Iraqw (language)

The Iraqw (self-designation KANW Iraqw ) is a language spoken by about 500,000 speakers in the region around the town of Mbulu (Iraqw Imboru ) in the north of Tanzania is spoken. It is the largest of the South Cushitic languages and one of the southernmost of the Afro-Asian language family. Most of the speakers also speak the national lingua franca , Swahili , which is usually preferred for written purposes.

According to the system

Consonants

	Labials	Dental	Lateral	Palatal	Velare	Labiovelare	Pharyngals	Glottal
voiced plosives	b	d		(j)	G	G
voiceless plosives	p	t		(c)	k	kʷ
glottalized plosives		ts'	tɬ '		q	qʷ		ʔ
Fricatives	f	s	ɬ	(ʃ)	x	xʷ	H	H
Nasals	m	n		(ɲ)	ŋ	ŋʷ
Sonorants and Glides	w	r	l	j			ʕ

Marginal phonemes that occur primarily in foreign words from Swahili are bracketed. Noteworthy is the existence of pharyngals ( ʕ , ħ ), which also occur in other Cushitic and Semitic languages ​​(e.g. Somali, Arabic), as well as voiceless laterals ( ɬ and tɬ ' ). Phonetically, ʕ is a voiced fricative, its status in the system is debatable. The sound denoted by q can be spoken either as ejective k ' , or as backward shifted (uvular) k (correspondingly also qʷ ).

Vowels

There are 5 vowels i , e , a , o , u , which can be either short or long (then written twice). On the other hand, there are no elongated consonants except in rare special cases such as word compounds.

volume

As in many languages, in Iraqw the sentence melody falls from the beginning to the end of a sentence (so-called "downdrift"). In some of the words of Iraqw, however, the tone is raised on the last syllable of the word, thereby interrupting the down-drift. These syllables are marked with an accent (´). The last syllable of a word thus has a binary contrast that can be described as "high tone" or "low tone". In this respect, Iraqw can be addressed as a tonal language, although far fewer tonal gradients are possible than in prototypical tonal languages, in which all syllables are tonally marked independently of one another. In rare cases, a syllable other than the last syllable of a word can have a tweeter. There is no contrastive word accent.

noun

Iraqw differentiates between gender, number and a distinction between basic form and status constructus, which could be understood as a case. There are no articles.

Gender and number

Iraqw knows two grammatical genders: masculine and feminine. Gender can be recognized by attributes, verbs or pronouns congruent with the noun. When designating people, the grammatical gender usually corresponds to the natural gender (as long as the noun has a singular meaning):

• gitɬ'a "man" is masculine
• ʕameeni "woman" is feminine.

As in German, in Iraqw the grammatical gender of terms cannot be predicted with any certainty either from the meaning or the phonetic form of the noun.

A distinction is also made between the numbers singular and plural. There is no grammatical gender distinction in the plural. A peculiarity of Iraqw is that many nouns with singular meaning are denoted by a plural (i.e. a noun that triggers plural congruence) and that - more often - meaningful plural forms can be grammatical singulars. For example, the following nouns are grammatically treated as plural:

• duuŋgaʔ "nose" (perhaps originally to be understood as "nostrils")
• xweera "night" (maybe about "night hours")
• biħiiʔ "page"
• maʔay "water"

The plural is formed in quite a variety of ways, often with suffixes:

• ʃuule "school" (feminine) - ʃuuladu "schools" (plural)
• baala "day" (feminine) - balu "days" (plural) (with vowel abbreviation as with some other nouns)
• ila "eye" (feminine) - ilaʔ "eyes" (plural)

In the following examples, a grammatical singular is used as the semantic plural form. These can actually be imagined as collectives. In the case of meaningful plurals, there is no correlation between meaning and grammatical gender, even with personal names:

• saga "head" (masculine) - say "heads" (feminine) (to be understood as a "head group")
• ts'irʕi "bird" (feminine) - ts'irʕo "bird" (feminine)
• dasi "(the) girl" (feminine) - dasu "(the) girl" (masculine, no connection between gender and meaning in collectives)

In the extreme case, the meaningful singular can be designated by a grammatical plural and the meaningful plural by a grammatical singular:

• duuŋgaʔ "nose" (plural) - duŋgawe "noses" (feminine)

It is not uncommon for the simple stem (which is then almost always treated as a grammatical singular) to have a plural meaning, while the singular is derived from it with a suffix:

• ts'ats'eeʕi "star" (fem.) - ts'ats'eeʕ "star" (mask.)

