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Awngi language

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Awngi
አውጚ (Awŋi)
Pronunciation[ˈawŋi]
Native toEthiopia
RegionAgew Awi Zone,Amhara Region
EthnicityAwi
Native speakers
490,000 (2007 census)[1]
Dialects
  • Dega
  • Kwolla
  • Northern Awngi
Geʽez script
Language codes
ISO 639-3awn
Glottologawng1244
ELPAwngi
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TheAwngilanguage, in older publications also calledAwiya(an inappropriate ethnonym),[2]is aCentral Cushiticlanguage spoken by theAwi people,living in CentralGojjamin northwesternEthiopia.

Most speakers of the language live in theAgew Awi Zoneof theAmhara Region,but there are also communities speaking the language in various areas ofMetekel Zoneof theBenishangul-Gumuz Region.Until recently, Kunfäl, another Southern Agaw language spoken in the area west ofLake Tana,has been suspected to be a separate language. It has now been shown to be linguistically close to Awngi, and it should be classified as a dialect of that language.[3]

Phonology[edit]

Vowels[edit]

Vowels[4]
Front Central Back
Close i ɨ u
Open e a o

The central vowel/ɨ/is the defaultepentheticvowel of the language and almost totally predictable in its occurrence.[5]Likewise,/æ/,normally an allophone of/a/,is fossilized in some words and might be justified as a separate phoneme.[6]

Consonants[edit]

Consonants[7]
Labial Alveolar Palato-velar Uvular
plain labialized plain labzd
Plosive voiceless p t k kʷ q qʷ
voiced b d ɡ ɡʷ ɢ ɢʷ
Affricate voiceless t͡s t͡ʃ
voiced d͡z d͡ʒ
Fricative plain f s ʃ
post-stopped s͡t ʃ͡t
Nasal m n ŋ ŋʷ
Flap r
Approximant w l j
  • Palatal and velar together in Awngi form only one place of articulation, which is called palato-velar.[8]
  • Post-stopped fricatives are assumed to be single segments in Awngi for phonotactic reasons.[9]
  • /h/is found word-initially inloanwords,but it can also be left out.
  • /r/does not occur word-initially. It is pronounced as aflap[ɾ]when not geminate.[10]
  • Between vowels,/b/is pronounced as avoiced bilabial fricative[β].[10]
  • /d/is pronounced retracted, with slightretroflexion.[10]
  • /ɢ/and/ɢʷ/are usually pronounced asvoiced uvular fricatives[ʁ]and[ʁʷ].
  • Although/d͡z/and/d͡ʒ/are phonetically realized as fricatives[z]and[ʒ]in many environments, they are very much the voiced counterparts of the voiceless affricates with respect to phonological rules.[11]
  • The labialization contrast in the palato-velar and uvular consonants is found only before the vowels/i,e,a/and word-finally.[10]

Tones[edit]

Palmer[12]andHetzron[13]both identified three distinctive tone levels in Awngi: high, mid and low. The low tone, however, only appears in word-final position on the vowela.A falling tone (high-mid) appears on word-final syllables only. Joswig[14]reanalyzes the system as having only two distinctive tone levels, with the low tone being a phonetic variant of the mid tone.

Syllable structure[edit]

The Awngi syllable in most cases fits the maximum syllable template CVC (C standing for a consonant, V for a vowel). This means there is only one (if any) consonant each in thesyllable onsetand therhyme.Exceptions to this happen at word boundaries, whereextrametricalconsonants may appear.

Phonological processes[edit]

Gemination[edit]

In positions other than word-initial, Awngi contrastsgeminateand non-geminate consonants. The consonants/ɢ,ɢʷ,t͡s,t͡ʃ,j,w,ʒ/,however, have no contrast in gemination.

Vowel harmony[edit]

Whenever a suffix containing the [+high] voweliis added to a stem, a productive vowel harmony process is triggered.Hetzroncalls this process regressive vowel heightassimilation.The vowel harmony only takes place if the underlying vowel of the last stem syllable ise.This vowel and all preceding instances ofeandowill take over thefeature[+high], until a different vowel is encountered. Then the vowel harmony is blocked. Hetzron[15]provides the following example:/moleqés-á/‘nun’ vs./muliqís-í/‘monk’.

Orthography[edit]

Awngi is used as Medium of Instruction from Grade 1 to 6 in primary schools ofAwi Zone.It is written with an orthography based on the Ethiopian Script. Extrafidelsused for Awngi areጝfor the sound/ŋ/andቕfor the sound/q/.The fidelፅis used for/ts/,the fidelኽfor the sound/ɢ/.Various aspects of the Awngi orthography are yet to be finally decided.[when?][by whom?]

