Kanembu language

Consonants

More information Labial, Alveolar ...

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Plosive	voiceless	p	t	c	k	ʔ
	voiced	b	d	ɟ	ɡ
	prenasal	ᵐb	ⁿd	ᶮɟ	ᵑɡ
Fricative		f	s	ʃ		h
Trill			r
Approximant		w	l	j

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• /f, b/ can also have allophones of [ɸ, β].^[2]

Vowels

More information Front, Central ...

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Near-close	ɪ		ʊ
Close-mid	e	ə	o
Open-mid	ɛ	ɜ	ɔ
Open		a

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• Vowel length is also distributed.

Kanembu is written with the Latin script and Ajami alphabets.

In 2009, the Chadian government standardized both Latin and Ajami scripts for all indigenous languages of the country, including Kanembu, in what is known as Chadian National Alphabet.^[3][4]

Kanembu Latin alphabet ^[5][6]

A a	B b	C c	D d	E e	Ə ə	F f	G g	H h	I i	J j	K k
[a]	[b]	[t͡ʃ]	[d]	[e]	[ə]	[f]	[g]	[h]	[i]	[d͡ʒ]	[k]
L l	M m	N n	O o	Pp	R r	S s	T t	U u	W w	Y y
[l]	[m]	[n]	[o]	[p]	[r]	[s]	[t]	[u]	[w]	[j]

The letters ⟨â, ê, î, ô, û⟩ are also used. The orthography also uses the digraphs ⟨ch, mb, nd, ng, nj⟩.

The Ajami script has been used for Kanembu, since the time of Dunama Dabbalemi, and still today in the Tarjumo language or in religious works.