Kumam dialect

Kumam also known as Ikokolemu is a language spoken by the Kumam people, and it belongs to the Ateker group of languages.
As similar with the Lango language situation, currently Kumam speak a Mixed language owing to close proximity with Lwo-speaking peoples. The Kumam language itself is not a Southern Lwoo language.
Luo languages belong to Luo peoples, these are distinct from the Hamitic also kwown as Ateker group of languages e.g. Kumam, Lango, Ateso and so on.
Sources show that the Kumam learned Lwo after migration to their present location in Uganda.
On 27th to 29th November 2024, Kumam people reunited back to the Ateker peoples. Uganda government hosted this historical event. The Kumam people are not ethnically nor linguistically related to Luo peoples.

Phonology

Consonants

can occur due to morphological processes, for example del 'skin' + -ná → dellá 'my skin'.

Vowels

Kumam has ten vowels, with a vowel harmony system based on presence or absence of advanced tongue root.
Vowels have no distinction in length, except due to some morphological processes, for instance compensatory lengthening that occurs when applying the transitive infinitive suffix -nɔ: ted- 'cook' + -ne → *ted-do → teedo 'to cook'.

Tone

There exist six tones: low, high, falling, rising, downstep high and double downstep high.

Tone	Transcription
low
high
falling
rising
downstep high
double downstep high

Tone sandhi

Kumam exhibits tone sandhi in two ways. The first is the spreading of high tonemes rightwards to the following words beginning with a low tonemes, as in ɑbúké 'eyelash' + waŋ 'eye' → abúké wâŋ 'eyelash'. The second is when a floating high toneme is followed by a word beginning in a low toneme, where the floating tone is assigned to the following word and not the word bearing the floating tone: cogó 'bone' + rac 'bad' → cogo râc 'The bone is bad.'

Grammar

Verbs

Valency

stems are constructed by applying the suffix -ɔ. A subset of transitive verbs can have the suffix -ɛ́rɛ́ applied to form what Hieda calls a 'middle form'.

Basic lexicon

Hello – yoga

How are you? –Itiye benyo, Itiyenu benyo

Fine, and you? – Atiye ber, arai bon yin?

Fine – Atiye ber or just ber

What is your name? – Nying in en Ngai?

My name is... – Nying ango en...

Name --- Nying

Nice to see you. --- Apwoyo Neno in

See you again --- Oneno bobo

Book – Itabo

Because – Pi Ento
The first sentence in the bible can be translated as I ya gege, Rubanga ocweo wi polo kede piny.