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OCCASIONAL PAPERS in the study of SUDANESE LANGUAGES No. 11 Laru Locatives Nabil Abdalla...........................................................................1 The Tagoi Pronominal System Suzan Alamin ........................................................................17 Morphophonological Alternations in Tima Abeer Bashir ..........................................................................31 The Talodi Languages: A Comparative-Historical Analysis Russell Norton and Thomas Kuku Alaki ................................47 OCCASIONAL PAPERS in the study of SUDANESE LANGUAGES No. 11 There are a number of institutions and individuals who are interested in research on languages in Sudan and there is a need to make research presently being done available to others. The purpose of these Occasional Papers is to serve as an outlet for work papers and other useful data which might otherwise remain in private files. We hope that Sudanese and non-Sudanese linguists alike may profit from such a series of papers. Manuscripts for the series are welcomed. A Word document in the Charis SIL Compact font should be sent to the editor for consideration. Occasional Papers in the study of Sudanese Languages No. 11 © 2015, SIL International Address editorial correspondence to: OPSL Editor, SIL, P.O. Box 64, Juba, SOUTH SUDAN [email protected] Volumes are available for download from: http://www.sil.org/resources/publications/search/series/occasional-papers-study- sudanese-languages/work-type/journal-issue SIL International Publications, 7500 West Camp Wisdom Road, Dallas, TX 75236-5629, USA Contents of the previous volumes 1-10 are listed at the back of this volume. ii Preface to Volume 11 This 11th Occasional Papers in the study of Sudanese Languages has as its theme the Niger-Congo languages of Sudan, which are found in its Nuba Mountains region. The papers cover Laru of the Heiban family, Tagoi of the Rashad family, Tima of the Katla- Tima family, and the whole of the Talodi family. An opportunity exists at this time to share research on this set of languages both in the service of their communities and in awareness of the wider interest that they have for scholars of African languages. The papers on Laru and Tagoi examine particular items in their grammars, Laru locatives and Tagoi pronouns, and how they relate to the rest of the grammar. Both papers help us to see some of the limits of noun class consonant alliteration in these languages. The Tima paper is a study of morphophonemics showing that this language has, as well as a particularly large vowel inventory for a Nuba Mountain language, also a diverse array of changes that take place when affixes are added to roots. The longer paper on the Talodi family is a comparative study from word lists, and is concerned with the number of languages in this family and their relationship to each other. It includes an assessment of Lafofa which is sometimes classified as a Talodi language. I congratulate the contributors on their work of documenting and describing Sudanese languages, and Niger-Congo languages in particular. My thanks goes to the speakers who were consulted for sharing their knowledge of their languages. And to Monika Feinen of the Institute for African Studies in Cologne, who produced the maps in the paper on the Talodi languages. I am also grateful to the reviewers and to typesetters Steve Pillinger and Jean Kemp who helped me bring this volume into being. Russell Norton Editor September 2015 iii Occasional Papers in the Study of Sudanese Languages, No. 11, 2015 Laru Locatives Nabil Abdalla Kuku 0. Introduction1 The Laru language group is spoken in the Nuba Mountains in western Sudan. A recent estimate of the population is 25-50,000 (local sources given to the author). This may include other tribes that are grouped under the Laru by the area administration. Laru [lro] is a Niger-Kordofanian language in the Heiban group (Schadeberg 1981) that includes the languages Heiban, Moro, Otoro, Kwalib, Tira, Hadra, and Shoai. The three main dialects of Laru are Yilaru, Yïdündïlï and Yogo'romany. The last two are close to the neighbouring language of Kwalib, and the intelligibility between them is high. This presentation is based on the first dialect—Yilaru. The Laru region is surrounded by a range of mountains, hills and valleys, and the language is affected by these geographical features. For example, the locatives described in this paper indicate the location of an object above, below or in the middle of a mountain or hill. It is also possible for speakers to refer to things located on the other side of a mountain or a hill. Locatives are encliticised to or follow various word classes, including nouns, adjectives, demonstratives, possessive pronouns, verbs, and an accompaniment postposition. Directional prefixes can occur along with locatives on nouns. The directional