Alagwa (Alaagwa’isa) is a Cushitic language spoken in Tanzania in the Dodoma region.[2] Some Alagwa have shifted to other languages such as Sandawe.
Alagwa | |
---|---|
Native to | Tanzania |
Region | Dodoma region |
Ethnicity | Alagwa |
Native speakers | 30,000 (2003)[1] |
Language family | Afro-Asiatic
|
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | wbj |
Glottolog | alag1248 |
ELP | Alagwa |
Alagwa has five vowels (/a, e, i, u, o/). The five vowels have contrastive long counterparts [3] and there are two diphthongs (/ay, aw/). Alagwa also has 29 consonants, including ejectives (/ts, q, qʷ/), pharyngeal fricatives( /ħ, ʕ/), and labialized velars and uvulars. [4]
There are two tone levels in Alagwa: low and high tone e.g., darimbáa "grass". Tone has grammatical function and limited lexical function. However, it cannot be described as a tone language because some words have only one tone (despite the number of the syllables) and the majority have none.[3]
Mainly, there are two intonation types: concluding intonation and non-concluding.[3]
Alagwa sentences have a generalized order [Subject X Auxiliary Y Verb Z], and elements of the sentence other than the subject appear in the positions labelled X, Y, and Z, depending on their information status in the clause. New material tends to appear in the post-verbal position, Z, while old information appears in the pre-auxiliary position, X.
The following example (Kiessling 2007:138) shows the noun yaawáa 'dowry' introduced as new information after the verb in the first sentence and repeated as old information before the auxiliary ningi in the second sentence.
makimoo-w-ód,
guy-M-D
ning-aa
SEQ:S3-ABL
xay-ee’
come:3-PF.PL
ningi
SEQ:S3
bu’-i-yee’
pay-3-PF.PL
yaawáa
dowry
makimoo-w-ód, ning-aa xay-ee’ ningi bu’-i-yee’ yaawáa
guy-M-D SEQ:S3-ABL come:3-PF.PL SEQ:S3 pay-3-PF.PL dowry
'that guy, they [i.e. the lions] came and paid the dowry.' Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help);
maa
so
dende’ee-w-ós
folks-N-3SG.POSS
yaawáa
dowry
ningi
SEQ:O3PL
bu’-i-yee’
pay-3-PF.PL
maa dende’ee-w-ós yaawáa ningi bu’-i-yee’
so folks-N-3SG.POSS dowry SEQ:O3PL pay-3-PF.PL
'His folks paid the dowry.' Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help);
Languages of Tanzania | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Official languages | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Indigenous languages |
|
Cushitic languages | |||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
North Cushitic | |||||||||||||||
Agaw | |||||||||||||||
Highland East | |||||||||||||||
Lowland East |
| ||||||||||||||
Dullay | |||||||||||||||
South | |||||||||||||||
Italics indicate extinct languages |
This Afroasiatic languages-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |