Blin language

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Blin
ብሊና
Spoken in: central Eritrea
Total speakers: 70,000
Language family: Afro-Asiatic
 Cushitic
  Central Cushitic
   Blin
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2: byn
ISO 639-3: byn
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Note: Blin is the English spelling which is preferred by native speakers, but Bilin and Bilen (ቢለን) are also commonly used. Bilin is the standard adopted in ISO 639-3.

The Blin language (ብሊና) has approximately 70,000 speakers in and around the city of Keren in Eritrea. It is the only Central Cushitic language which is spoken in Eritrea.

Contents

[edit] Phonology

[edit] Consonants

Note: /tʃ/ is found in loans and the status of /ʔ/ as a phoneme is uncertain.

/r/ is typically realised as a tap when it is medial and a trill when it is in final position.

Consonant phonemes
  Bilabial Labio-
dental		 Alveolar Postalveolar
or palatal		 Velar Pharyn-
geal		 Glottal
Plain Labialized
Stops and
affricates		 Voiceless   t (tʃ) k kʷ   (ʔ)
Voiced b d dʒ ɡ ɡʷ
Ejective tʼ tʃʼ kʼ kʷʼ
Nasals m   n   ŋ ŋʷ    
Fricatives Voiceless   f s ʃ x xʷ ħ h
Voiced z ʕ
Rhotic     r          
Semivowels       j   w    
Lateral approximant     l        

[edit] Vowels

Vowel phonemes
  Front Central Back
High i ɨ u
Mid e ə o
Low a

[edit] Writing system

[edit] Ge'ez abugida

See also: Ge'ez alphabet#Modifications for other languages

A writing system for Blin was first developed by missionaries who used the Ge'ez abugida and the first text was published in 1882. Although the Ge'ez script is usually used for Semitic languages, the phonemes of Blin are very similar. (7 vowels, labiovelar and ejective consonants.) The script therefore only requires a slight modification (the addition of consonants for ŋ and ŋʷ) to make it suitable for Blin. Some of the additional symbols required to write Blin with this script are in the "Ethiopic Extended" Unicode range rather than the "Ethiopic" range.

The basic signs, in order, are as follows. Note that there are some differences between the list order in Blin and the standard Ge'ez list order. (Note: the exact contents of these table are subject to verification.)

Sound /h/ /l/ /ħ/ /m/ /s/ /ʃ/ /r/ /kʼ/ /b/ /t/ /n/ /ʔ/ /k/ /x/ /w/ /ʕ/
Ge'ez ሀ ለ ሐ መ ሰ ሸ ረ ቀ ቐ በ ተ ነ አ ከ ኸ ወ ዐ
Sound /j/ /d/ /dʒ/ /g/ /ŋ/ /tʼ/ /tʃʼ/ /f/ /z/ /ʧ/ /ʃ/
Ge'ez የ ደ ጀ ገ ጘ ጠ ጨ ፈ ዘ ዠ ቸ ኘ ጰ ጸ ፐ ቨ

Blin also needs 5 labiovelar variants:

Sound /kʷʼ/ /kʷ/ /xʷ/ /ɡʷ/ /ŋʷ/
Ge'ez ቈ ኰ ዀ ጐ ⶓ

[edit] Latin alphabet

In 1985 the Eritrean People's Liberation Front decided to use the Latin alphabet for Blin and all other minority languages in Eritrea. This was largely a political decision: the Ge'ez script is associated with Christianity because of its liturgical use. The Latin alphabet is seen as being more neutral. In 1993 the government set up a committee to standardize the Blin language and the Latin-based orthography.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] References

[edit] Further Reading

  • F.R. Palmer. 1958. "The noun in Bilin," Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 21:376-391.
  • Leo Reinisch. 1882. Die Bilin-Sprache in Nordost-Afrika. Vienna: Carl Gerold's Sohn.
  • A.N. Tucker & M.A. Bryan. 1966. Linguistic Analyses: The Non-Bantu Languages of North-Eastern Africa. London: Oxford University Press.

[edit] Links

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