Morphology[edit]

The Noun[edit]

The noun is marked fornumberandgender(masculine,feminineorplural) as well ascase.The nominative is unmarked for one class of nouns, or marked by-ifor masculine nouns and-afor feminine nouns. Other cases areaccusative,dative,genitive,locative,directional,ablative,comitative,comparative,invocative andtranslative.Hetzron[16]also mentions adverbial as a case of Awngi, but an interpretation as aderivationalmarker seems to be more appropriate. Number, gender, and case are marked throughsuffixesto the noun stems.[17]

The Verb[edit]

The Awngi verbal morphology has a wealth ofinflectionalforms. The four maintensesareimperfectivepast, imperfective non-past,perfectivepast and perfective non-past. There are various other coordinate and subordinate forms which are all marked through suffixes to the verb stems. The following distinctions are maintained for person:1sg,2sg,3masc,3fem,1pl,2pl,and3pl. Hetzron demonstrated that the Awngi verbal morphology is most economically described when it is assumed that for every verb there are four distinct stems, marked A, B, C, and D in the following table. The first stem (A) is for3masc,2pl,and3pl.The second stem (B) is for1sgonly, the third stem (C) for2sgand3fem,and the fourth stem for1plonly. These four stems need to be noted for every verb in thelexiconand serve as the basis for all other verbal morphology. The stems remain the same throughout all verbal paradigms, and it is possible to predict the surface form of eachparadigmmember with these stems and the simple tense suffixes.[6]

Stems
Person/
Gender		 Singular Plural
1 B D
2 C A
3 Masc A A
Fem C A

Syntax[edit]

The main verb of asentenceis always at the end. The basic word order is therefore SOV. Subordination and coordination is achieved exclusively through verbal affixation.

References[edit]

  1. ^AwngiatEthnologue(27th ed., 2024)Closed access icon
  2. ^Hetzron 1978,p. 121.
  3. ^Joswig & Mohammed 2011.
  4. ^Joswig 2006,p. 786.
  5. ^Joswig 2006,p. 792.
  6. ^abHetzron 1969.
  7. ^Joswig 2010,p. 2.
  8. ^Joswig 2010,p. 9.
  9. ^Joswig 2010,p. 15.
  10. ^abcdHetzron 1997,pp. 478–479.
  11. ^seeHetzron 1969,p. 7f
  12. ^Palmer 1959,p. 273.
  13. ^Hetzron 1969,p. 6.
  14. ^Joswig 2009.
  15. ^Hetzron 1997,p. 485.
  16. ^Hetzron 1978,p. 125ff.
  17. ^Hetzron 1978.

Bibliography[edit]

  • Appleyard, David L. (1996). "'Kaïliña' – A 'New' Agaw Dialect and Its Implications for Agaw Dialectology ".African Languages and Cultures. Supplement No. 3, Voice and Power: The Culture of Language in North-East Africa. Essays in Honour of B. W. Andrzejewski(3): 1–19.JSTOR586650.
  • Appleyard, David L. (2006).A Comparative Dictionary of the Agaw Languages.Kuschitische Sprachstudien. Vol. 24. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.ISBN978-3-89645-481-2.LCCN2006483079.
  • Dryer, Matthew S.;Haspelmath, Martin,eds. (2013)."Awngi language".World Atlas of Language StructuresOnline.Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
  • Hetzron, Robert(1969).The Verbal System of Southern Agaw.Berkeley: University of California Press.LCCN70014968.
  • Hetzron, Robert (1976). "The Agaw Languages".Afroasiatic Linguistics.3(3).
  • Hetzron, Robert (1978). "The Nominal System of Awngi (Southern Agaw)".Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies.41(1): 121–141.doi:10.1017/S0041977X00057815.S2CID162925064.
  • Hetzron, Robert (1995). "Genitival agreement in Awngi: Variation on an Afroasiatic theme". In Plank, F. (ed.).Double case.Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 325–335.
  • Hetzron, Robert (1997). "Awngi [Agaw] Phonology". In Kaye, Alan S. (ed.).Phonologies of Asia and Africa.Vol. 1. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns. pp. 477–491.
  • Joswig, Andreas (2006). "The Status of the High Central Vowel in Awngi". In Uhlig, Siegbert (ed.).Proceedings of the XVth International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, Hamburg July 2003.Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. pp. 786–793.
  • Joswig, Andreas (2009)."Rethinking Awngi Tone"(PDF).In Ege, Svein; Aspen, Harald; Teferra, Birhanu; Bekele, Shiferaw (eds.).Proceedings of the 16th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies.Vol. 4. Trondheim: NTNU. pp. 1417–1425.S2CID146370463.Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 2020-02-18.
  • Joswig, Andreas (2010).The Phonology of Awngi(PDF).SIL Electronic Working Papers. SIL International.
  • Joswig, Andreas; Mohammed, Hussein (2011).A Sociolinguistic Survey Report; Revisiting the Southern Agaw Language areas of Ethiopia(Report). SIL Electronic Survey Reports. Vol. 2011–047. SIL International. Archived fromthe originalon 2014-09-07.
  • Palmer, Frank R. (1959). "The Verb Classes of Agaw (Awiya)".Mitteilungen des Instituts für Orientforschung.7(2). Berlin: 270–297.
  • Tubiana, J. (1957). "Note sur la distribution géographique des dialectes agaw".Cahiers de l'Afrique et de l'Asie.5:297–306.
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