Bedscha (language)

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Bedjah

Spoken in

Sudan , Egypt , Eritrea
speaker 1.2 million
Linguistic
classification
Official status
Recognized minority /
regional language in 		EritreaEritrea Eritrea
Language codes
ISO 639 -1

-

ISO 639 -2

bej

Bedscha (also Beja, Bedauye, Bedawi, Badawiyya from Arabic بجا, بجة baddschā, baddscha , DMG baǧǧā, baǧǧa ; Self-designation Tuː-beɖaːwye or similar) is a language spoken by around 1.2 million people from the Bedscha peoplein Sudan , Egypt and Eritrea . It belongs to the Afro-Asian language family and within this probably to the branch of the Kushitic languages , some scholars see it instead as a separate branch of Afro-Asian. The Bedscha has a strongly fusional and inflected morphology ; the sentence position is subject-object-verb (SOV), there are also post positions .

Linguistic position

Map of Afro-Asian Languages

According to unanimous research opinion, the bedscha belongs to the family of Afro-Asian languages ​​spoken in large parts of North and East Africa and the Middle East. Essential similarities that connect the Bedscha with other Afro-Asian languages ​​are a large number of related words and clear similarities, especially in pronominal and verbal morphology. The majority of scholars also assume that the Bedscha belongs to the Afro-Asian branch of the Kushitic languages ​​that are spoken in East Africa. The most important common innovation that connects the Bedscha with other Cushitic languages ​​is a set of conjugation suffixes that are built up from inherited Afro-Asian morphemes , but apparently represent an innovation of the Cushitic in their construction. Some scholars, on the other hand, advocate a classification established by Robert Hetzron , according to which this conjugation method is only an areal feature that can only be traced back to the proximity of the Bedscha and the Cushitic, but not to genetic relationships. Consequently, they advocate the theory that the Bedscha is not part of Cushitic, but an independent main branch of Afro-Asian, which consists of a single language.

On the basis of traditional names and ancient inscriptions, some scientists have proposed the hypothesis that the language of the Blemmyes , who lived east of the Nile in antiquity, was an earlier form of the Bedscha or at least closely related to it. A relation to the previously largely incomprehensible Meroitic , which dates from the 3rd century BC. BC until the 3rd century AD in Nubia is documented, but is rejected by the majority. The ISO 639-2 and ISO 639-2 code for Bedscha is bej, the SIL code is BEI.

Distribution, dialects and sociolinguistic situation

The Bedscha is spoken by around 1.2 million people from the Bedscha people, including 951,000, mainly the Ababde tribe , in the Arabian Desert in Sudan (as of 1982), 150,000 in Eritrea (as of 2001) and by 77,000 in Egypt ( Status 1982). It forms a dialect continuum, the dialects of which differ in the inventory of verbs, in various individual forms, in certain phonological properties and in the proportion of loan words from other languages, but are mutually understandable. The following dialects can be distinguished:

The majority of the speakers of the Bedscha are bilingual or even trilingual today and, in addition to Bedscha, also speak Arabic and / or the Ethiosemitic Tigre , which means that loanwords have penetrated certain dialects from these languages, such as kítaab "book"كتاب kitāb , DMG kitāb . In some cases, the use of the bedscha is also dwindling, in extreme cases it is almost completely superseded by Arabic, and younger people in particular have only a rudimentary knowledge of the bedscha. In Eritrea a large part of the Beni Amir speak Tigre today with Bedscha substrate as their mother tongue.

In Eritrea, Bedscha is officially one of nine national languages ​​with equal rights.

Research history

The Bedscha people are already mentioned in medieval Arabic sources, at the end of the 18th century they were also known in Europe. European travelers began compiling word lists and grammatical notes at the beginning of the 19th century. The first detailed descriptions of the Bedscha were presented in 1881 by the Swede Herman Almkvist and in 1893 by the Austrian Leo Reinisch . Her works are already of a high standard and still serve as reference works on the Bedscha. Later researchers described other dialects and were able to clarify a number of details, so that today there are five more extensive grammatical descriptions and several lexicons for the Bedscha.

