Korandje language
Encyclopedia
Korandje is by far the most northerly of the Songhay languages
. It is spoken around the oasis of Tabelbala
by about 3000 people; its name literally means "village's language". While retaining a basically Songhay structure, it is extremely heavily influenced by Berber
and Arabic
; about 20% of the 100-word Swadesh list
of basic vocabulary consists of loans from Arabic or Berber, and the proportion of the lexicon as a whole is considerably higher.
The only published studies of Korandje based on first-hand data are Cancel (1908), a 45-page article by a French lieutenant covering basic grammar and vocabulary and a couple of sample texts; Champault (1969), an anthropological study containing some incidental linguistically relevant materials such as sentences and rhymes; Tilmatine (1991, 1996), an article (published in German, then reworked in French) revisiting Cancel and Champault and adding about a page of new data recorded by the author; and Souag (2010a, 2010b), the former arguing the case for Western Berber loans in the lexicon, the latter studying the effect of contact with Berber
and Arabic
on its grammar.
Items in brackets are not normally used by older speakers. A bilabial click is attested in one baby-talk word.
An earlier proposal by Nicolaï (1981), based on a very limited corpus of recordings provided by Champault, suggested a smaller phoneme inventory:
alongside pharyngealized consonants ṭ ḍ ṣ ẓ ṇ ḥ as well as x q, found mainly in loanwords, and a six-vowel system: a, i, u, e, o, and ə (schwa
).
s as follows (also for xani):
According to Tilmatine, verbs are negated by surrounding them with `as ... hé/hi, eg ni `as ba enγa hé > n`esbanγa hé "do not eat!". "No" is hoho or ho: n'd'xani bînu, willa ho? "did you sleep yesterday, or not?".
=yu, eg tsəksi "goat" > tsəks=yu "goats". This marker comes at the end of the "core noun phrase", the unit consisting of noun+numeral+adjective+demonstrative: eg ạḍṛạ inẓa bya=γ=yu (mountain three big=DEM=PL) "these three big mountains". Some Berber loans retain versions of their original plurals, usually with the circumfix
(ts)i-...-ən, eg awṛəẓ "heel" > iwṛạẓən "heels"; while the morphemes involved are clearly of Berber origin, the details of this system differ from any one attested Berber language, and this plural is extended to at least one item of Songhay origin, tsạṛə̣w "spoon" > tsiṛạwən. Some Arabic loans similarly retain Arabic plurals.
The possessive is expressed by the particle n, with the possessor preceding the possessed: wi n tsə̣ffạ "woman 's knife".
) and children's counting systems. The syntax of numerals in the noun phrases is complicated.
Songhay languages
The Songhay, Songhai, or Songai languages are a group of closely related languages/dialects centered on the middle stretches of the Niger River in the west African states of Mali, Niger, Benin, Burkina Faso, and Nigeria. They have been widely used as a lingua franca in that region ever since the...
. It is spoken around the oasis of Tabelbala
Tabelbala
Tabelbala is an oasis between Béchar and Tindouf in southwestern Algeria, notable for being the only town in Algeria to speak a language neither Arabic nor Berber, Korandje.Tabelbala is divided into four settlements...
by about 3000 people; its name literally means "village's language". While retaining a basically Songhay structure, it is extremely heavily influenced by Berber
Berber languages
The Berber languages are a family of languages indigenous to North Africa, spoken from Siwa Oasis in Egypt to Morocco , and south to the countries of the Sahara Desert...
and Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
; about 20% of the 100-word Swadesh list
Swadesh list
A Swadesh list is one of several lists of vocabulary with basic meanings, developed by Morris Swadesh from 1940 onward, with the final, posthumously published version 1971 [1972], which is used in lexicostatistics and glottochronology .- Versions and authors :There are several versions of Swadesh...
of basic vocabulary consists of loans from Arabic or Berber, and the proportion of the lexicon as a whole is considerably higher.
The only published studies of Korandje based on first-hand data are Cancel (1908), a 45-page article by a French lieutenant covering basic grammar and vocabulary and a couple of sample texts; Champault (1969), an anthropological study containing some incidental linguistically relevant materials such as sentences and rhymes; Tilmatine (1991, 1996), an article (published in German, then reworked in French) revisiting Cancel and Champault and adding about a page of new data recorded by the author; and Souag (2010a, 2010b), the former arguing the case for Western Berber loans in the lexicon, the latter studying the effect of contact with Berber
Berber languages
The Berber languages are a family of languages indigenous to North Africa, spoken from Siwa Oasis in Egypt to Morocco , and south to the countries of the Sahara Desert...
and Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
on its grammar.
Sounds
No complete phonological study of Korandje, systematically justified by minimal pairs, has yet been made. According to Souag (2010), the vowel system consists of lax ə, ŭ [ʊ], ə̣̣ [ʌ] and tense a [a], i, u, ạ [ɑ], ụ [o], while the consonant system is as follows:| Labial | Coronal | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Pharyngeal | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosives | b bʷ | t tˤ d dˤ | k kʷ ɡ ɡʷ | q qʷ | (ʔ) | ||
| Affricates | ts dz | ||||||
| Approximants | w | l lˤ | j | ||||
| Fricatives | f fʷ | s sˤ z zˤ | (ʃ ʒ) | x xʷ ɣ ɣʷ | ħ ʕ | h | |
| Nasals Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :... |
m mʷ | n | |||||
| Trill Trill consonant In phonetics, a trill is a consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the articulator and the place of articulation. Standard Spanish <rr> as in perro is an alveolar trill, while in Parisian French it is almost always uvular.... |
r rˤ |
Items in brackets are not normally used by older speakers. A bilabial click is attested in one baby-talk word.