Finally, there are cases where both the singular and the plural are derived from an abstract stem through suffixes:

• ɬaħaŋw "month" (mask.) - ɬaħeeri "months" (pl.) (stem * ɬaħ- does not occur in isolation)

Status constructus

Iraqw does not use cases that correspond to the cases of European languages. However, the noun has two forms that can be described as the basic form and (with a term from Semitic studies) as the status constructus . The status constructus occurs when the noun is closely related to the following element: Either when an attribute such as an adjective, genitive or relative clause follows, or when the noun represents the logical object of a subsequent verb (details follow below).

The status constructus always has a tweeter on the last syllable. With masculine nouns it usually has the ending -ú or (with few nouns) -kú ; many shapes are more or less irregular:

• ts'axwél "trap" - ts'axwelú daaŋw "trap of elephants" = "elephant trap"
• afa "mouth" - afkú doʔ "mouth of the house" = "door"
• muu "people" (mask.) - múk laħóoʔ "six people"

Feminine form the status constructus with the ending -r , with some words -tá :

• dasi "girl" - dasír níina "little girl"
• diʕi "fat" - diʕitá áwak "white fat" = "cream"

(Grammatical) plurals form the status constructus with the ending -á , which displaces preceding vowels:

• makay "animals" - maká gadá "forest animals" (makay + -á> maká)
• maraay "houses" - mará urén "big houses"

As you can see, all attributes are behind their reference word. In a genitive combination, only the reference word is marked by the status constructus; the genitive has no particular form.

Local nouns

Certain nouns that stand for places are particularly common in the status constructus and can correspond to our prepositions:

• guraʔ "belly" (mask.) - gurúu (<* guraʔ + ú) "(in) belly of ... = in ..."
• amoo "place" (fem.) - amór "(at) place from ... = to ..."
• alu "backside" (plural) - alá "(on) the backside of ... = behind ..."

Demonstrative suffixes

Demonstratives as an attribute are denoted by suffixes on the noun, u. a .:

• -í "this (for me)"
• -síŋ "the (with you)"
• -qáʔ "that there"

These suffixes are also attached to the Status constructus, although its high tone is shifted to the following demonstrative:

• muu "people" - Stat. constr. múk - muk-síŋ "these people"
• adoo "manner" (fem.) - Stat. constr. adóor - adoor-í "(in) this way" = "so"

There are special forms for independent demonstratives, e.g. B .:

• kwí / kwisíŋ / kuqáʔ (mask.) "this one"
• tí / tisíŋ / taqáʔ (fem.)
• kuká / kusíŋ / kuqáʔ (plur.)

Possessive suffixes

Possessive suffixes can be added to the noun (for their form, see the next section). These also follow the Status constructus, whose final high tone is shifted to the suffix:

• uma "Name" (mask.) - Stat. constr. umú - umuwós "his / her name"
• naʕaay "child" (mask) - naʕaywók "your child" (naʕaay + ú + ok> naʕaywók)
• fadu "bones" (plur.) - faduʔéeʔ "my bones" (only the treble is left of the -á- of the status constructus)

Personal pronouns and possessive suffixes

There are independent personal pronouns, most of which can occur in a longer and a shortened form without a great difference in function. The following table shows these forms and at the same time the possessive suffixes that are attached to a noun and correspond to the possessive pronouns of German. Note that Iraqw, like many other Afro-Asian languages, makes a gender difference in the 2nd person singular ("you-man", "you-woman"), even more so than in the 3rd person singular ("he" , "they"), where such a difference does not exist in the pronoun, but in the "selectors" (see below) and in the conjugation forms of the verb.

