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Masalit language

{{Short description|Maban language in Chad and Sudan}}

{{Infobox language

| name = Masalit

| nativename = {{lang|mul|Kanaa Masarak}}

| states = Chad, Sudan

| region = Ouaddaï, Sila (Chad), West Darfur, South Darfur (Sudan)

| ethnicity = Masalit

| speakers = {{sigfig|982,000|2}}

| date = 2022–2024

| ref = {{e28|mls}}

| script = Latin

| familycolor = Nilo-Saharan

| fam2 = Maban

| fam3 = Masalit languages

| lc1 = mls

| ld1 = Masalit

| lc2 = mdg

| ld2 = Massalat

| glotto = nucl1440

| glottoname = Nuclear Masalit

| glottorefname=Masalit

| glotto2 = mass1262

| glottoname2 = Massalat

| ELP = 577

| ELPname = Massalat

}}

Image:Darfur Linguistic Map.svg

Masalit (autonym Masala/Masara; {{Langx|ar|ماساليت}}) is a Nilo-Saharan language of the Maban language group spoken by the Masalit people in Ouaddaï Region, Chad and West Darfur, Sudan.

Masalit, known as the Massalat, moved west into central-eastern Chad. Their ethnic population in Chad was {{sigfig|29,800|2}} as of the 1993 census, but only 10 speakers of their language were reported in 1991.{{Ethnologue18|mls}}

Phonology

= Vowels =

class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

!

!Front

!Central

!Back

align="center"

!Close

|{{IPA link|i}}

|{{IPA link|ɨ}}

|{{IPA link|u}}

Close-mid

|{{IPA link|e}}

|{{IPA link|ə}}

|{{IPA link|o}}

Open-mid

|{{IPA link|ɛ}}

|{{IPA link|ʌ}}

|{{IPA link|ɔ}}

align="center"

!Open

|

|{{IPA link|a}}

|

= Consonants =

class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

! colspan="2" |

!Labial

!Dental/
Alveolar

!Palatal

!Velar

!Glottal

colspan="2" |Nasal

|{{IPA link|m}}

|{{IPA link|n}}

|{{IPA link|ɲ}}

|{{IPA link|ŋ}}

|

rowspan="3" |Stop/
Affricate

!{{Small|voiceless}}

|{{IPA link|p}}

|{{IPA link|t}}

|{{IPA link|t͡ʃ}}

|{{IPA link|k}}

|({{IPA link|ʔ}})

{{Small|voiced}}

|{{IPA link|b}}

|{{IPA link|d}}

|{{IPA link|d͡ʒ}}

|{{IPA link|g}}

|

{{Small|prenasal}}

|{{IPA link|ᵐb}}

|{{IPA link|ⁿd}}

|{{IPA link|ⁿd͡ʒ}}

|{{IPA link|ᵑɡ}}

|

rowspan="2" |Fricative

!{{Small|voiceless}}

|{{IPA link|f}}

|{{IPA link|s}}

|{{IPA link|ʃ}}

|({{IPA link|x}})

|{{IPA link|h}}

{{Small|voiced}}

|{{IPA link|v}}

|({{IPA link|z}})

|

|

|

colspan="2" |Trill

|

|{{IPA link|r}}

|

|

|

colspan="2" |Lateral

|

|{{IPA link|l}}

|

|

|

rowspan="2" |Approximant

!{{Small|labial}}

|

|

|{{IPA link|ɥ}}

|{{IPA link|w}}

|

{{Small|central}}

|

|

|{{IPA link|j}}

|

|

  • It has been stated that occasional click sounds {{IPAblink|ǀ}} and {{IPAblink|ǃ}} may occur, however; they are considered to be rare.
  • Sounds {{IPA|/r, l, m, k/}} can occur as geminated {{IPA|[rː, lː, mː, kː]}}.
  • Sounds /t, m, n, ŋ/ can occur as palatalized [tʲ, mʲ, nʲ, ŋʲ] before front vowels.
  • {{IPA|/z, x/}} only occur as a result of words of Arabic origin.
  • {{IPAblink|ʔ}} is not a phonemic sound, and is only heard before word-initial vowels.
  • Sounds {{IPA|/p, ɥ, v/}} only occur in word-initial position.{{Cite book|last=Edgar|first=John|title=A Masalit Grammar: With Notes on other languages of Darfur and Wadai|publisher=Berlin: Dietrich Reimer|year=1989}}

Sociolects

The Masalit language has two sociolects:

  • "Heavy" Masalit, spoken by higher-ranking people and those in the countryside, with a complicated agglutinative grammar
  • "Light" Masalit, spoken particularly in the home and in the market, with a somewhat simplified grammatical structure and many borrowings from Sudanese Arabic, the regional lingua franca and language of education.

References

{{reflist}}

Further reading

  • {{cite web |last1=Abdo |first1=Alsadig Adam |title=Contrastive analysis between Masalit and English language |url=http://khartoumspace.uofk.edu:8080/bitstream/handle/123456789/2274/Contrastive%20Analysis%20Between%20Masalit%20and%20English%20Language.pdf?sequence=1 |website=Department of Linguistics |publisher=University of Khartoum |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305170253/http://khartoumspace.uofk.edu:8080/bitstream/handle/123456789/2274/Contrastive%20Analysis%20Between%20Masalit%20and%20English%20Language.pdf?sequence=1 |archive-date=5 March 2016 |date=November 2013}}
  • {{cite journal |last1=Edgar |first1=John |title=Masalit stories |journal=African Languages and Cultures |date=January 1990 |volume=3 |issue=2 |pages=127–148 |doi=10.1080/09544169008717716 |jstor=1771718 |publisher=Taylor & Francis}}
  • {{cite journal |last1=Jakobi |first1=Angelika |title=Edgar, John: A Masalit Grammar. With Notes on Other Languages of Darfur and Wadai. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer Verlag, 1989. 121 pp., map, tab., fig. (Sprache und Oralität in Afrika, 3) Preis: DM 59- |journal=Anthropos |date=1991 |volume=86 |issue=4–6 |pages=599–601 |language=de |publisher=Nomos Verlag |jstor=40463695}}

External links

  • [https://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/29/nyregion/29lost.html The Lost Languages, Found in New York - NYTimes.com]

{{Maban languages}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Masalit Language}}

Category:Agglutinative languages

Category:Maban languages

Category:Languages of Sudan

Category:Languages of Chad

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