CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by Helsingin yliopiston digitaalinen arkisto Topics in Uduk Phonology and Morphosyntax Don Killian
[email protected] University of Helsinki Finland September 2015 Key Words General Terms: dissertation, descriptive grammar, language typology, phonology, morphosyntax Additional Key Words and Phrases: language description, African languages, Nilo-Saharan languages Copyright ©Don Killian 2015 Department of World Cultures, African Studies University of Helsinki ISBN 978-951-51-1489-1 (paperback) ISBN 978-951-51-1490-7 (PDF) Helsinki 2015 Abstract This dissertation investigates the grammar and phonology of Uduk, a language belonging to the Koman branch of the Nilo-Saharan language family. Uduk is spoken by approximately 20 to 25,000 speakers, whose community homeland was in the southern part of the former Blue Nile Province of Sudan. Due to continuing war conditions since the late 1980s, the majority are now living scattered in the international diaspora, as well as in refugee camps in Ethiopia and South Sudan. The description provides an analysis of the phonology, morphology, and syntax based on thirteen months of fieldwork between 2011 and 2014. Included in the grammatical description are sixteen glossed texts, to help illustrate the grammar in context. Most major aspects of the language are described and analyzed in detail. This includes the segmental and suprasegmental phonology, nouns and noun phrases, pronouns and agreement marking, nominal and verbal modifiers, verbs and verb phrases, major clause types, and clause linking. Uduk has a rich phonology; the main dialect of Uduk has 55 contrastive con- sonant phonemes, 21 of which occur as a result of the secondary feature labi- alization.