Taita language
| Taita | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Kenya |
| Ethnicity | Taita |
Native speakers | (370,000 cited 1992 – 2009 census)[1] |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | dav |
| Glottolog | tait1249 |
E.74,741[2] | |
Taita is a Bantu language spoken in the Taita Hills of Kenya. It is closely related to the Chaga languages of Kenya and Tanzania. The Saghala (Sagala, Sagalla) variety is distinct enough to be considered a language separate from the Dawʼida and Kasigau dialects.[2]
Dawʼida and Saghala contain loanwords from two different South Cushitic languages, called Taita Cushitic, which are now extinct.[3] It is likely that the Cushitic speakers were assimilated fairly recently, since lateral obstruents in the loanwords were still pronounced as such within living memory. However, those consonants have now been replaced by Bantu sounds.[4]
The Taveta language was mistaken for Dawʼida by Jouni Maho in his (2009) classification of Bantu languages. However, it is a distinct language, lexically and grammatically closest to Chasu (Pare).
Phonology
[edit]| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | Voiceless | p | t | tʃ | k | |
| Voiced | b | d | dʒ | g | ||
| Implosive | ɓ | ɗ | ||||
| Fricative | Voiceless | f | s | ʃ | h | |
| Voiced | v | z | ɣ | |||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||
| Approximant | β | l | j | w | ||
| Trill | r | |||||
Taita allows a syllabic /m̩/ to occur before any other consonant. Otherwise, the only consonant clusters involve any consonant followed by /w/; and a voiced stop preceded by a homorganic nasal.[6]
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i | u | |
| Mid | e | o | |
| Low | a |
There is no phonemic vowel length. However, all possible sequences of two vowels occur across two syllables except for /iu/, /uu/, and /ou/.[6]
Tone
[edit]Taita has two tones: high (H) and low (L).[6] An underlying word-final high tone is realized as a low tone unless the previous syllable is also high.[7]
References
[edit]- ↑ Taita at Ethnologue (21st ed., 2018)
- 1 2 Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
- ↑ Sommer, Gabriele (1992). "A survey of language death in Africa". In Brenzinger, Matthias (ed.). Language Death: Factual and Theoretical Explorations with Special Reference. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 392–394. ISBN 3110870606.
- ↑ Nurse, Derek (1988). "Extinct Southern Cushitic Communities in East Africa". In Bechhaus-Gerst, Marianne; Serzisko, Fritz (eds.). Cushitic-Omotic: Papers from the International Symposium on Cushitic and Omotic Languages, Cologne, January 6-9, 1986. Buske Verlag. p. 99. ISBN 3871188905.
- ↑ Kioko, Angelina; et al. (2012). "A Unified Orthography for Bantu Languages of Kenya". Centre for Advanced Studies of African Society Monographs (249).
- 1 2 3 4 5 Makeeva, Nadezhda; Ryabova, Irina (2020-06-30). "Assimilation in Dabida" (PDF). Language in Africa. 1 (2): 4–29. doi:10.37892/2686-8946-2020-1-2-4-29.
- ↑ Odden, David (2001-06-01). "Tone shift and spread in Taita I". Studies in African Linguistics. 30 (1): 76–99. doi:10.32473/sal.v30i1.107363. ISSN 2154-428X.
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