Loma (Loghoma, Lɔɣɔma, Lɔɔma, Lorma) is a Mande language spoken by the Loma people of Liberia and Guinea.
Dialects of Loma proper in Liberia are Gizima, Wubomei, Ziema, Bunde, Buluyiema. The dialects of Guinea, distinguished as "Toma" (Toa, Toale, Toali, or , the Malinke name for Loma), are an official regional language.
In Liberia, the people and language are also known as "Bouze" (Busy, Buzi), which is considered offensive.
Writing systems Today, Loma uses a Latin-based alphabet which is written from left to right. A syllabary saw limited use in the 1930s and 1940s in correspondence between Loma-speakers, but today has fallen into disuse.
Phonology
Loma has 21 consonants, 28 vowels, and 2 tones.
+Loma consonants Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Labial-velar Nasal Stop ~ ~ Fricative Semivowel Approximant ~
+Loma vowels Front Central Back Close Close-mid Open-mid Open Every vowel has 4 forms: Short and non-nasalized, Short and nasalized, Long and non-nasalized, and Long and nasalized making a total of 28 vowels.
Loma has 2 tones: the High Tone () and the Low Tone () .
Sample text The Lord's Prayer in Loma:
Hymns In the 1960s several hymns composed in Loma by Billema Kwillia were recorded by the missionary Margaret D. Miller and then adopted by the Lutheran Church, first appearing in print in Loma in 1970. The most widely used, 'A va de laa' was not translated to singable English until 2004; it is also translated to German.
References
Bibliography Rude, Noel. 1983. Ergativity and the active-stative typology in Loma. Studies in African Linguistics, 14:265–283. Sadler, Wesley. 1951. Untangled Loma: a course of study of the Looma language of the Western Province, Liberia, West Africa. Published by Board of Foreign Missions of the United Lutheran Church in America for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Liberia.
External links ISO proposal for Looma 'macrolanguage' Video by Yale Linguistics Department on Loma last names Video by Yale Linguistics Department on a story about jealousy delivered in Loma