| Iraqw | |
|---|---|
| Kángw Iraqw | |
| Native to | Tanzania |
| Region | Manyara Region Arusha Region |
| Ethnicity | Iraqw |
Native speakers | 600,000 (2009)[1] |
| Latin | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | irk |
| Glottolog | iraq1241 |
Iraqw (/ɪˈrɑːkuː/[2]) is a Cushitic language spoken in Tanzania in the Arusha and Manyara Regions. It is expanding in numbers as the Iraqw people absorb neighbouring ethnic groups. The language has many Datooga loanwords, especially in poetic language. The Gorowa language, to the south, shares numerous similarities and is sometimes considered a dialect.
Phonology
Vowels
Whiteley (1958) lists the following vowel phonemes for Iraqw. All of the vowels except /ə/ occur in both short and long versions:
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i iː | u uː | |
| Mid | e eː | o oː | |
| Open | a aː |
/o/ can be heard as [ə] within the environment of pharyngeal consonants.
Consonants
Whiteley (1958) and Mous (1993) list the following consonants:
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal / Palato- alveolar |
Velar/Uvular | Pharyngeal | Glottal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Central | Lateral | Plain | Labialized | ||||||
| Nasal | m | n | (ɲ ⟨ny⟩) | ŋ ⟨ng⟩ | ŋʷ | ||||
| Plosive/ Affricate |
Voiceless | p | t | (tʃ ⟨ch⟩) | k | kʷ | |||
| Voiced | b | d | (dʒ ⟨j⟩) | ɡ | ɡʷ | ||||
| Laryngealized | tsʼ | tɬʼ ⟨tl⟩ | qʼ ~ qχʼ | qʷʼ ~ qχʷʼ | ʔ ⟨'⟩ | ||||
| Fricative | Voiceless | f | s | ɬ ⟨sl⟩ | (ʃ ⟨sh⟩) | x | xʷ | ħ ⟨hh⟩ | h |
| Voiced | ʕ ⟨/⟩ | ||||||||
| Trill | r | ||||||||
| Approximant | l | j ⟨y⟩ | w | ||||||
In the popular orthography for Iraqw used in Lutheran and Catholic materials as well as in collections of traditional Iraqw stories[3] and academic literature (e.g. Nordbustad 1988,[4] Mous 1993 [5]), the majority of the orthography follows the Swahili orthography with the addition of x and q. Other additions to the orthography are the sound ɬ is spelled ⟨sl⟩, the tɬʼ is spelled ⟨tl⟩, the ħ is spelled ⟨hh⟩, and ʕ is spelled ⟨/⟩ (Mous 1993:16). Consonants /ɲ, tʃ, dʒ, ʃ/ mainly occur from loanwords of Swahili and Datooga (Mous 1993:19).
Morphology
Noun morphology
Gender
Nouns in Iraqw have three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter. The gender of a noun can be deduced from the type of agreement that it triggers on other elements in the sentence, but the agreement system is unusual, and obeys the following principle (Mous 1993:41):
- Masculine nouns require the masculine form of the verb
- Feminine nouns require the feminine form of the verb
- Neuter nouns require the plural form of the verb
The masculine, feminine, and plural forms of the verb are identified by the form the verb takes when the subject is pronoun which is a.) a third person masculine singular ('he'), b.) a third person feminine singular ('she'), or c.) a third person plural ('they').
| Masculine verb forms | |
|---|---|
Daaqay boys(MASC) i S.3 giilín fight:3.SG.M 'The boys are fighting' |
i S.3 giilín fight:3.SG.M 'He is fighting' |
| Feminine verb forms | |
|---|---|
Hhayse tails(FEM) i S.3 harweeriiríin make:circles:3.SG.F 'The tails are making circles' |
i S.3 harweeriiríin make:circles:3.SG.F 'She is making circles' |
| Neuter verb forms | |
|---|---|
Hhayso tail(NEUT) i S.3 harweeriiríná' make:circles:3.SG.PL 'The tail is making circles' |
i S.3 harweeriiríná' make:circles:3.SG.PL 'They are making circles' |
There are several unusual things that are worth noting. One is that 'tail' is neuter in the singular and feminine in the plural; despite this, the plural verb form is used for 'tail', since it is neuter, and neuters use the plural verb form. This is why "plural" is often used as a label for this gender; plural gender is common in a number of Cushitic languages. Another is that the verbs do not agree with their subjects in number, so the masculine plural daaqay 'boys' takes the masculine form of the verb, not the plural form of the verb.
Number
Nouns typically have separate singular and plural forms, but there are many distinct plural suffixes. Mous (1993:44) reports that there are fourteen different plural suffixes. The lexical entry for a noun must specify the particular plural suffix it takes.
The gender of a plural noun is usually different from the gender of the corresponding singular. Compare the following singular and plural nouns, with their genders:
| singular | singular gender | plural | plural gender | meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| awu | m | awe | f | bull |
| bila' | m | bil'aawe | f | cliff |
| nyaqot | m | nyaqootma' | f | colobus monkey |
| hhampa | m | hhampeeri | n | wing |
| tlanka | f | tlankadu | n | bridge |
| lama | f | lameemo | n | lie |
| slanú | m | slaneemo | n | python |
| xweera | n | xweer(a)du | n | night |
While it is not possible to predict the gender of a noun or which plural suffix it will take, the form of the plural suffix determines the gender of the plural noun. So, for example, all plural nouns with the /-eemo/ suffix are neuter (Mous 1993:58).
