Kanuri (language)
| Kanuri | ||
|---|---|---|
|
Spoken in |
Cameroon , Nigeria , Niger and Chad | |
| speaker | over 4 million | |
| Linguistic classification |
|
|
| Official status | ||
| Official language in |
 Nigeria (regional)
|
|
| Recognized minority / regional language in |
 Niger
|
|
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639 -1 |
kr |
|
| ISO 639 -2 | ( B ) chew | ( T ) chew |
Kanuri is a regional lingua franca of the Chad Basin in Cameroon , northeastern Nigeria , eastern Niger and western Chad , beside the Luo , the largest of the Nilo-Saharan languages to their saharanischem branch it is expected. In the Borno state of Nigeria, it is used in primary school education, the mass media and parliament.
The main dialects are:
- Yerwa
- Suwurti
- Kanembu (Western Chad)
The standard language is based on the Yerwa dialect. The Kanembu dialect was previously considered an independent language.
Linguistic description
The Kanuri is a tonal language with two base tones (high / low), from which the rising, falling and middle tones are combined.
The language is distinguished in the morphology of the verb by a rich use of prefixes and suffixes that express different modes , aspects and derivations . The person is also marked on the verb, for both the subject and the object . Modes and aspects are sometimes also identified by tone patterns.
The subject morphemes are as follows:
| person | Singular | Plural | position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | -k | -ye | suffused |
| 2. | -m | -w | suffused |
| 3. | s- | sa- | prefigured |
There are basically two verb classes, one of which is characterized by the formative -n , which can be traced back to a verb for “say”.
The nouns have no gender , but have a plural , which is indicated by the suffix -wa . Various suffixes are used to mark the semantic roles in the sentence (agent, patient, dative / allative, ablative, possessor). There are also a number of word formation morphemes .
The basic word sequence in the sentence is subject-object-verb .
The few foreign words in Kanuri are mostly of Arabic origin.
key vocabulary
Some words and phrases:
Idioms
- Lalê! - "Hello!"
- Wish! - Answer to it, also "Thank you!"
- Ála kəléwa! - "Goodbye!"
- aâ - "yes"
- á'a - "no"
- mbéjí - "there is"
- bâ / báwo - "there is not"
| Word meaning | Kanuri | Word meaning | Kanuri |
|---|---|---|---|
| I | wu | big | kura |
| you | nyi | small | gana |
| he she it | shi | eat | bukin - zəwin |
| we | and I | drink | yakin - sai |
| her | nandi | sleep | lenngin - letcin |
| she ( plural ) | sandi | to die | nukin - nui |
| human | came | go | lengin - lejin |
| man | kwa, kwanga | come | is (ə) kin - ishin |
| woman | kamu | give | yikin - cin |
| head | kəla | to take | gongin - gojin |
| eye | shim | one | fal, tilo, laska |
| ear | səmo | two | indi |
| nose | kənza | three | yaskə / yakkə |
| mouth | ci | four | degə |
| tooth | timi | five | uwu |
| tongue | təlam | six | arakkə |
| heart | karəgə | seven | tulur |
| hand | musko | eight | wusku |
| foot | shi | nine | ləgar |
| water | nji | ten | mewu |
| Fire | can u | twenty | findi |
| Sun | kəngal | hundred | mea |
| moon | kəmbal | thousand | dəwu |
literature
- Johannes Lukas: A study of the Kanuri language: grammar and vocabulary . Oxford University Press, London 1937.
- Norbert Cyffer : Syntax of Kanuri: Dialect of Yerwa (Maiduguri) . Buske, Hamburg 1974.
- John P. Hutchison: A reference grammar of the Kanuri language . Madison and Boston 1981.
- Norbert Cyffer and John P. Hutchison (eds.): Dictionary of the Kanuri language . Foris, Dordrecht 1990.
- Norbert Cyffer: We learn Kanuri . Köppe, Cologne 1991.
- Norbert Cyffer: English-Kanuri dictionary . Köppe, Cologne 1994.
- Norbert Cyffer: A sketch of Kanuri . Köppe, Cologne 1998.
- Thomas Geider: Kanuri text resources and the organization of “A reference book of Kanuri oral narratives” . Reprint from: Treatises of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences . Vol. 102, 1998, pp. 341-361.
Individual evidence
- ↑ from Cyffer (1994)