As in German, gender is the grammatical gender of the reference word, i.e. H. a pronoun 3.sg.mask. refers not primarily to masculine beings, but to those nouns that are considered grammatical masculine.

	independent pronoun	Possessive suffix
1. sg. "I"	aníŋ ~ án	-ʔéeʔ
2. so. mask. "you"	kúuŋ ~ kú	-OK
2. so. fem. "you"	kíiŋ ~ kí	-OK
3rd sg. "he she"	inós ~ ís	-ós
1. pl. "we"	atén ~ át	-rén
2. pl. "her"	kuuŋgáʔ	-húŋ
3rd pl. "she"	inoʔín ~ inʔín	-ʔín

One can still guess that the possessive suffixes have a common origin with the independent pronouns.

adjective

Attributive adjectives always follow their reference word, which takes the form of the status constructus (see section "noun"). The adjective shows congruence according to gender and number, which is not shown here.

Selector

A specialty of Iraqw and several other Kushitic languages ​​is the part of speech of the so-called selectors . The selectors express finite features of the sentence such as person and tense. These are features similar to those contained in Iraqw and many other languages ​​in finite verb forms. In Iraqw such markings exist twice per sentence, namely on the one hand in the form of the selector and on the other hand in the verb. They are each quite ambiguous, so that the categories are only adequately indicated by both markings taken together.

Almost every sentence must contain a selector. The following table shows only seven series of forms of considerably more that occur in the language:

	Present	Past tense 1	Past tense 2	subordinate clause	Object (for subject 1st / 2nd person)	Object (with subject 3rd person)	Object (for impersonal subject)
1. sg. "I"	a	aga	ana	ni	i	i	ti
2. so. mask. "you"	a	aga	ana	ta	u	u	do
2. so. fem. "you"	a	aga	ana	ta	i	i	ti
3rd sg. mask. "he"	i	aa	ina	i	u	gu	ku
3rd sg. fem. "she"	i	aa	ina	i	a	ga	ka
1. pl. "we"	a	aga	ana	ta	ti	ti	ti
2. pl. "her"	a	aga	ana	ta	nu	nu	tundu
3rd pl. "she"	i	naa	nina	i	i	gi	ki
impers. "man"	ta	?	tana	ta	-	-	-

Remarks:

• In principle, the selector is congruent with the subject of the sentence. Every sentence must contain a selector, even if the subject is already expressed otherwise.
• As you can see, the present tense series has only three different forms a , i , ta , which therefore do not uniquely identify the person.
• At the same time, the selector expresses the tense. The table only shows the present tense and two common preterital forms (the functional difference of which would have to be investigated further), as well as a form that is used in subordinate clauses. There are also a number of other tenses and similar categories.
• If the sentence contains a pronominal object, this merges with the selector. The table only shows the combinations for the present tense. Corresponding to the three present tense selectors a , i and ta there are three series of object selectors. As related languages ​​(Burunge) show, these emerged from a combination of a subject selector and an object pronoun (in this order), but both are completely merged in Iraqw and can no longer be analyzed.
• While each sentence has to encode the subject in the selector, the selectors that contain an object are not automatically included in all sentences with an object. For details, see the "Syntax" section.

The selectors are probably derived from original subject pronouns, possibly merged with other elements.

verb

The verb is inflected according to person and tense. In the person it is congruent with the subject. Unlike in German, the 3rd person plays so. the grammatical gender of the subject also plays a role. There are two tense stems for the present tense (which, as in German, can also have a futuristic sense) on the one hand and the past tense on the other. The following table shows the forms of the regular verb dóoɬ "dig; Ackerbau treiben " (verbs are quoted in the 1st person sg.). The selectors that always accompany the verb are listed here. In the column for the past, instead of the selectors from the aga series, those from the ana series can also be used; the verb form remains the same.

Conjugation of the regular verb

	Present	preterite
1. Sg. "I dig / dug"	a dóoɬ	aga dóoɬ
2. Sg. "You dig / dig"	a dóɬ	aga dóɬ
3. Sg. Mask. "He digs / dug"	i dooɬ	aa dóoɬ
3. Sg. Fem. "She digs / dug"	i dóɬ	aa dóɬ
1st pl. "We dig / dug"	a dooɬáan	aga dooɬáan
2nd pl. "You dig / dig"	a doɬáʔ	aga doɬéʔ
3rd pl. "They dig / dug"	i dooɬiyáʔ	naa dooɬiyéʔ

Observations:

• The verb usually has a high note on the last syllable. The only exception is the 3rd sg. mask. present tense of part of the verbs (including dóoɬ ).
• The difference between the tense stems is relatively small and only affects the 3rd sg. mask. as well as the plural endings of the 2nd and 3rd person. Only together with the selectors is the tense clearly recognizable.
• If you consider the first three forms as root forms (here: dóoɬ , dóɬ , dooɬ ), you can usually derive all other forms from them: The 3rd sg. fem. is always = 2. sg .; the 1st pl., 2nd pl. and 3rd pl. each consist of the 1st sg., 2nd sg. and 3rd sg. mask. plus an additional ending.