structure

Phonology

The Bedjah has 20 consonantic phonemes ; / x /, / z / and / ɣ / are also borrowed from Arabic. In contrast to other Afro-Asian or Cushitic languages, the Bedscha has no glottalized , ejective , implosive or pharyngeal sounds. However, two retroflexes and two labiovelars are noticeable . The following table shows the consonant inventory of the dialect described by Hudson in 1976, other dialects may differ slightly:

  bilabial labiodental alveolar postalveolar retroflex palatal velar labiovelar glottal
stl. sth. stl. sth. stl. sth. stl. sth. stl. sth. stl. sth. stl. sth. stl. sth. stl. sth.
Plosives b t d ʈ ɖ ɟ k G kʷ G ʔ
Nasals m n
Vibrants r
Fricatives f s ʃ H
Approximants
and Lateral Approximants 		w l j

The vowel phonemes are / a /, / e /, / i /, / o /, / u /; the quantity is thereby significant. The accent is tonal ; his position is subject to certain restrictions. It is marked with an acute ( ´ ) in the following . The transcription used in this article is based on the predominantly phonetically based transcriptions of the literature used. With regard to the segments, the transcription characters correspond to the IPA characters.

Noun phrases

Categories of the noun

The Bedscha has the two genera masculine and feminine, the numbers singular and plural as well as the cases nominative, genitive and accusative. Definiteness is expressed by the proclitical article, which generally has the following forms:

  Masculine Feminine
Singular Plural Singular Plural
Nominative, genitive uː aː t-uː t-aː
Accusative, genitive O) eː to (ː) t-eː

In certain dialect-dependent cases, the case distinction of the article is neutralized. Various suffixes are also used to mark the case, especially of indefinite nouns, but some of these only occur under certain dialect-dependent conditions:

  Masculine Feminine
Singular Plural Singular Plural
Nominative accusative -b / -∅ -t / -∅
Genitive -i (ː) -eː -ti (ː) -t-eː

The nominative is used as the subject case, the accusative is used for the direct object, the predicate noun of the copula (see below), as a citation form and for preceding topics . Finally, in the genitive there are noun phrases and objects of postpositions used attributively: wi-Ɂóːr-iː-t "like the boy".

In many cases, the number distinction is also marked on the noun itself. The following means of education are mainly found here, which distinguish the plural from the singular:

  • Suffix -a: árgin "lamb", árgin-a "lambs"
  • Shortening of the last vowel: maláːl "desert valley", malál "desert valleys"
  • Shift of accent one syllable forward: minʃáːr "saw", mínʃar "saw"
  • other changes to the trunk: bók " billy goat", bák " billy goat"

Noun phrases with attributes

Three types of attributes can be distinguished in the bedjah. Adjective attributes usually precede the head in indefinite noun phrases, but follow it in definite nouns. Articles are added to the adjective and head. The case endings show limited congruence, the extent of which differs from dialect to dialect:

  • díbilu ták "a little man" (nominative)
  • hamíʃ-t ʃʔá "a brown cow" (nominative / accusative)
  • oː-ták u-díbilu "the little man" (accusative)

In noun phrases that have a nominal possessor as an attribute, the possessessor appears in the genitive before the possessum , which does not contain an article. Instead, the preceding genitive ending is extended by the morpheme ∅- (m.) / T- (f.), Which is dependent on the gender of the possessum:

  • mʔá-ti-∅ hátay "horses of women"
  • u-tak-íː-t yáːs "the man's bitch"

Depending on the dialect, it is also possible to place the possessum in front of the possessor, the affix ∅- (m.) / T- (f.), Which is congruent with the possessum, is then placed both before and after the possessor:

  • túː-nde-t-í-wi-Ɂóːr-iː-t "the mother ( nde ) of the boy ( Ɂoːr )"

If the possessor is a personal pronoun, the possessive pronominal suffixes (see below) are used. Between them and the head are morphemes that congruent with the case, number and gender of the head and are formally identical to the article in most people:

  • úː-san-úː-n "our brother" (nominative)
  • tóː-kʷaː-tóː-k "your sister" (accusative)

Attributive relative phrases can both follow and precede the head; the two constructions differ in the different case markings; here too there are strong dialectal fluctuations. The following presentation is limited to the dialect described by Wedekind, Musa 2008. If the noun phrase is an object of the verb in the relative phrase, the relative phrase always has a suffix -eː. If the relative phrase comes first, it does not receive an article, but a case ending that corresponds to the syntactic function within the relative phrase:

  Relative phrase head verb
example 1
areːyan éː t tóː came rhán
I like (Suffix) Accusative f. (Items) camel I saw
"I saw the (female) camel that I like"
Example 2
ɖaːbíːni ∅ ∅ ∅ came eːyíːni
he runs (Suffix) Nominative m. (Items) camel he comes
"A (male) camel that runs is coming."

