪ, ʊ, ɛ, ɔ].
Alphabet The Rendille alphabet has 26 letters: Rendille alphabet Letter A B Ch D Dh E F G H H' I J K a b ch d dh e f g h h' i j k Phoneme /a/ /b/ /tʃ/ /ɖ/ /d̪/ /e/ /f/ /g/ /ħ/ /h/ /i/ /ʤ/ /k/ Letter Kh L M N Ng' Ny O R S T U W Y kh l m n ng' ny o r s t u w y Phoneme /x/ /l/ /m/ /n/ /ŋ/ /ɲ/ /ɔ/ /r/ /s/ /t/ /u/ /w/ /j/
Long vowels are written doubled. Tone is phonemic, and high tone can be written as an acute accent ( ́), while low tone is not marked.
References
Further reading Harold C. Fleming, "Baiso and Rendille: Somali Outliers", Rassegna di Studi Etiopici, 20 (1964), pp. 35–96. Antoinette Oomen. 1981. "Gender and Plurality in Rendille," Afroasiatic Linguistics 8:35-75. Steve Pillinger & Letiwa Galboran. 1999. A Rendille Dictionary, Including a Grammatical Outline and an English-Rendille Index. Cushitic Language Studies Volume 14. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag. Heine, Bernd. 1976. Notes on the Rendille Language. In Afrika und Übersee LIX. 176-223 Günther Schlee. 1978. Sprachliche Studien zum Rendille. Hamburger Philologische Studien 46. Hamburg: Helmut Buske Verlag. Ronald J. Sim. 1981. "Morphophonemics of the Verb in Rendille," Afroasiatic Linguistics 8:1-33.