Construct case suffixes and gender linkers
The gender of a noun is important for predicting the construct case suffix and the gender linker that it will use. When a noun is directly followed by
- an adjective
- a possessive noun phrase
- a numeral
- a relative clause
- a verb
then a construct case suffix must appear after the noun. The construct case marker is /-ú/ or /-kú/ for masculine nouns; /-Hr/ or /-tá/ for feminine nouns; and /-á/ for neuter nouns (Mous 1993:95-96):
hhar-tá
stick-construct:FEM
baabú-'ee'
father-1SG.POSS
'the stick of my father'
waahlá-r
python-construct:FEM
ur
big
'big python'
an-á
1SG-S:1/2
hiim-ú
rope-construct:MASC
urúux
pull:1SG
'I pull the rope'
The gender linkers are similar to the construct cases suffixes, but appear between the noun and other suffixes (such as the demonstrative, indefinite, and possessive suffixes). The following example shows masculine, feminine, and neuter nouns before the 'their' possessive suffix and the demonstrative -qá' 'that (far, but visible)' (Mous 1993:90-92)
| masculine | feminine | neuter |
|---|---|---|
| gura' 'stomach' | hasam 'dilemma' | hhafeeto 'mats' |
guru-'ín stomach:M-3PL.POSS 'their stomach' |
hasam-ar-'ín dilemma-F-3PL.POSS 'their dilemma' |
hhafeeto-'ín mats:N-3PL.POSS |
guru-qá' stomach:M-that 'that stomach' |
hasam-ar-qá' dilemma-F-that 'that dilemma' |
hhafeeto-qá' mats:N-that 'those mats' |
Adverbial case clitics
Iraqw has four adverbial case clitics: the directive, the ablative, the instrumental and the reason case clitics. Adverbial case clitics occur in the position immediately before the verb and are cliticised to the preceding noun with the gender linker, or they might occur in a position after the verb, in which case they are obligatorily followed by a resumptive pronoun alé.
| Cases | Clitic | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Directive | i | tlakway-í sack-DEM1 dahas-eek put-IMP.SG.O bará in:CON hhar-ti stick-F1:DIR alé RESPRO 'Put this sack on a stick.'[5] Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help); |
| Ablative | wa | naxés well ba’ari bees ni-na PL-PST bará in:CON sla/a-tá-wa bush-F1-ABL ti’it appear:3SG.F ‘Then bees appeared from the bush.’[6] Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help); |
| Instrumental | ar | aná 1.SG-S.1/2 dab-ar hands-INSTR fool-íit dig-MIDDLE:1.SG 'I dig with my hands.' [5] Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help); |
| Reason | sa | a S.1/2 ki/ima-wók-sa return-2.SG.POSS-REAS gurhamut-a? regret:2.SG:INT-INF 'Do you regret your return?' [5] Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help); |
Syntax
Noun phrases
The noun comes first in the noun phrase, and precedes possessors, adjectives, numerals, and relative clauses. An element called the construct case suffix appears between the noun and these modifiers, as discussed in the Morphology section above:
hhar-tá
stick-construct:FEM
baabú-'ee'
father-1SG.POSS
'the stick of my father'
waahlá-r
python-construct:FEM
ur
big
'big python'
Sentences
An Iraqw sentence contains a verb in final position, and an auxiliary-like element called the 'selector'. Either the subject or the object of the sentence may precede the selector (Mous 2004:110), and the selector agrees with the preceding noun. So in the first example below, iri shows agreement with /ameenirdá' 'that woman', and in the second example, uná shows agreement with gitladá' :
/ameeni-r-dá'
woman-fem-that
i-ri
S.3-narrative:past
tsuwa
for.sure
fa/á-r
food-construct:fem
/agagiin.
eat:impf:3s
'And that woman was surely eating.'
('aníng)
I
gitla-dá'
man-that
'u-na
obj:masc-past
aahhiit
hate:1sg
'I hate that man.'
References
- ↑ Iraqw at Ethnologue (21st ed., 2018)
- ↑ Tucker, A. N.; Bryan, M. A. (September 22, 2017). The Non-Bantu Languages of North-Eastern Africa: Handbook of African Languages Part 3. Routledge. ISBN 9781351600385 – via Google Books.
- ↑ Berger, Paul Hrsg. (1998). Iraqw texts. Köppe. ISBN 3-927620-34-3. OCLC 722327455.
- ↑ Gilligan, Gary; Nordbustad, Fro̵dis; Nordbustad, Frodis (June 1990). "Iraqw Grammar: An Analytical Study of the Iraqw Language". Language. 66 (2): 422. doi:10.2307/414919. ISSN 0097-8507. JSTOR 414919.
- 1 2 3 4 Mous, Maarten. (1993). A grammar of Iraqw. Buske. ISBN 3-87548-057-0. OCLC 243743981.
- ↑ Kruijt, Anne (2018-11-06). "The use of the ablative clitic in locative phrases in Iraqw, a Cushitic language of Tanzania". Journal of African Languages and Linguistics. 39 (2): 241–265. doi:10.1515/jall-2018-0009. ISSN 0167-6164. S2CID 149938579.
Further reading
- Bayo, Phaustini. 2023. “A Sociopragmatic Analysis of Address Terms in Iraqw.” Arusha Working Papers in African Linguistics, 5(1): 31-50.
- Mous, Maarten. 1993. A Grammar of Iraqw. Hamburg: Buske.
- Mous, Maarten. 2023. “The Emergence of Lexical Applicatives in Iraqw.” Arusha Working Papers in African Linguistics, 5(1): 3-30.
- Mous, Maarten, Martha Qorro, Roland Kießling. 2002. Iraqw-English Dictionary. With an English and a Thesaurus Index. Cushitic Language Studies Volume 18.
- Whiteley, W.H. 1958. A Short Description of Item Categories in Iraqw. Kampala:East African Institute of Social Research.