Kumam also known as Ikokolemu is a language spoken by the Kumam people, and it belongs to the Ateker group of languages.
As similar with the Lango language situation, currently Kumam speak a Mixed language owing to close proximity with Lwo-speaking peoples. The Kumam language itself is not a Southern Lwoo language.
Luo languages belong to Luo peoples, these are distinct from the Hamitic also kwown as Ateker group of languages e.g. Kumam, Lango, Ateso and so on. Sources show that the Kumam learned Lwo after migration to their present location in Uganda.
On 27th to 29th November 2024, Kumam people reunited back to the Ateker peoples. Uganda government hosted this historical event. The Kumam people are not ethnically nor linguistically related to Luo peoples.
Gemination can occur due to morphological processes, for example del 'skin' + -ná â dellá 'my skin'.
Kumam has ten vowels, with a vowel harmony system based on presence or absence of advanced tongue root (ATR).
Vowels have no distinction in length, except due to some morphological processes, for instance compensatory lengthening that occurs when applying the transitive infinitive suffix -nÃÂ: ted- 'cook' + -ne â *ted-do â teedo 'to cook'.
There exist six tones: low, high, falling, rising, downstep high and double downstep high.
Kumam exhibits tone sandhi in two ways. The first is the spreading of high tonemes rightwards to the following words beginning with a low tonemes, as in ÃÂbúké 'eyelash' + waà  'eye' â abúké wÃ¢à  'eyelash'. The second is when a floating high toneme is followed by a word beginning in a low toneme, where the floating tone is assigned to the following word and not the word bearing the floating tone: cogó 'bone' + rac 'bad' â cogo râc 'The bone is bad.'
Transitive stems are constructed by applying the suffix -à(yÃÂà  'be satisfied' â yÃÂà Â-à'satisfy'). A subset of transitive verbs can have the suffix -ÃÂÃÂrÃÂàapplied to form what Hieda calls a 'middle form' (nÃÂÃÂn-àâ nÃÂÃÂ!nÃÂÃÂrÃÂà'be seen').
Hello â yoga <br/> How are you? âÂÂItiye benyo (singular), Itiyenu benyo (plural) <br/> Fine, and you? â Atiye ber, arai bon yin? <br/> Fine â Atiye ber or just ber <br/> What is your name? â Nying in en Ngai? <br/> My name is ... â Nying ango en ... <br/> Name --- Nying <br/> Nice to see you. --- Apwoyo Neno in (also: Apwoyo Neno wun) <br/> See you again --- Oneno bobo <br/> Book â Itabo <br/> Because â Pi Ento
The first sentence in the bible can be translated as I ya gege, Rubanga ocweo wi polo kede piny ("In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth" ).