If, on the other hand, the relative phrase follows, it is given a case ending that matches the syntactic function of the noun phrase in the parent sentence, and in certain cases an article:

head Relative phrase verb
O tak u sálaːman éː b rhítaː
(Items) man (Items) I greeted (Suffix) Accusative m. you saw
"Did you see the man I greeted?"

Noun phrases in which attributes have their own attributes are particularly complex, for which the behavior of genitives with attributes is shown here as an example. In the Bischari dialect, according to Almkvist 1881, possessive pronominal suffixes, the possessum of which is itself in the genitive, are inflected according to gender, case and number of the entire noun phrase, while the head itself remains uninflected:

Article of the posessor Possessor Genitive ending Genus of the head Case of the head Pronominal suffix "Donkey"
úː san íː t uː k méːk
Nominative masculine sg. "Brothers" Genitive feminine Nominative "your" "Donkey"
"Your brother's donkey"

If a nominal genitive receives an attribute, the genitive endings do not come after the possessor, but are naa suffixed to the morpheme :

  • tu-ʔóːr tóː-dis náː-tiː t-kʷá wín-tu Nom./Akk. f. Sg. + Girls acc. F. Sg. + Small naa- + genitive f. Sg. F. + Sister large + copula 3rd person Sg. F. "The little girl's sister is big."

Personal pronouns

From a formal point of view, the Bedscha has free and enclitic personal pronouns , as is also known from other Afro-Asian languages. The free pronouns have forms for the nominative and the accusative; the enclitic forms can mark the possessor and the object:

  Free Enclitic
Nominative accusative Possessor object
Singular 1. áne, áni áne (ː) b, anéːb -a, -∅ -heːb
2. m. barúːk baróːk -k -ho (ː) k
2. f. batúːk batóːk -k (i) -ho (ː) k (i)
3. m. barúː (h) / - s baróː (h) / - s -h / -s, -∅ - (hoː) h, -hoːs, -∅
3. f. batúːh / -s batóːh / -s
Plural 1. hénen, henén henéb, henén -n -ho (ː) n
2. m. baráːk (na) baréːk (na) -kna -ho (ː) kna
2. f. batáːk (na) batéːk (na)
3. m. baráː (h) baréː (h) -h (i) na, -sna, -∅ - (h) oːhna, -hosna
3. f. batáː (h) batéː (h)

Verbal morphology

conjugation

The conjugation of finite verbs takes place in Bedscha according to person, number and gender of the subject and according to tense, mode, aspect and the opposition affirmative - negative. The conjugation is either synthetic or analytical, depending on the tense. According to formal criteria, two large classes of verbs can be distinguished. In the case of so-called weak verbs , the conjugation in synthetic tenses is usually carried out using suffixes, while in the case of strong verbs, on the other hand , using prefixes, suffixes, infixes and ablaut of the stem vowels. In addition to an imperative, the inventory of the tense mode system includes the three tenses present, perfect and future; in addition there is a progressive form for the distant past and a jussive and an optative in several dialects. Individual dialects have additional tenses such as a second future tense or a past perfect in the Bishari dialect. The following table summarizes the more common tenses for strong and weak verbs in the 1st person masculine singular (exception: imperative) (tam "eat", ram "follow"); the forms are mainly given according to Wedekind, Musa 2008; the verbal stem is italic):