prefix ɡ- meaning ‘to’ shows agreement with common nouns, and the prefix ⁿd-, also meaning ‘to’, shows agreement with proper nouns. Consonant lengthening shows direction when attached to the first syllable of nouns with initial velar consonants. Locatives indicate geographical location or position but may also help indicate the time of day or have other idiomatic meanings. The locative -ala means 'above the ground level’, -alu means 'on the ground level’, and -anu means 'under' or 'inside the ground level’. These are enclitics, evidenced by their vowels harmonising with the vowels of the stem. The locative nɔnɔ which means 'around' or 'surrounding’ is not affected by vowel harmony and is therefore considered an independent locative word. This paper is organized according to word categories. After a few comments on the phonology, there will be sections to briefly describe various word categories and how locatives are combined with that word category. 1. Phonology In this section consonants and vowel phonemes are introduced, along with tone and a few morphophonological rules. 1.1 Consonants There are five points of articulation, namely bilabial, dental, alveolar, palatal and velar. The consonants include 10 obstruents, 4 nasals, 3 approximants and 2 rhotics as outlined in Table 1 (Abdalla & Stirtz 2005). Labialized consonants, which only occur in prefixes, are included in parentheses. 1 My thanks and appreciation to Tim Stirtz for his valuable advice and technical help in the preparation of this paper. 1 Nabil Abdalla Kuku Laru Locatives Table 1: Consonant Phonemes bilabial dental alveolar palatal velar labialised velar voiceless plosives p t2 ʈ3 c k (kʷ) voiced plosives b d4 ɖ ɟ ɡ (ɡʷ) nasals m n ɲ ŋ (ŋʷ) prenasalized b ⁿd ɟ ɡ (ɡʷ) plosives approximants w l j flap ɽ trill r 1.2 Vowels Laru has an 8-vowel system. The vowels are presented in two sets in Table 2, where [ɪ ɛ a ɔ ʊ] are [-ATR] and [i ə u] are [+ATR]. Table 2: Vowel Phonemes [-ATR] [+ATR] front central back front central back high ɪ ʊ i u mid ɛ ɔ low a ə Only vowels with the same [ATR] value can occur together in the same root word. The [+ATR] vowel quality is dominant in Laru, spreading to both prefixes and suffixes from both noun and verb roots, as well as spreading from verb suffixes to the root (Abdalla 2012). 2 The symbol /t/ is used instead of the IPA symbol /t̪/ because the dental is more common than the alveolar plosive, and thus uses the unmarked symbol. 3 The retroflex symbol /ʈ/ is used instead of the alveolar symbol /t/ to give contrast to the dental plosive. 4 The symbol /d/ is used instead of the IPA symbol /d̪/ because the dental is more common than the alveolar plosive, and thus uses the unmarked symbol. 2 Nabil Abdalla Kuku Laru Locatives 1.3 Vowel Insertion Noun roots may be vowel-initial or consonant-initial. The language does not allow complex consonant onsets to the syllable, therefore when a consonant-only prefix joins a consonant-initial root, a short /ɪ/ vowel is inserted between the adjacent consonants as shown in (1). The consonant prefix is glossed CM (class marker). (1) Vowel insertion a. ɡ-ɲɛ ̀n → ɡɪɲɛ̀n 'CM-dog' b. ɡ-bəɽu → ɡɪbəɽu 'CM-cloud' c. ɡ-ɛn → ɡɛn 'CM-mountain' 1.4 Vowel Elision Since the language does not allow vowel sequences, when two vowels are joined through affixation, the first of the two vowels is elided to prevent a sequence from occurring, as shown in (2). (2) Vowel elision a. daɽɪ - ala → daɽala ‘on the tree’ b. ɡʊlʊ - ala → ɡʊlala ‘on the fence’ 1.5 Tone There are two level tones (High and Low) and two contour tones (High-Low and Low-High) as shown by the data in (3). (3) H dúŋə́ 'snake' HL lâj 'liver' L dùŋə̀ 'soot' LH lə̌j 'eye' Both lexical and grammatical tone contrasts are present in the language (Abdalla 2013). Table 3: Locatives Locative Gloss Meaning -ala 'on.above' above the ground level -alʊ 'on.level' on the ground level -anʊ 'under, inside' under the ground level, inside nɔnɔ 'around' around the ground level 3 Nabil Abdalla Kuku Laru Locatives 2. Locatives Having briefly discussed some phonological features, we are now ready to discuss locatives. We begin with locatives that follow various word categories. The locatives describe position or location of objects. As presented in Table 3, there are three locative enclitics, and one unbound locative word. 3. Locatives and Nouns 3.1 The Noun Class System Laru has a noun class system consisting of nine classes covering five areas of semantic identification, as shown in Table 4. The first and second classes cover big things such as persons, trees, and animals. The third and fourth classes cover hollow and round things. The fifth and sixth classes cover small, thin, long or pointed things. The seventh class covers liquids and abstract things or ideas. Lastly, the eighth and ninth classes cover relational nominals such as pronouns and kinship terms.
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