Loma (Loghoma, Looma, Lorma) is a Mande language spoken by the Loma people of Liberia and Guinea.
| Loma | |
|---|---|
| Looma | |
| Löömàgòòi / Löghömàgòòi | |
| Pronunciation | [lɔːmàɡòːi] [lɔɣɔmàɡòːi] |
| Native to | Liberia, Guinea |
| Ethnicity | Loma |
Native speakers | 560,000 (2017–2020)[1] |
Niger–Congo
| |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Either:lom – Liberian Lomatod – Toma |
| Glottolog | loma1259 |
| People | Löömàgìtì [lɔːmàɡìtì] in Liberia Löghömagiti [lɔɣɔmaɡiti] in Guinea |
|---|---|
| Language | Löömàgòòi [lɔːmàɡòːi] Löghömàgòòi [lɔɣɔmàɡòːi] |
Dialects of Loma proper in Liberia are Gizima, Wubomei, Ziema, Bunde, Buluyiema. The dialect of Guinea, Toma (Toa, Toale, Toali, or Tooma, the Malinke name for Loma), is 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.[2][3][4]
Phonology
Loma has 21 consonants, 28 vowels, and 2 tones.[5]
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labial-velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |||
| Stop | voiced | b | d | g ~ ɡ̟ | ɡ͡b | |
| implosive | ɓ | |||||
| voiceless | p | t | k ~ k̟ | k͡p | ||
| aspirated | pʰ | tʰ | kʰ | |||
| Fricative | voiced | v | z | ɣ | ||
| voiceless | f | s | x | |||
| Semivowel | w | j | ||||
| Approximant | ʋ | l ~ ɾ | ||||
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Close-mid | e | o | |
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɔ | |
| Open | a |
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 (˦) ⟨á⟩ and the Low Tone (˨) ⟨à⟩.
Sample
The Lord's Prayer in Loma:[6]
Yài è ga gé ɣeeai è gee-zuvɛ,
ɓaa ɣa la yà laa-zeigi ma,
yà masadai va,
è yii-mai ɣɛ zui zu è ɣɛ velei é ɣɛɛzu la è wɔ vɛ,
è zaa mii ŋenigi ʋe gé ya,
è gé vaa ʋaitiɛ zu ʋaa yɛ,
è ɣɛ velei gá ɓalaa gé zɔitiɛ zu ʋaa yɛga la gá ʋaa yega te va.
Mɛ lɛ kɛ tɛ-ga ɔ́ wo ga gíɛ,
kɛ̀ è gé wulo tuɓo-vele-yowũ nui ya.
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.[7] The most widely used, 'A va de laa' was not translated to singable English until 2004; it is also translated to German.[7]
References
Bibliography
- Rude, Noel. 1983. Ergativity and the active-stative typology in Loma. Studies in African Linguistics, 14:265–283.[1]
- 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.