The impersonal form is combined with the verb of the 3rd sg. mask. connected: ta dooɬ "one digs".

Root forms of some verbs

The following table shows the stem forms of some representative verbs:

	1. sg.	2. so.	3rd sg. masked present tense
"dig"	dóoɬ	dóɬ	dooɬ
"bring"	húuw	húb	huuw
"eat"	ʕáay	ʕág	ʕaay
"to open"	gwéer	gwéed	gweer
"to have"	kóom	kóon	kón
"ask"	firíim	firíin	firín
"drink"	wáh	wát	wah
"say"	káh	kát	káhi
"go"	káw	kéer	káy
"see"	ár	áan	ar

Observations:

• The 3rd sg. mask. present tense is in comparison with the 1st sg. either low-pitched (so mostly) or extended by -i ("say", "go").
• As related Cushitic languages ​​show, the 2nd sg. originally an ending -t (still visible with "drink", "say", and with a weakening -t > -r with "go"). This led to a consonant cluster that today has occasionally left its mark in a hardening of the final sound (e.g. w > b for "bring") and / or in a shortening of the stem vowel in front of the original cluster.

Question and negation

In the question, the verb takes on a form extended by -a or -i , and the tone is replaced by a question intonation (rising-falling on the penultimate syllable). In the negation, a further element -ká is added to this expanded form , which draws the high tone of the verb. Examples:

affirmative	question	negation
a dóoɬ "I dig"	a dôoɬa "am I digging?"	a dooɬaaká "I don't dig"
a dóɬ "you dig"	a dôɬa "are you digging?"	a doɬká "you don't dig"
i dooɬ "he digs"	i dôoɬi "is he digging?"	i dooɬiiká "he does not dig"
aa dóoɬ "he dug"	aa dôoɬi "did he dig?"	aa dooɬiiká "he did not dig"
a firíin "you ask"	a firîinda "do you ask?"	a firiindaaká "you don't ask"
i firín "he asks"	i fîrna "does he ask?"	i firnaká "he doesn't ask"

As related languages ​​(Burunge) show, the -a / -i extension was originally part of the normal verbal form, but in Iraqw it has been dropped in statements.

imperative

Sentences in the imperative are the only sentences in Iraqw that are without a selector:

• dóoɬ "dig!"

The imperative forms a special negation consisting of a preceding negation ma and a verb form on -aar :

• ma dooɬaar "don't dig!"

The negation ma could be viewed as a selector. An object pronoun merges with ma in a similar way as it does with other selectors:

• mu dooɬaar "don't dig it!" (* ma + u> mu)

On the other hand, no object pronoun can precede the positive imperative; rather, there are special object suffixes that are appended to the imperative. This peculiarity can also be found in other languages ​​(e.g. French) and is explained by the desire that the imperative should be the first element in the sentence:

• dooɬeek "dig it!" ( -eek = "it")

syntax

Verbal sentence

The verb is usually at the end of a sentence. The minimal sentence consists of a selector and a verb (in this order):

a tɬ'awáan Selektor
-1Pl go away-1Pl
"we're going away"

In the case of a personal subject, an independent pronoun is often added:

atén a tɬ'awáan
we selector-1Pl go away-1Pl
"we go away"

an á imború káw
I selector-
I go to Mbulu "I go to Mbulu (city)"

If the subject is a noun, the sequence subject - selector - verb is:

looʔaa i tɬ'éer
sun (fem) Selektor-3Sg goes-auf-3.sg.fem
"the sun goes up"

A pronominal object merges with the selector. Compare:

i tɬ'eeħ
selector-he does
"he does ..."

ga tɬ'eeħ
selector-he-it does
"he does it"

A pronominal object can also be expressed in the form of an independent pronoun:

kú tu gaas
you selector-man-you kill
"they will kill you"

There are two ways to construct a nominal object. Either the object stands between the selector and the verb. The selector then only contains a subject reference, and the object has the status constructus:

inós i kasíir huurín
he selector-he potatoes-Stat.constr. cooks
"he cooks potatoes"

Or the object is in front of the selector. It then appears in the basic form, and the selector must contain an object pronoun:

inós kasíis ga huurín
he potatoes selector-he-she cooks
"he cooks potatoes" (literally: "he, the potatoes, he cooks them").

