SUBA‑SIMBITI ORTHOGRAPHY STATEMENT SIL International Uganda-Tanzania Branch Suba‑Simbiti Orthography Statement Approved Orthography Edition Acknowledgements Many individuals contributed to this document by formatting the structure, contributing the language data, organizing the data, writing the document and by giving advice for editing the document. This document was authored by Rebekah Overton and John B. Walker, and it is an updated and expanded version of the Suba‑Simbiti Orthography Sketch. Other SIL members who have been involved in the development of the Suba-Simbiti orthography include Dave Brewerton, Alison Compton, Leila Schroeder and Oliver Stegen, as well as Holly Robinson and Brigitte Niederseer, who reviewed and helped to improve this document. Contributors from the Suba‑Simbiti language community include Albinus Waynse and Robert Mago (Simbiti Bible translators), as well as Julius Kishërë Mwita, Wilfred Matesi, Grace Barasa, Jackson Mangarai, Stephen Bwana, Joyce Kazi, Peter Mwita Nyakamande, Dorka Kimera, Vincent Marwa, and Stephen Shirati. © SIL International Uganda-Tanzania Branch P.O. Box 1235 Musoma, Tanzania P.O. Box 60368 Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania P.O. Box 750 Entebbe, Uganda P.O. Box 44456 00100 Nairobi, Kenya Approved Orthography Edition: July 2018 2 Table of Contents Abbreviations ............................................................................. 5 1. Introduction ......................................................................... 6 1.1 Classification ................................................................................................... 6 1.2 Data ................................................................................................................. 6 1.3 Dialects ............................................................................................................ 6 1.4 Format and Purpose of this Orthography Statement ...................................... 8 2. Phonology ............................................................................ 8 2.1 Vowels ............................................................................................................. 8 2.1.1 Phonemic Vowel Length ......................................................................... 9 2.1.2 Vowel Length in Conditioned Environments ....................................... 10 2.1.3 Vowel Length in Noun Class Prefixes .................................................. 13 2.2 Consonants .................................................................................................... 14 2.2.1 Palatalisation .......................................................................................... 16 2.2.2 Labialisation ........................................................................................... 18 2.2.3 Prenasalisation ....................................................................................... 18 2.3 Tone ............................................................................................................... 19 3. Morphophonology .............................................................. 22 3.1 Vowels ........................................................................................................... 22 3.1.1 Vowel Harmony Processes .................................................................... 22 3.1.2 Vowel Adjacency at Morpheme Boundaries ........................................ 28 3.1.3 Word-Initial <y-> ............................................................................... 35 3.2 Consonants .................................................................................................... 38 3.2.1 Dahl’s Law ............................................................................................. 38 3.2.2 Elision of /ɾ/ ........................................................................................... 38 3.2.3 1SG Nasal Prefix .................................................................................... 39 3.3 Morphophonological Process between Verb Suffixes ................................. 40 3.3.1 Creation of the Trill <rr> ................................................................... 40 3.3.2 Applicative with Anterior ...................................................................... 42 3.3.3 Causative with Anterior ......................................................................... 43 4. Word Boundaries ............................................................... 43 4.1 Copula ........................................................................................................... 43 4.2 Locatives ....................................................................................................... 47 4.3 Associatives ................................................................................................... 49 3 4.4 Conjunction ................................................................................................... 51 4.5 Negative Clitics ............................................................................................. 51 4.6 Question Words............................................................................................. 53 4.7 Adverbial <igho> ....................................................................................... 54 4.8 Reduplication ................................................................................................ 54 4.9 Compound Words ......................................................................................... 57 5. Loan Words ....................................................................... 58 6. Punctuation ........................................................................ 59 6.1 Sentence-Final Punctuation........................................................................... 59 6.2 Comma .......................................................................................................... 59 6.3 Colon ............................................................................................................. 60 6.4 Quotation Marks ........................................................................................... 60 7. Capitalisation ..................................................................... 61 References ............................................................................... 63 Appendix A: Suba‑Simbiti Noun Class Chart .......................... 64 Appendix B: Noun Class Pairings ............................................ 67 Appendix C: The History of Suba-Simbiti Orthography Development ............................................................................ 68 4 Abbreviations 1 1st person, or Noun Class 1 FOC Focus Marker 2 2nd person, or Noun Class 2 FV Final Vowel 3 3rd person, or Noun Class 3 HAB Habitual 4 Noun Class 4 HYP Hypothetical 5 Noun Class 5 INF Infinitive 6 Noun Class 6 N Nasal 7 Noun Class 7 NAR Narrative 8 Noun Class 8 NEG Negative 9 Noun Class 9 P2 Remote Past (before today) 10 Noun Class 10 P3 Untimed Past 11 Noun Class 11 PL Plural 12 Noun Class 12 (diminutive) PRS Present 14 Noun Class 14 PST Past 15 Noun Class 15 REFL Reflexive 16 Noun Class 16 SBJV Subjunctive 17 Noun Class 17 SG Singular 18 Noun Class 18 V Vowel ANT Anterior1 APPLIC Applicative ATR Advanced Tongue Root C Consonant CAUS Causative F1 Immediate Future F2 Today’s Future 1 This term is taken from Walker’s (2013) analysis. 5 1. Introduction 1.1 Classification Suba‑Simbiti is a Bantu language spoken in the Mara Region of Tanzania. The ISO 639-3 code for Suba‑Simbiti is [ssc] (Simons and Fennig, 2018), and it should not be confused with the Suba language of Kenya [sxb], classed as JE403 by Maho (2009). It is part of the Lacustrine languages, a name given because of the proximity to Lake Victoria. The language name Suba‑Simbiti includes a number of language varieties (see §1.3 below). 1.2 Data The data in this study comes from a variety of sources, including the Suba‑Simbiti people who attended numerous orthography development and orthography testing workshops in the Mara Region between 2006 and 2009. There has also been ongoing research conducted by SIL linguists and Suba-Simbiti Bible translators. Trial orthography status was granted to Suba‑Simbiti in 2009, as described in the “Suba‑Simbiti Orthography Sketch” (Compton and Walker, 2010). Additional orthography refinement and testing was carried out among Suba‑Simbiti speakers over the years, and changes and additions based on that research are included in this document. The SIL linguists are very grateful to all the Suba‑Simbiti people who have participated in this process. 1.3 Dialects The name “Suba” is an umbrella term which includes several related ethnolinguistic groups. Table 1.3 below lists each of these groups, including Maho’s (2009) classification (which exists for some groups but not others), as well as population figures (Simons and Fennig, 2018). Table 1.3: Suba language varieties Language variety Population (2011 estimate) Simbiti (JE431) 33,000 Hacha (JE432) 4,200 Surwa (JE433) 4,200 Sweta (JE434) 12,800 Kine 14,500 6 Language variety Population (2011 estimate) Rieri2 unknown Simbiti is by far the largest of these groups. It is the reference dialect chosen for written materials intended to serve the Suba people, thus the name “Suba-Simbiti”. In Swahili, the language name is “Kisimbiti”, and in Simbiti it is “Ikisimbëtë”. A 2011 sociolinguistic survey confirmed close ties between these Suba groups, a high level of mutual intelligibility, and a general willingness