An earlier proposal by Nicolaï (1981), based on a very limited corpus of recordings provided by Champault, suggested a smaller phoneme inventory:
| Labial | Coronal | Palatal | Velar | Labiovelar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosives | b | t d | k ɡ | kʷ ɡʷ | ||
| Affricates | ts dz | |||||
| Approximants | l | j | w | |||
| Fricatives | f | s z | ʃ ʒ | ɣ | h | |
| Nasals Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :... |
m | n | ||||
| Trill Trill consonant In phonetics, a trill is a consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the articulator and the place of articulation. Standard Spanish <rr> as in perro is an alveolar trill, while in Parisian French it is almost always uvular.... |
r |
alongside pharyngealized consonants ṭ ḍ ṣ ẓ ṇ ḥ as well as x q, found mainly in loanwords, and a six-vowel system: a, i, u, e, o, and ə (schwa
Schwa
In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa can mean the following:*An unstressed and toneless neutral vowel sound in some languages, often but not necessarily a mid-central vowel...
).
Pronouns
The pronouns are: aγəy, I; ni, you; ana, he/she/it; yayu, we; ndzyu, you (plural); ini, they. Possessive forms are ʕan, my; nən, your; an, his/her/its; yan, our; ndzən, your (pl.); in, their. Subject agreement prefixes on the verb are ʕa- I; n-, you; a-, he/she/it; ya-, we; ndz-, you (plural); i-, they.Verbs
The infinitive and singular imperative are both the stem (eg kani "sleep"); the plural imperative takes a prefix wə- (wə-kkani "sleep! (pl.)"). Cancel describes the conjugationGrammatical conjugation
In linguistics, conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a verb from its principal parts by inflection . Conjugation may be affected by person, number, gender, tense, aspect, mood, voice, or other grammatical categories...
s as follows (also for xani):
| English | Preterite Preterite The preterite is the grammatical tense expressing actions that took place or were completed in the past... |
English | Aorist Aorist Aorist is a philological term originally from Indo-European studies, referring to verb forms of various languages that are not necessarily related or similar in meaning... |
|---|---|---|---|
| I slept | a xani | I sleep | a (ba) am xani |
| you slept | n(e) xani | you sleep | n ba am xani |
| he/she/it slept | a xani | he/she/it sleeps | a âm xani |
| we slept | ia xani | we sleep | ia âm xani |
| you (pl.) slept | nd'(a) xani | you (pl.) sleep | nd'ba âm xani |
| they slept | ia xan | they sleep | iba am xani |
According to Tilmatine, verbs are negated by surrounding them with `as ... hé/hi, eg ni `as ba enγa hé > n`esbanγa hé "do not eat!". "No" is hoho or ho: n'd'xani bînu, willa ho? "did you sleep yesterday, or not?".
Nouns
The most productive plural marker is the cliticClitic
In morphology and syntax, a clitic is a morpheme that is grammatically independent, but phonologically dependent on another word or phrase. It is pronounced like an affix, but works at the phrase level...
=yu, eg tsəksi "goat" > tsəks=yu "goats". This marker comes at the end of the "core noun phrase", the unit consisting of noun+numeral+adjective+demonstrative: eg ạḍṛạ inẓa bya=γ=yu (mountain three big=DEM=PL) "these three big mountains". Some Berber loans retain versions of their original plurals, usually with the circumfix
Circumfix
A circumfix is an affix, a morpheme that is placed around another morpheme. Circumfixes contrast with prefixes, attached to the beginnings of words; suffixes, that are attached at the end; and infixes, inserted in the middle. See also epenthesis...
(ts)i-...-ən, eg awṛəẓ "heel" > iwṛạẓən "heels"; while the morphemes involved are clearly of Berber origin, the details of this system differ from any one attested Berber language, and this plural is extended to at least one item of Songhay origin, tsạṛə̣w "spoon" > tsiṛạwən. Some Arabic loans similarly retain Arabic plurals.
The possessive is expressed by the particle n, with the possessor preceding the possessed: wi n tsə̣ffạ "woman 's knife".
Numbers
The only non-Arabic numbers in normal use are a-ffu "one", inka "two", and inẓa "three". There also exist "cryptic" (argotArgot
An Argot is a secret language used by various groups—including, but not limited to, thieves and other criminals—to prevent outsiders from understanding their conversations. The term argot is also used to refer to the informal specialized vocabulary from a particular field of study, hobby, job,...
) and children's counting systems. The syntax of numerals in the noun phrases is complicated.
External links
- Report on Korandje language from the MultiTree Project
- Map of Korandje language from the LL-Map Project
- See Information on Korandje. (in PDF format; go to p. 163)
- Jabal al-Lughat- a linguistic blog by Lameen Souag, a specialist on Korandje (note that the blog calls it Kwarandjie, Kwarandzie, or Kwarandzyey)