Lutos language

Lutos
Ruto
Native to	Central African Republic, Chad
Native speakers	(19,000 cited 1993–1996)[1]
Language family	Nilo-Saharan? Central Sudanic Bongo–Bagirmi Vale Lutos
Dialects	Ruto Nduka
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ndy
Glottolog	luto1241

Lutos (Ruto) is a Central Sudanic language of CAR and Chad. Two distinctive dialects are Lutos/Ruto proper and Nduka.[2]

Phonology

Consonants[3]

		Labial	Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Labiovelar	Glottal
Plosive	oral	p b	t d			k g	kp gb
	nasal	ᵐb	ⁿd			ᵑg	ᵑᵐgb
Implosive		ɓ	ɗ
Fricative	oral	f v	s z					h
	nasal	ᵐv	ⁿz
Nasal		m	n		ɲ
Approximant		w	r, l	ɽ	j

• /s/ can sometimes be heard as [ʃ] syllable-finally.

Vowels[3]

	Front	Central	Back
High	i iː		u uː ũ ũː
Mid-high	e ẽ	ə	o oː õ õː
Mid-low	ɛ		ɔ ɔː ɔ̃ ɔ̃ː
Low		a aː ã ãː

Additionally, there exists the diphthong /ua/. It cannot be lengthened nor nasalised.

Lutos has three tones: high, mid, low.[3]

References

1. Lutos at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. International Encyclopedia of Linguistics ed. William J. Frawley · 2003 p303 " In Central African Republic: 17,000 speakers in Nde ́le ́, Kaga Andoro, and Kabo subprefectures. Dialects are Nduka (Ndouka, Ndoukwa), Lutos (Ruto, Routo, Rito, Luto, Louto), Wada (Wad), Nduga (Ngougua), Konga."
3. Olson, Kenneth S. (26 August 2013). A Sketch of Lutos Phonology. 43rd Colloquium on African Languages & Linguistics. Leiden.