Murle language
Encyclopedia
Murle is a Nilo-Saharan
Eastern Sudanic
language spoken by the Murle people, spoken in the southeast of South Sudan
, near the Ethiopian border. A very small number of Murle live across the border in southwestern Ethiopia
.
They speak the Murle language, which belongs to the Southwestern branch of the Surmic languages
group, within the larger Nilo-Saharan family.
The basic word order for Murle clauses is VSO (verb–subject–object) (Arensen 1982). The morphology of the verb agrees with the person and number of the subject, and can also indicate that of the object.
Marking of number on nouns in Murle is complex, with no single suffix being generally productive. Some nouns are marked with a singulative suffix, some with a plural suffix, some with both, and a few with irregular stems for the each number. Arensen has proposed a set of semantically based categories (such as association with men, or with weather and seasons) to try to predict which suffixes will be used (1992, 1998). Payne has proposed analyzing some cases as examples of subtractive morphology (2006:44,45).
The New Testament
has been translated into the Murle language.
Nilo-Saharan languages
The Nilo-Saharan languages are a proposed family of African languages spoken by some 50 million people, mainly in the upper parts of the Chari and Nile rivers , including historic Nubia, north of where the two tributaries of Nile meet...
Eastern Sudanic
Eastern Sudanic languages
Ehret 2001 [1984]Ehret, published in 2001 but circulating in manuscript form since at least 1984, calls the family "Eastern Sahelian", and idiosyncratically adds the Kuliak languages and Berta, which Bender assigns to higher-level branches of Nilo-Saharan, and reassigns Nyima to the southern branch...
language spoken by the Murle people, spoken in the southeast of South Sudan
South Sudan
South Sudan , officially the Republic of South Sudan, is a landlocked country located in the Sahel region of northeastern Africa. It is also part of the North Africa UN sub-region. Its current capital is Juba, which is also its largest city; the capital city is planned to be moved to the more...
, near the Ethiopian border. A very small number of Murle live across the border in southwestern Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
.
They speak the Murle language, which belongs to the Southwestern branch of the Surmic languages
Surmic languages
The Surmic Languages are a branch of the Eastern Sudanic language family.-Languages:*North: Majang *South**Southeast: Kwegu , Me'en, Mursi, Suri...
group, within the larger Nilo-Saharan family.
The basic word order for Murle clauses is VSO (verb–subject–object) (Arensen 1982). The morphology of the verb agrees with the person and number of the subject, and can also indicate that of the object.
Marking of number on nouns in Murle is complex, with no single suffix being generally productive. Some nouns are marked with a singulative suffix, some with a plural suffix, some with both, and a few with irregular stems for the each number. Arensen has proposed a set of semantically based categories (such as association with men, or with weather and seasons) to try to predict which suffixes will be used (1992, 1998). Payne has proposed analyzing some cases as examples of subtractive morphology (2006:44,45).
The New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
has been translated into the Murle language.
External links
- World Atlas of Language StructuresWorld Atlas of Language StructuresThe World Atlas of Language Structures is a database of structural properties of languages gathered from descriptive materials. It was first published by Oxford University Press as a book with CD-ROM in 2005, and was released as the second edition on the Internet in April 2008...
information on Murle