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Lyélé

Lyélé is an Atlantic-Congo language spoken in Burkina Faso. Glottolog rates it threatened.

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Lyélé · 12.4°N 2.6°W

The Lyélé language (Lele) is spoken in the Sanguié Province of Burkina Faso by approximately 130,000 people known as Lyéla, Léla, Gourounsi or Gurunsi. It is spoken in the towns of Réo, Kyon, Tenado, Dassa, Didyr, Godyr, Kordié, Pouni and Zawara. The language is also sometimes known by the wider term Gurunsi.

Syntactically, Lyélé is a SVO language with postpositions. Determiners and adjectives are placed after the noun.

Unlike most other languages, Lyélé has only one paradigm for all pronouns, including demonstratives, interrogatives, and relatives. Tone can sometimes differentiate between an interrogative and a demonstrative, but this may be a result of interrogative intonation rather than tone marked on the word itself.

From Wikipedia · Lyélé language · CC BY-SA 4.0

Words in Lyélé

MeaningWordRomanization
personlo*
nameyil*
eyeyir*
earzye*
nosemyel*
toothyel*
tonguemejolo*
handje*
bloodjal*
boneku*
kneen3do*
breastyil*
liverCe*
waterna*
firemin*
sunyi*
starCam3soa*
stonen3kulu*
mountainpyo*
treeCo*
leafvo*
nightkiCe*
dogkuli*
fishmomwa*
onedu*
twolye*
Ia*
youn*
wene*
drink5o*

* in the simplified ASJP transcription

Most similar languages

Vocabulary

Vocabulary compares 40 basic words (ASJP); grammar compares 195 features (Grambank). Similar is not always related.

Nearby languages

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Glottolog · lyel1241 · Wikipedia (English) · Ethnologue · lee