Nyole (also LoNyole, Lunyole, Nyuli) is a Bantu language spoken by the Banyole in Butaleja District, Uganda. There is 61% lexical similarity with a related but different Nyole language in Kenya.
Nyole has series of voiceless, voiced, and prenasalized stops. is labio-velar.
Nyole has an interesting development from Proto-Bantu *p â Nyole . Schadeberg (1989) connects this sound change to rhinoglottophilia, where the sound change developed first as â â . Then, given the acoustic similarity of and breathy voice to nasalization, the sound change progressed as â â . The velar place of articulation development is due to velar nasals being the least perceptible of the nasals and its marginal status in (pre-)Nyole and other Bantu languages. In closely related neighboring languages, *p developed variously into or or was deleted.
This historical development results in so-called "crazy" alternations, like resulting in as in the following:
In the above two words, when the first person singular subject prefix is added to the stem starting with , the initial consonant surfaces as . In other forms (like "to hear" and "to rest"), the original stem-initial can be seen.