Korandje language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Korandje | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Algeria | |
| Region: | Tabelbala, wilaya of Bechar | |
| Total speakers: | a few thousand | |
| Language family: | Nilo-Saharan Songhay Northern Korandje |
|
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | none | |
| ISO 639-2: | ssa | |
| ISO 639-3: | kcy | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. | ||
Korandje is by far the most northerly of the Songhay languages. It is spoken around the oasis of Tabelbala by no more than a few thousand people; its name, Kora-n-dje, means "village's language". While retaining a basically Songhay structure, it is extremely heavily influenced by Berber and Arabic; Lacroix estimates that only 40% of its vocabulary is Songhay, with another 30% each from Arabic and Berber.
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[edit] Sounds
Little study of Korandje has been done, so the phonology of the language is necessarily somewhat tentative. According to Robert Nicolai, it has the following consonants:
| Labial | Coronal | Palatal | Velar | Labiovelar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosives | b | t d | k g | kw gw | ||
| Affricates | ts dz | |||||
| Approximants | l | y | w | |||
| Fricatives | f | s z | š ž | γ | h | |
| Nasals | m | n | ||||
| Trill | r |
Nicolai also reports pharyngealized consonants ṭ ḍ ṣ ẓ ṇ ḥ as well as x q, but mainly in loanwords. Tilmatine reports additionally a pharyngealized ṛ and a palatal affricate dž.
Korandje appears to have a six-vowel system: a, i, u, e, o, and ə (schwa). It is unclear whether vowel length is phonemic or not.
[edit] Grammar
[edit] Pronouns
The pronouns are: aγi, I; ni, you; ana, he/she/it; yayu, we; n'd'yu, you (plural); ini, they. Possessive pronouns are an, my; nen, your; an, his/her/its; yan, our; n'd'en, your (pl.); in, their.
[edit] Verbs
The infinitive and singular imperative are both the stem (eg xani "sleep"); the plural imperative takes a prefix u- (uxani "sleep! (pl.)). Cancel describes the conjugations as follows (also for xani):
| English | Preterite | English | Aorist |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
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?".
[edit] Nouns
The plural is formed by adding -yu, eg bîri "horse" > bîriyu "horses". Some Berber loans take their original plurals in i-...-en, eg thaserdent "mule" > thiserdanen "mule"; this type is even extended to Arabic loanwords, eg dra` "arm" > dra`n "arms". Some take both plurals: adra "mountain" > adrayu or idranen "mountains".
The possessive is expressed by the particle n, with the possessor preceding the possessed: wi n âtaffa "woman 's knife".
[edit] Numbers
The numbers include fu "one", inka "two".
[edit] External links
- 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 or Kwarandzie)
[edit] Bibliography
- Cancel, «Etude sur le dialecte de Tabelbala», in Revue Africaine, 1908, Nº 270-271, 302-347.
- Dominique Champault. Une oasis du Sahara nord-occidental, Tabelbala, Paris: CNRS 1969.
