Temne language

Temne is a tonal language. Among consonants, Temne distinguishes dental and alveolar, but, unusually, the dental consonants are apical and the alveolar consonants are laminal (and slightly affricated), the opposite of the general pattern, though one found also in the nearby language Limba.{{SOWL|23, 42}}

File:Temne vowel chart.svg{{cite journal|last1=Kanu |first1=Sullay M. |last2=Tucker |first2=Benjamin V. |year=2010|title=Temne|journal=Journal of the International Phonetic Association|volume=40|issue=2|page=249|doi=10.1017/S002510031000006X|doi-access=free}}]]

Temne has two tones: high and low.{{clear}}

The alphabet of Temne includes the following characters and digraphs:{{cite book |url=http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED290325.pdf |publisher=Peace Corps |year=1987 |title=Sierra Leone Temne Language Manual}}

Earlier,{{when|date=October 2024}} Ȧȧ was used instead of Ʌʌ.{{citation needed|date=October 2024}}

In 1861, C. F. Schlenker, a missionary of the Church Missionary Society, published a collection of Temne fables and proverbs in Temne with a facing-text English translation.{{cite book |last=Schlenker |first=Christian Friedrich |year=1861 |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924026923387 |title=A Collection of Temne Traditions, Fables and Proverbs}} Schlenker's source was a Temne man living in Port Loko in the late 1840s; Schlenker explains that he was an old man already at that time. The book also contains some of Schlenker's translations from the Bible into Temne.{{citation needed|date=October 2024}}

In 1916 Northcote Thomas published his Anthropological Report on Sierra Leone; Part 2 contains a Temne-English dictionary{{cite book |last=Thomas |first=Northcote |year=1916 |url=https://archive.org/details/anthropologicalsl02thomuoft/ |title=Anthropological Report on Sierra Leone, part 2: Timne-English Dictionary}} and Part 3 contains a grammar of Temne plus 27 stories told in Temne with interlinear English translation.{{cite book |last=Thomas |first=Northcote |year=1916 |url=https://archive.org/details/anthropological00thom/ |title=Anthropological Report on Sierra Leone, part 3: Timne Grammar and Stories}} Many of the stories are about the trickster spider, called {{lang|tem|panis}} in Temne; the trickster spider is a popular character in the Temne, Vai, Mende, and Limba storytelling traditions of Sierra Leone.{{cite journal |last=Kilson |first=Marion |year=1984 |title=Spider and Royal Antelope in Sierra Leone |journal=Anthropos |volume=79 |pages=240–243}} In addition, Thomas's Specimens of Languages from Sierra Leone{{cite book |last=Thomas |first=Northcote |year=1916 |url=https://archive.org/details/specimensoflangu00thom/ |title=Specimens of languages from Sierra Leone}} contains tables comparing Temne vocabulary to Kissi and other related languages.

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book |last=Bai-Sharka |first=Abou |year=1986 |ol=OL1583057M |title=Temne names and proverbs |series=Stories and songs from Sierra Leone |volume=19 |location=Freetown |publisher=People's Educational Association of Sierra Leone |lccn=91107781 |oclc=18356374}}
• {{cite book |last=Kamarah |first=Sheikh Umarr |year=2007 |title=A descriptive grammar of KʌThemnɛ (Temne) |location=Munich |publisher=Lincom Europa}}
• {{cite book |last=Turay |first=Abdul Karim |year=1989 |title=Temne stories |location=Köln |publisher=Rüdiger Köppe |isbn=9783927620766}}
• {{cite book |last=Wilson |first=W.A.A. |year=1961 |title=An outline of the Temne language |location=London |publisher=SOAS, University of London |oclc=1848657}}
• {{cite thesis |last=Yillah |first=M. Sorie |year=1992 |title=Temne phonology and morphology |location=New York |publisher=City University of New York}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20131218222346/http://www.visitsierraleone.org/background-information/languages/Temne-words-and-phrases.html Temne Words and Phrases]
• [https://openlibrary.org/books/OL6714191M/Grammar_of_the_Temne_language Grammar of the Temne language, 1864 – Rev. C. F. Schlenker]
• [https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/sierra-leone/ CIA Sierra Leone file]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070819200243/http://www.panafril10n.org/wikidoc/pmwiki.php/PanAfrLoc/Temne PanAfrican L10n page on Temne]
• [https://archive.org/download/Sierra_Leone_Stories/kassirie_stories_TEMNE.ogg Listening example: Kassirie Stories]
• [http://www.language-archives.org/language/tem OLAC resources in and about the Timne language]
• [https://archive.org/details/rosettaproject_tem_vertxt-1 Temne story "Mr. Spider and the Rotten Skin" with English rough translation]
• [http://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/timn1235 Glottolog page for Timne]
• [https://www.livelingua.com/peace-corps/Temne/Peace%20Corps%20Temne%20Language%20Manual.pdf Peace Corps Sierra Leone Temne Language Manual]
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gJF5nR3PQE Lets Learn Thaymneh (Temne)]

{{Languages of Sierra Leone}}

{{Atlantic languages}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Mel languages

Category:Languages of Sierra Leone