  Strong Weak
affirmative negative affirmative negative
imperative rám -a "follow!" báː- ráːm -a "don't follow!" tám -aː "eat!" báː- tám -aː "don't eat!"
Perfect a- rám ram -áːb káːki tam -án tam -áːb káːki
Present eː- tríːm káː- ram tam -áni á- tam -án
Future tense íː- tram , íː- ram ándi íː- tram káːdi tám -i ándi tám -i káːdi
Progressive perfect íː- trám na- ráːm káːki tám -í tam -áːb káːki
Jussiv ram -átay, rám -at   tam -átay, tám -at  
Optional báː-iː- ram baː- ríːm -a báː- tam -i báː- tam -ay (u)

As mentioned above, personal conjugation takes place through affixes to the verbal stem or to an auxiliary verb:

  Perfect
(weak: tam "eat") 		Perfect
(strong: ram "follow") 		Future tense
(tam "eat")
Singular 1. tam-án a-rám támi ándi
2. m. tam-táː ti-rám-a támi téndia
2. f. tam-táːyi ti-rám-i támi téndi
3. m. tam-íya i-rám támi éndi
3. f. tam-tá ti-rám támi téndi
Plural 1. tám-na ní-ram támi níyed
2. tám-taːna tí-ram-na támi tiyádna
3. tám-íyaːn í-ram-na támi iyádna

Deverbal verbs and nouns

The suffix -aː can be used to form active participles of prematurity or simultaneity: tám-aː "eating", ram-áː "following". Some dialects also have other participles. Infinitives are formed from weak verbs especially with the suffix -ti: tám-ti "the food". With strong verbs, there are various educational options, including a prefix m- and various ablaut patterns: rám "to follow" - ma-ráːm "to follow ", kétim "to arrive" - kitúːm "to arrive ".

A series of suffixes are used to create deverbal verbs, also weakly conjugated, from weak verbs:

In the case of strong verbs, however, the derivative affixes are prefixed, and vowel ablaut also occurs. The derivatives of strong verbs are also strong and form their tense and modus stems by ablaut. Examples: (the imperative stem is given):

  • Passive with t : feather "leave"> ét-fadaːg "be left"
  • Causative with s : mehag "sweep out"> sé-mhag "let sweep out"
  • Reciprocally with m : you "kill"> AMO Darna "kill each other"

In some dialects verbs can also be derived from ablaut:

  • Intensive with - aː - in the imperative: birir "spread"> baːrir

Different derivative affixes can also be combined with each other, creating reciprocal verbs with -s-am- and causative passives with am-s . Intense or frequent forms can be created by reduplication:

  • tam "eat"> tamtam "eat quickly"

sentence position

In the Bedscha the head of a phrase is mostly at the end; accordingly there are postpositions instead of prepositions; the sentence order is generally subject-object-verb (SOV):

  • ták méːk réhya man - donkey - he saw "a man saw a donkey"

Pronominal subjects do not need to be marked by a subject pronoun, so the Bedscha is a pro-drop language :

  • hátaːy rhán horse - I saw "I saw a horse"

The direct pronominal object is usually expressed through corresponding enclitic personal pronouns, which are suffixed to the verb:

  • hé-heb "give me"
  • uu-yáːs támi-hon "the dog bit us"
  • áne irhán-hokna "I saw you"

Interrogatives remain in situ in the bedscha :

  • barúuk teen ájda téna you - this - whom - said "to whom did you say this?"

Copula suffixes

Suffixes have copulative functions which are added to the predicate noun phrase and to predicative adjectives and which congruent with the subject in person, number and gender:

  masculine feminine
Singular 1. (b) u, i do
2. (bu) wa twi
3. (b) u, u do
Plural 1. (b) a ta
2. (b) aːna taːna
3. (b) a ta

The predicate noun phrase is in the accusative case. Examples:

