The Alabama language (Alabama, Alibama [2] ) is one of the Muskog languages spoken among the tribes of Alabama and Koasati in Texas . It was previously also distributed in the Alabama-Quassarte Tribal Town tribal settlement in Oklahoma , but there are no longer any native speakers in that state. It is part of the Muskog family , is considered the closest to the disappeared languages of muklas and tuskegi . He is also a relative of the coasati language, and a more distant relative of the hitichi , chikaso, and choctaw .
| Alabama (Alabama) | |
|---|---|
| Self name | Albaamo innaaɬiilka |
| Countries | United States of America |
| Regions | Texas |
| Official status | no |
| Regulatory organization | no |
| Total number of speakers | one hundred |
| Status | |
| Classification | |
| Category | Native American Languages of North America |
Muskog family
| |
| Writing | latin |
| Language Codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | - |
| ISO 639-2 | nai |
| ISO 639-3 | akz |
| WALS | |
| Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger | |
| Ethnologue | |
| ELCat | |
| IETF | |
| Glottolog | |
Content
- 1 Phonetic characteristic
- 2 Grammatical characteristic
- 3 Writing
- 4 Concise Alabama Dictionary
- 4.1 Communication
- 4.2 Account
- 4.3 Days of the week
- 5 notes
- 6 Literature
- 7 References
Phonetic characteristic
The language has fourteen consonant phonemes [3] :
| Labial | Alveolar | Postalveolar / Palatal | Back lingual | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | |||||
| Explosive | p | b | t | tʃ | k | ||
| Fricatives | f | s | ɬ | h | |||
| Approximants | w | l | j | ||||
There are only three vowel phonemes - / ioa / - depending on the morphological context, they can be nasalized. Vowels also vary in longitude [4] .
| Front row vowels | Mid-vowels | Back row vowels | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Upper vowels | i | iː | ĩ | ||||||
| Mid-Upper Vowels | o | oː | õ | ||||||
| Lower vowels | a | aː | ã | ||||||
The emphasis usually falls on the last syllable, with certain exceptions. There is also a system of ascending and descending tones [5] .
Grammatical characteristic
For the Alabama language, as well as for some other Muskogian, the use of a typologically rare phenomenon - disfixation - is characteristic for the formation of some verb forms. For example, there are two principal ways of conveying the plurality of action in a verb (the so- called pluractionality ):
- In most verbs, the last two segments of the penultimate syllable are the stem (usually corresponds to the last syllable of the root). If there are only two segments in a syllable, it falls out completely:
- bal aa ka “lies down” - balka “lies down”
- bat at li “hits” - batli “beats (regularly)”
- cokka li ka “enter” - cokkaka “enter”
- bat at li “hits” - batli “beats (regularly)”
- bal aa ka “lies down” - balka “lies down”
- In some verbs, only the last consonant of the same syllable falls out, and the vowel preceding it is lengthened as compensation:
- sala t li “slide” - sala a li “slide many times”
- noktiłi f ka “choke” - noktiłi i ka “choke several times (= choke)”
- sala t li “slide” - sala a li “slide many times”
Writing
Writing in the Alabama language is based on the Latin alphabet . The alphabet has 19 letters.
Alabama alphabet:
| A a | B b | Ch ch | D d | E e | F f | H h | I i |
| K k | L l | ɬ | M m | N n | O o | P p | S s |
| T t | W w | Y y |
Alabama Concise Dictionary
Communication
- hello (with interrogative intonation - “how are you?”) - chíkmàa
- thanks - alíila
Account
- one - cháffàaka
- two - tòklo
- three - tótchìina
- four - óstàaka
- five - táɬɬàapi
- six - hánnàali
- seven - ontòklo
- eight - ontótchìina
- nine - chákkàali
- ten - pókkòoli
Days of the week
- monday - nihta aɬɬámmòona
- tuesday - nihta atòkla
- wednesday - nihta atótchìina
- Thursday - nihta istóstàaka
- friday - nihta istáɬɬàapi
- saturday - nihtahollosi
- Sunday - nihta istontòklo
Notes
- ↑ UNESCO Red Book of Languages
- ↑ Ethnologue report for language code: akz
- ↑ Hardy 2005: 82
- ↑ Hardy 2005: 83
- ↑ Hardy 2005: 83–84
Literature
- Davis, Philip; & Hardy, Heather. (1988). Absence of noun marking in Alabama. International Journal of Linguistics , 54 (3), 279-308.
- Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (Ed.). (2005). Alabama. In Ethnologue: Languages of the world (15th ed.). Dallas, TX: SIL International. Accessed online www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=akz on October 1, 2005.
- Hardy, Heather; & Davis, Philip. (1988). Comparatives in Alabama. International Journal of Linguistics , 54 (2), 209-231.
- Hardy, Heather; & Davis, Philip. (1993). Semantics of agreement in Alabama. International Journal of Linguistics , 59 (4), 453-472.
- Hardy, Heather; & Montler, Timothy. (1988). Imperfective gemination in Alabama. International Journal of Linguistics , 54 (4), 399-415.
- Montler, Timothy; & Hardy, Heather. (1991). Phonology of negation in Alabama. International Journal of Linguistics , 57 (1), 1-23.
- Rand, Earl. (1968). Structural phonology of Alabaman, Muskogean language. International Journal of Linguistics , 34 (2), 94-103.
- Sylestine, Cora; Hardy Heather; & Montler, Timothy. Dictionary of the Alabama Language . - Austin: University of Texas Press, 1993. - ISBN ISBN 0-292-73077-2 . Archived February 6, 2005 on Wayback Machine
Links
- Online Alabama-English-Alabama Dictionary
- Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas
- Chíkmàa Oolahomma! - How to say "hello" in Alabama