There are subtle functional differences between the two constructions that require further research. If both a subject and an object precede the selector, their order is not strictly determined.

The position of adverbials is fairly free: before the selector, between selector and verb, or after the verb.

Adverbial clitics

There are four adverbial clitics in Iraqw:

• i : dative / direction ("for", "to")
• wa : place / origin ("in", "from", "from")
• (a) r : Comitive / Instrumental ("with")
• (a) s : causal ("because of")

The associated noun takes the form of an object, i.e. is in the status constructus or is an object pronoun inherent in the selector. The adverbial clitics are usually placed directly between this object / object pronoun and the verb, so it is not entirely clear whether they are more like suffixes on the object or prefixes on the verb (further research is needed here).

gu xwayts'ir ar taaħ
selector-he-him Stock-Stat.constr. with hits
"he hits him with the stick"

ir tɬ'awáan Selektor
-we-they
go with "we go with them"

Non-verbal sentence

The predicate can consist of an adverbial. Even then there is a selector, but no "being verb" (unless you want to understand the selector as such):

inós i bará qaymoo
he selector-he inside-of field
"he is in the field"

In the noun predicate, the normal selector is not used but an unchangeable a (in the subordinate clause ta ):

iraqw a dooɬitee
Iraqw - farmers
"the Iraqw are farmers"

In the case of an adjectival predicate, there are other forms instead of the selector, namely ku (mask.) / Ka (fem.) / Ki (plur.). Formally, these are reminiscent of selectors with object pronouns.

naʕiʔi ki ququmad
children - small
"the children are small"

ka ħooʔ
- good
"it's good"

Relative clause

The construction of the relative clauses is quite complex and is shown here only very briefly. The relative clause follows the reference noun that must be in the status constructus. If the reference noun is the subject of the relative clause, then in the sense of a relative clause there is usually a verbal form without personal inflection, which can be understood as a "participle":

hée dóoɬ
Human Stat.constr. digging
"a person who digs" = "someone who digs"

If the reference noun is not the subject of the relative clause, there is a real relative clause with a subordinate clause selector, whereby the verb appears in a slightly different form (e.g. with the loss of the high pitch):

tɬ'oomár ti ts'aʕamaan
Berg-Stat.constr. Selector we-climb
"the mountain we climb"

ti is a fusion of the selector ta (subordinate clause + "we") and the directional adverbial clitic i .

Iraqw uses relative clauses very often in cleft constructions, for example in questions:

láa gár ta ʕayaan a milá
today Ding-Stat.constr. Selector subordinate clause-we eat is what
"The thing we eat today is what?" = "What do we eat today?"

vocabulary

Some elements from the basic vocabulary:

eye	ila
three	tám
one	wák
eat	ʕáay
woman	ʕameeni
five	kooʔán
give	haníis
go	káw
big	ur
Well	ħooʔ
hand	dawa
Listen	axáas
man	gitɬ'a
mouth	afa
Surname	uma
say	óoʔ
see	ár
four	ts'iyáħ
water	maʔay
knowledge	xuuʔ
two	ts'ár

literature

• Mous, Marten 1993: A grammar of Iraqw, Hamburg
• Mous, Marten & Qorro, Martha & Kießling, Roland 2002: Iraqw-English dictionary with an English and a thesaurus index, Hamburg

Remarks

1. ↑ A German loan word from the colonial era.
2. ↑ The high note of the pronoun án "ich" is shifted to the following selector. The direction of the verb "to go" is expressed by a direct object. Therefore Imború stands as a status constructus of Imboru.
3. ↑ This is often necessary in order to achieve uniqueness of the pronoun.
4. ↑ hée is status constructus from hee "human", mask.