- Chara language
-
Chara sʼaːra[1] Spoken in Ethiopia Native speakers 13,100 (2007 census)[2] Language family Afro-Asiatic- Omotic
- North
- Gonga–Gimojan
- Gimojan
- Ometo–Gimira
- Chara
- Ometo–Gimira
- Gimojan
- Gonga–Gimojan
- North
Writing system None Language codes ISO 639-3 cra This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. Chara (alternatively Ciara or C’ara) is an Afro-Asiatic language of the North Omotic variety spoken in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region of Ethiopia by more than 13,000 people.[3]
Contents
Status
Chara is geographically situated to the southeast of Nayi, west of Kullo, northeast of Mesketo, and northwest of Gofa.[4] Chara speakers live in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region, in the Kafa and Debub Omo Zones, on both sides of the Omo river.[3] Chara's approximately 7,000 speakers are scattered in three villages in Ethiopia: Geba a meša, Buna Anta, and Kumba.[1] Of these, only 5,556 are monolingual in Chara.[3] Native speakers may also speak Melo, Wolaytta (54% lexical similarity with Chara) to the east, and Kafa to the west.[3]
Language use is vigorous, and there are over 680 second language learners of the language.[3]
Phonology
Consonants
Consonant phonemes of Chara[5] Labial Alveolar Palatoalveolar/
PalatalVelar Glottal Nasal1 m n [ɲ] Plosive Voiceless p t k ʔ Voiced b d ɡ Ejective pʼ tʼ kʼ Implosive ɓ (ɗ) Affricate Voiceless ts tɕ Voiced dʑ Ejective sʼ tɕʼ Fricative [f] s ɕ, (ʑ) h Approximant w j Trill r Lateral l [p] and [f] are in free variation.[6] /ɗ/ only occurs in the word /jalɗa~jaltʼa/ 'crooked'.[5] Yilma (2002) found /ɓ/ to occur five times in around 550 lexical items.[6] He also found /ʑ/ occurring in two, both in the sequence /iʑa/.[6] Occurrence of /ɗ/ and /pʼ/ may be governed by dialectual variation.[6]
Vowels
Vowel phonemes of Chara[6] Front Central Back Close i u Mid e o Open a /a/ is realized as [ə] in unstressed word-medial syllables.[7]
Length is minimally contrastive.[6] Minimal pairs include /mola/ 'fish', /moːla/ 'egg'; /masa/ 'to wash', /maːsa/ 'leopard'; /buna/ 'flower', /buːna/ 'coffee'.[6]
Suprasegmentals
Chara has phonemic stress.[7] Examples: /ˈbakʼa/ 'to slap', /baˈkʼa/ 'empty'; /ˈwoja/ 'to come', /woˈja/ 'wolf'.[7]
Morphophonemics
Morpheme-initial nasals assimilate point of articulation to that of the preceding consonant, usually found when verbs are suffixed with the singular imperative morpheme /-na/, e.g. /dub-na/ 'to hit.imp' → [dubma] 'hit!'.[8]
Grammar
Morphology
Chara generally uses noun case suffixes and postpositions.[3]
Nouns are inflected for gender, number, definiteness, case, and possession.[9] These are all suffixes, except for the possessive.[9]
Gender pairs are usually lexical, except for a few with /-i/ in the masculine and /-a/ in the feminine.[9] Examples:[9]
- /mansa/ 'ox', /mija/ 'cow'
- /izi/ 'he', /iza/ 'she'
Nouns and adjectives inflect for plural with the suffix /-eːndi/.[9] Examples:[10]
- /ina/ 'mother', /ineːndi/ 'mothers'
- /dala/ 'while (sg.)', /daleːndi/ 'white (pl.)'
Definiteness in nouns is marked with the suffix /-naːzi/ (as an independent word meaning 'the male/man') for masculines and /-ena/ for feminines.[11] Adjectives take /-bi/ in the masculine and /-ena/ in the feminine.[11] Examples:[11]
- /mansa/ 'ox', /mansanaːzi/ 'the ox'
- /mija/ 'cow', /mijena/ 'the cow/
- /karta/ 'black', /kartabi/ 'the black (m.)', /kartena/ 'the black (f.)'
Nouns and adjectives may be marked for nominative, accusative, dative, genitive, ablative, instrumental, or vocative case.[12] The nominative suffix is /-i/, accusative /-(i)s/, dative /-(i)ri/, genitive /-e/, , ablative /-kaj/, instrumental /-ne/, and vocative /-o/.[12]
Chara pronouns[13] Person Independent Possessive (s) (pl) (s) 1 /tani/ /noːne~nuni/ /tareri/ 2 /neːni/ /inˈti/ /nereri/ 3 (m) /izi/ /itsendi/ /izeri/ (f) /iza/ Bound possessive pronouns: /ta-mija/ 'my cow', /ne-mija/ 'your cow', /iza-mija/ 'his cow'.[14]
Syntax
Chara is a subject–object–verb language.[3]
Adjectives end in /-a/ like nouns, and inflect for number, definiteness, plurality, and case.[15] In noun phrases adjectives precede their nouns, and are not inflected.[15]
Examples
Numerals 1-10[16] Number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Chara issa: nanta: keza: obda: uchcha sa:fun la:pun nandirse biza: tantsa: Notes
- ^ a b Yilma (2002:4)
- ^ Ethiopia 2007 Census
- ^ a b c d e f g Chara language at Ethnologue
- ^ Yilma & Siebert (2002:4)
- ^ a b Yilma (2002:4–5)
- ^ a b c d e f g Yilma (2002:5)
- ^ a b c Yilma (2002:6)
- ^ Yilma (2002:7)
- ^ a b c d e Yilma (2002:8)
- ^ Yilma (2002:8–9)
- ^ a b c Yilma (2002:9)
- ^ a b Yilma (2002:9–11)
- ^ Yilma (2002:11–12)
- ^ Yilma (2002:12)
- ^ a b Yilma (2002:11)
- ^ Numbers in Afro-Asiatic Languages
References
- Yilma, Aklilu (1995), "Some notes on the Chara language: Sound system and noun morphology", S.L.L.E. linguistic reports 32: 2-12
- Survey of Chara, Dime, Melo and Nayi, part 1. Yilma, Aklilu; Siebert, Ralph. 1995. S.L.L.E. linguistic reports 25: 2-8. oai:sil.org:36294
- Yilma, Aklilu; Siebert, Ralph (2002). "Sociolinguistic survey report of the Chara, Dime, Melo and Nayi languages of Ethiopia part 1". SIL Electronic Survey Reports 2002-029. http://www.sil.org/silesr/2002/029/SILESR2002-029.pdf. Retrieved 2009-08-12.
- Yilma, Aklilu (2002). "Sociolinguistic Survey Report on the Chara Language of Ethiopia". SIL Electronic Survey Reports 2002-032. http://www.sil.org/silesr/2002/032/SILESR2002-032.pdf. Retrieved 2009-08-12.
External links
Categories: - Omotic
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