  • with noun phrase
    • áne sán-∅-u I brother + accusative masculine + copula "I am a brother"
    • áne san-∅-óː-ku me brother + accusative masculine + accusative + your + copula "I am your brother"
    • áne kʷaː-t-óː-k-tu ich sister + accusative feminine + accusative + your + copula "I am your sister"
  • with adjective
    • baruuk adaroo-wwa you red + copula "you are red (masculine)"
    • batuuk adarootuwi you red + copula "you are red (feminine)"

literature

  • Herman Almkvist: The Bishari language Tū-Beḍāwie in Northeast Africa. 2 volumes, Uppsala 1881, 1885. At archive.org .
  • David A. Appleyard: Beja as a Cushitic Language . In: Gábor Takács (Ed.): Egyptian and Semito-Hamitic (Afro-Asiatic) studies. In memoriam W. Vycichl . Brill, Leiden 2004, ISBN 90-04-13245-7 , pp. 175-194 .
  • Richard A. Hudson: Beja. In: Marvin Lionel Bender (Ed.): The Non-Semitic Languages ​​of Ethiopia. Carbondale 1976. Pages 97-132.
  • Leo Reinisch: The Beḍauye language in Northeast Africa. In commission at F. Tempsky, Vienna 1893. I at archive.org , II at archive.org .
  • Leo Reinisch: Dictionary of the Beḍauye language. Alfred Hölder, Vienna 1895. At archive.org .
  • E. Roper: Tu Beḍawiɛ. An Elementary Handbook for the Use of Sudan Government Officials. Stephen Austin, Hertford 1928
  • Klaus Wedekind: To Update on Beja . In: Rainer Voigt (Ed.): Files of the 7th International Semitohamitist Congress Berlin 2004 Shaker, Aachen 2007. Pages 165–183.
  • Klaus Wedekind, Charlotte Wedekind, Abuzeinab Musa: Beja Pedagogical Grammar . Afrikanistik-Aegyptologie-Online, 2008.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Marie-Claude Simeone-Senelle: Les langues en Erythrée , in: Chroniques Yeménites 8, 2000
  2. ↑ Almkvist 1881
  3. ^ Robert Hetzron: The limits of cushitic . In: Language and History in Africa . tape 2 , 1980, p. 7-126 .
  4. ↑ E. Zyhlarz, in: Journal for indigenous languages No. 31 (1940–1941), pp. 1 ff .; Helmut Satzinger: Some more remarks on Old Bedauye (PDF; 1.7 MB). In: SM Bay (Ed.): Studia Palaeophilologica professoris GM Browne in honorem oblata Champaign . Illinois 2004, pp. 1-5.
  5. ↑ According to Ethnologue, see web link
  6. ↑ According to Ethnologue, see web link
  7. ^ On the sociolinguistic situation: Marianne Bechhaus-Gerst: Beja Identity in Tu Beɖawiɛ. In: G. Takács (Ed.): Egyptian and Semito-Hamitic (Afro-Asiatic) studies in memoriam W. Vycichl. Brill, Leiden 2004, pp. 195-204
  8. ↑ On the history of research: Almkvist 1881, page 7 ff .; Hudson 1976, page 97 f.
  9. ↑ Hudson 1976
  10. ↑ after Wedekind, Musa 2008, 7 f. and Hudson 1976
  11. ↑ The choice of the article in the genitive case depends on the dialect.
  12. ↑ Wedekind 2007
  13. ↑ Examples from Almkvist 1881, 61 ff.
  14. ↑ Examples from Wedekind, Musa 2008, 64 ff.
  15. ↑ Wedekind, Musa 2008, 67 ff.
  16. ↑ Hudson 1976
  17. ↑ Almkvist 1881, 90
  18. ↑ Examples from Wedekind, Musa 2008, page 286
  19. ↑ formed according to information from Almkvist 1881, 98
  20. ↑ Wedekind, Musa 2008, 71
  21. ↑ Compilation of forms from different dialects
  22. ^ Forms according to Almkvist 1881, 167, 184; Roper 1928, 51, 52, 62; Hudson 1976. Accents after Roper.
  23. ↑ Wedekind, Musa 2008, 149
  24. ↑ Wedekind, Musa 2008, 180
  25. ↑ Almkvist 1881, 166
  26. ^ Accent according to Wedekind, Musa 2008, 149, 179
  27. ↑ Almkvist 1881, 144
  28. ↑ Roper 1928, 63
  29. ↑ Almkvist 1881, 64
  30. ↑ Wedekind, Musa 2008, 46
  31. ↑ Roper 1928, 29
  32. ↑ Almkvist 1881, page 116
  33. ↑ Forms from different dialects
  34. ↑ Almkvist 1881, § 112
  35. ↑ Wedekind, Musa 2008, § 184