Contents

Chara language

Chara (alternatively CiaraorC’ara) is an Afro-Asiatic language of the North Omotic variety spoken in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's RegionofEthiopia by 13,000 people.

Status[edit]

Chara is geographically situated to the southeast of Nayi, west of Kullo, northeast of Mesketo, and northwest of Gofa.^[3] Chara speakers live in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region, in the Debub Omo Zone, on both sides of the Omo river.^[4] Chara speakers are scattered in three villages in Ethiopia: Geba a meša, Buna Anta, and Kumba.^[1] Native speakers may also speak Melo, Wolaytta (54% lexical similarity with Chara) to the east, and Kafa to the west.^[4]

Phonology[edit]

Consonants[edit]

[p] and [f] are in free variation.^[6] /ɗ/ only occurs in the word /jalɗa~jaltʼa/ 'crooked'.^[5] Yilma (2002) found /ɓ/ to occur five times in around 550 lexical items.^[6] He also found /ʑ/ occurring in two, both in the sequence /iʑa/.^[6] Occurrence of /ɗ/ and /pʼ/ may be governed by dialectal variation.^[6]

Vowels[edit]

/a/ is realized as [ə] in unstressed word-medial syllables.^[7]

Length is minimally contrastive.^[6] Minimal pairs include /mola/ 'fish', /moːla/ 'egg'; /masa/ 'to wash', /maːsa/ 'leopard'; /buna/ 'flower', /buːna/ 'coffee'.^[6]

Suprasegmentals[edit]

Chara has phonemic stress.^[7] Examples: /ˈbakʼa/ 'to slap', /baˈkʼa/ 'empty'; /ˈwoja/ 'to come', /woˈja/ 'wolf'.^[7]

Morphophonemics[edit]

Morpheme-initial nasals assimilate point of articulation to that of the preceding consonant, usually found when verbs are suffixed with the singular imperative morpheme /-na/, e.g. /dub-na/ "to hit.imp" → [dubma] 'hit!'.^[8]

Grammar[edit]

Morphology[edit]

Chara generally uses noun case suffixes and postpositions.^[4]

Nouns are inflected for gender, number, definiteness, case, and possession.^[9] These are all suffixes, except for the possessive.^[9]

Gender pairs are usually lexical, except for a few with /-i/ in the masculine and /-a/ in the feminine.^[9] Examples:^[9]

/mansa/ 'ox', /mija/ 'cow'

/izi/ 'he', /iza/ 'she'

Nouns and adjectives inflect for plural with the suffix /-eːndi/.^[9] Examples:^[10]

/ina/ 'mother', /ineːndi/ 'mothers'

/dala/ 'while (sg.)', /daleːndi/ 'white (pl.)'

Definiteness in nouns is marked with the suffix /-naːzi/ (as an independent word meaning 'the male/man') for masculines and /-ena/ for feminines.^[11] Adjectives take /-bi/ in the masculine and /-ena/ in the feminine.^[11] Examples:^[11]

/mansa/ 'ox', /mansanaːzi/ 'the ox'

/mija/ 'cow', /mijena/ 'the cow/

/karta/ 'black', /kartabi/ 'the black (m.)', /kartena/ 'the black (f.)'

Nouns and adjectives may be marked for nominative, accusative, dative, genitive, ablative, instrumental, or vocative case.^[12] The nominative suffix is /-i/, accusative /-(i)s/, dative /-(i)ri/, genitive /-e/, ablative /-kaj/, instrumental /-ne/, and vocative /-o/.^[12]

Bound possessive pronouns: /ta-mija/ 'my cow', /ne-mija/ 'your cow', /iza-mija/ 'his cow'.^[14]

Syntax[edit]

Chara is a subject–object–verb language.^[4]

Adjectives end in /-a/ like nouns, and inflect for number, definiteness, plurality, and case.^[15] In noun phrases adjectives precede their nouns, and are not inflected.^[15]

Examples[edit]

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

• Yilma, Aklilu (1995), "Some notes on the Chara language: Sound system and noun morphology", S.L.L.E. linguistic reports 32: 2-12
• Survey of Chara, Dime, Melo and Nayi, part 1. Yilma, Aklilu; Siebert, Ralph. 1995. S.L.L.E. linguistic reports 25: 2-8. oai:sil.org:36294
• Yilma, Aklilu; Siebert, Ralph (2002). "Sociolinguistic survey report of the Chara, Dime, Melo and Nayi languages of Ethiopia part 1" (PDF). SIL Electronic Survey Reports 2002-029. Retrieved 2009-08-12.
• Yilma, Aklilu (2002). "Sociolinguistic Survey Report on the Chara Language of Ethiopia" (PDF). SIL Electronic Survey Reports 2002-032. Retrieved 2009-08-12.

External links[edit]

• Resources in and about the Chara language
• Chara basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database