Zaghawa language
Encyclopedia
The Zaghawa language is a Saharan language spoken by the Zaghawa people of eastern central Chad
(in the Sahel
) and northwestern Sudan
(Darfur
).
The people who speak this language call it Beria, from Beri, the endonym
of the Zaghawa people, and "a," Zaghawa for 'mouth.' It has been estimated that there are between 75,000 to 350,000 Zaghawa language speakers who primarily live in Chad
and the Darfur region of Sudan.
vowel harmony
: the vowels fall into two sets, /i e o u/ and /ɪ ɛ a ɔ ʊ/, with the vowels of affixes depending on the set of vowels in the stem, and with /a/ functioning in both sets. There is some variation among dialects as to the presence of a tenth vowel, /ə/, which in some dialects functions as the +ATR counterpart of /a/. Diphthongs are /ei əu iə/ and /aɪ aʊ ɔɪ/. There are five tones, high, mid, low, rising, falling, all of which may occur on simple vowels, for example in /ɪ́ɡɪ́/ I watered, /ɪ̌ɡɪ̂/ I said, /ɪ̀ɡɪ̀/ right (direction). Tone distinguishes words, but also has grammatical functions; for example, the plural of many nouns is formed by changing the tone of the final syllable from low to high, and the perfective aspect of many verbs is similarly formed by changing the tone of the final syllable from low to high.
Consonants are simple: /p b t d k ɡ, m n ɲ ŋ, f s ʃ h, ɾ r, l j w/. Osman also includes /ʒ ħ/ in this list. /ʃ/ occurs primarily in the Sudanese dialect as a variant of /s/ appearing before /i/. The phonemic status of the rhotics are unclear: Osman states that [ɾ r] may be exchanged without any change in meaning, yet maintains that they are distinct phonemes. Of the obstruent
s, /p/ may not occur word-initially, and only /p t k s/ may occur word finally, with /b/ in final position in some dialects. /r/ may not occur word initially, and /f ɾ/ only appear in the middle of words, as in /tòrfù/ 'bird'.
Words tend to be short, often CV and CVCV. The most complex syllables are CVC and CRV, where R is either of the two rhotic
s.
In 2000, a Beri veterinarian named Siddick Adam Issa prepared an improved version of the alphabet which is named Beria Giray Erfe (Beria Writing Marks). In 2007, this system of writing was turned into a computer font by Seonil Yun in cooperation with SIL International and the Mission Protestante Franco-Suisse au Tchad.
There is also an Arab script alphabet under development based on the Tijani system of writing African languages in the 13th Century.
Chad
Chad , officially known as the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest, and Niger to the west...
(in the Sahel
Sahel
The Sahel is the ecoclimatic and biogeographic zone of transition between the Sahara desert in the North and the Sudanian Savannas in the south.It stretches across the North African continent between the Atlantic Ocean and the Red Sea....
) and northwestern Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
(Darfur
Darfur
Darfur is a region in western Sudan. An independent sultanate for several hundred years, it was incorporated into Sudan by Anglo-Egyptian forces in 1916. The region is divided into three federal states: West Darfur, South Darfur, and North Darfur...
).
The people who speak this language call it Beria, from Beri, the endonym
Exonym and endonym
In ethnolinguistics, an endonym or autonym is a local name for a geographical feature, and an exonym or xenonym is a foreign language name for it...
of the Zaghawa people, and "a," Zaghawa for 'mouth.' It has been estimated that there are between 75,000 to 350,000 Zaghawa language speakers who primarily live in Chad
Chad
Chad , officially known as the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest, and Niger to the west...
and the Darfur region of Sudan.
Phonology
Zaghawa has a nine-vowel system with advanced-tongue-rootAdvanced tongue root
In phonetics, advanced tongue root and retracted tongue root, abbreviated ATR or RTR, are contrasting states of the root of the tongue during the pronunciation of vowels in some languages, especially in West Africa, but also in Kazakh and Mongolian...
vowel harmony
Vowel harmony
Vowel harmony is a type of long-distance assimilatory phonological process involving vowels that occurs in some languages. In languages with vowel harmony, there are constraints on which vowels may be found near each other....
: the vowels fall into two sets, /i e o u/ and /ɪ ɛ a ɔ ʊ/, with the vowels of affixes depending on the set of vowels in the stem, and with /a/ functioning in both sets. There is some variation among dialects as to the presence of a tenth vowel, /ə/, which in some dialects functions as the +ATR counterpart of /a/. Diphthongs are /ei əu iə/ and /aɪ aʊ ɔɪ/. There are five tones, high, mid, low, rising, falling, all of which may occur on simple vowels, for example in /ɪ́ɡɪ́/ I watered, /ɪ̌ɡɪ̂/ I said, /ɪ̀ɡɪ̀/ right (direction). Tone distinguishes words, but also has grammatical functions; for example, the plural of many nouns is formed by changing the tone of the final syllable from low to high, and the perfective aspect of many verbs is similarly formed by changing the tone of the final syllable from low to high.
Consonants are simple: /p b t d k ɡ, m n ɲ ŋ, f s ʃ h, ɾ r, l j w/. Osman also includes /ʒ ħ/ in this list. /ʃ/ occurs primarily in the Sudanese dialect as a variant of /s/ appearing before /i/. The phonemic status of the rhotics are unclear: Osman states that [ɾ r] may be exchanged without any change in meaning, yet maintains that they are distinct phonemes. Of the obstruent
Obstruent
An obstruent is a consonant sound formed by obstructing airflow, causing increased air pressure in the vocal tract, such as [k], [d͡ʒ] and [f]. In phonetics, articulation may be divided into two large classes: obstruents and sonorants....
s, /p/ may not occur word-initially, and only /p t k s/ may occur word finally, with /b/ in final position in some dialects. /r/ may not occur word initially, and /f ɾ/ only appear in the middle of words, as in /tòrfù/ 'bird'.
Words tend to be short, often CV and CVCV. The most complex syllables are CVC and CRV, where R is either of the two rhotic
Rhotic
In linguistics, rhotic can refer to:* Rhotic consonant, such as the sound in red* R-colored vowel, such as the sound in Midwestern American English pronunciation of fur and before a consonant as in hard....
s.
Orthography
In the 1950s, a Zaghawa schoolteacher named Adam Tajir created an alphabet for the Zaghawa language that was based on the clan identification marks (brands). Sometimes known as the camel alphabet, he based the phoneme choice on the Arabic language rather than on Zaghawa. Also, some of the marks were longer than others, which made it harder to use it as a computer font.In 2000, a Beri veterinarian named Siddick Adam Issa prepared an improved version of the alphabet which is named Beria Giray Erfe (Beria Writing Marks). In 2007, this system of writing was turned into a computer font by Seonil Yun in cooperation with SIL International and the Mission Protestante Franco-Suisse au Tchad.
There is also an Arab script alphabet under development based on the Tijani system of writing African languages in the 13th Century.
External links
- Suleiman Osman: Phonology of Zaghawa Language in Sudan (presented at the 9th Nilo-Saharan colloquium at Khartoum)
- Ethnologue report
- Zaghawa Beria Computer Font
- Map of Zaghawa language from the LL-Map project
- Information on Zaghawa language from the MultiTree project