Nilotic languages are a family of East Sudanese languages . Distributed over a large territory from South Sudan to Tanzania among Nilotic peoples, mainly leading livestock breeding. They are divided into three subgroups: western, eastern and southern.
Nilotic languages | |
---|---|
Taxon | family [1] |
Status | universally recognized |
Area | Ethiopia , South Sudan , Uganda , Kenya , Northern Tanzania |
Classification | |
Category | African languages |
Nilo-Sugar macrofamily (hypothesis)
| |
Composition | |
eastern, southern, western nilotic languages | |
Language group codes | |
ISO 639-2 | - |
ISO 639-5 | - |
Content
Classification
- East Nilotic languages : Turkana , Sudanese Lango , ( Masai , Samburu , etc.), etc.
- South Nilotic languages : calendin , Datuga , Pokot (Pekot) , etc.
- West Nilotic languages : Dinka , Luo (Doluo) , Ugandan Lango , Luvo , etc.
Phonetics
The phonetic system of these languages includes 10 vowels - 5 strained and 5 unstrained. The contrast on the basis of tension - tension is weakened in the language of Nandi. In Pakot, long vowels are contrasted with short vowels . In the calendaring language, in addition to long and short, there are half-long vowels. Consonants are articulatively divided into labial (dental), alveolar , alveo-palatal and velar (glottalized). The phonological difference between explosives and implosives is noted only in bari. Long, or strong, consonants are found in the Masai language. Confluence is rare. Tones (high, medium and low) perform a meaningful function also at the grammatical level. The root syllable is marked with an accent. In its pure form, CVC root morpheme is almost never found, usually accompanied by affixes.
Writing
In the period from the 20s to the 50s, attempts were made to create alphabets for Nilotic languages based on Latin graphics . During this period, religious and educational literature appeared in separate Nilotic languages, newspapers appeared in the Luo language. In the 60s and 70s in a number of countries in North-East and East Africa, some Nilotic languages began to be used at the middle and lower administrative levels, in elementary schools, and also in broadcasting ( Uganda , Zaire ).
Learning
The study of Nilotic languages was uneven. In the middle of the XIX century. descriptions of the Bari and Masai languages were published. In the first third of the XX century. the study of other, but by no means all Nilotic languages began, then a comparative analysis of these languages was carried out (K. Meinhof, L. Ombyurzhe). The foundations of the classification of Nilotic languages were laid in the 50-60s of the XX century by the works of Tucker and Brian. Before Joseph Greenberg revised the classification of Nilo-Saharan languages , the term "Nilotic languages" denoted only those languages that are now called Western Nilotic languages, the other two groups were combined under the general term "Nilo-Hamitic languages" on the basis of an incorrect assumption about the connection of these languages with Semitic-Hamitic languages (obsolete name for Afrasian languages ).
Notes
- ↑ G.S. Starostin . 3.13. Preliminary findings // Languages of Africa. The experience of building a lexicostatistical classification = Languages of Africa: A New Lexicostatistical Classification. Vol. II: East Sudanic Languages. - M .: Languages of Slavic culture, 2014. - T. II: East Sudanese languages . - S. 682. - 736 p. - 400 copies. - UDC . - ISBN 978-5-9905762-1-6 (t. II).
Literature
- Creider, Chet A. The syntax of the Nilotic languages: Themes and variations. - Berlin: D. Reimer, 1989 .-- ISBN 3-496-00483-5 .
- Köhler O. Geschichte der Erforschung der Nilotischen Sprachen. B., 1955.
- Tucker AN, Bryan MA The non-Bantu languages of North-Eastern Africa. L., 1956.
- Tucker AN, Bryan MA Linguistic analysis. The non-Bantu languages of North-Eastern Africa. L., 1966.
- Greenberg JH The languages of Africa. Bloomington, 1966.
- Greenberg JH Nilo-Saharan and Meroitic, CTL, 1971, v. 7
- Welmers WE Checklist of African language and dialect names, ibid.
- Fleming YC, Bender ML Non-Semitic languages, in: Language in Ethiopia. L., 1976.
- Fivaz D., Scott PE African languages. Boston, [1977].
Links
- Nilotic , Michael Cysouw
- The Nilotic Language Family , Doris Payne