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 13,000 people.
| Chara | |
|---|---|
| Pronunciation | sʼaːra[1] |
| Native to | Ethiopia |
Native speakers | 13,000 (2007 census)[2] |
| None | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | cra |
| Glottolog | char1269 |
| ELP | C'ara |
Status edit
Chara is geographically situated to the southeast of Nayi, west of Kullo, northeast of Mesketo, and northwest of Gofa.[3] Chara speakers live in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region, in the Debub Omo Zone, on both sides of the Omo river.[4] Chara speakers are scattered in three villages in Ethiopia: Geba a meša, Buna Anta, and Kumba.[1] Native speakers may also speak Melo, Wolaytta (54% lexical similarity with Chara) to the east, and Kafa to the west.[4]
Phonology edit
Consonants edit
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatoalveolar/ Palatal |
Velar | 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 dialectal variation.[6]
Vowels edit
| 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 edit
Chara has phonemic stress.[7] Examples: /ˈbakʼa/ 'to slap', /baˈkʼa/ 'empty'; /ˈwoja/ 'to come', /woˈja/ 'wolf'.[7]
Morphophonemics edit
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 edit
Morphology edit
Chara generally uses noun case suffixes and postpositions.[4]
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]
| 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 edit
Chara is a subject–object–verb language.[4]
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 edit
| 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 edit
- ^ a b Yilma (2002:4)
- ^ Ethiopia 2007 Census
- ^ Yilma & Siebert (2002:4)
- ^ a b c d Chara language at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ 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 edit
- 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" (PDF). SIL Electronic Survey Reports 2002-029. Retrieved 2009-08-12.
- Yilma, Aklilu (2002). "Sociolinguistic Survey Report on the Chara Language of Ethiopia" (PDF). SIL Electronic Survey Reports 2002-032. Retrieved 2009-08-12.