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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]
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Omotic North Ometo Chara
Writing system	None
Language codes
ISO 639-3	cra
Glottolog	char1269
ELP	C'ara
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Status

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

Consonants

Consonant phonemes of Chara[5]

		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

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.[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]

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.[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

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

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" (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.

External links

• Resources in and about the Chara language
• Chara basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database

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