Budu language
# Budu language

Budu (Ɨbʉdhʉ) is a Bantu language spoken by the Budu people in the Wamba Territory in the Orientale Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its orthography uses the special characters ɨ, ʉ, ɛ and ɔ, as well as modifier letters colon ꞉ and equal sign ꞊ for grammatical tone, marking past and future tense, respectively.

A variety of this language is called Matta and is spoken locally both north and south of Maboma.

## Phonology

### Consonants

| | | Labial | Alveolar | (Alveolo-) palatal | Velar | Labio- velar | Glottal |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | c | k | | |
| Plosive | voiced | b | d | ɟ | ɡ | | |
| Plosive | prenasal | ᵐb | ⁿd | ᶮɟ | ᵑɡ | | |
| Plosive | implosive | ɓ | ɗ | ʄ | | | |
| Affricate | voiceless | | | t͡ɕ | | k͡p | |
| Affricate | voiced | | | d͡ʑ | | ɡ͡b | |
| Affricate | prenasal | | | ᶮd͡ʑ | | ᵑᵐɡ͡b | |
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | | | | h |
| Fricative | voiced | v | z | | | | h |
| Fricative | prenasal | ᶬv | | | | | |
| Nasal | Nasal | m | n | ɲ | | | |
| Approximant | Approximant | | (l) | j | | w | |

* [z] only occurs in the Koya dialect of Budu.
* /h/ can be heard as either a voiced [ɦ] or voiceless [h] among different speakers.
* /ɗ/ can be heard as [l] or a tap [ɾ] in free variation.

### Vowels

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