Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Korandje language
Korandje is by far the most northerly of the Songhay languages. It is spoken around the oasis of Tabelbala by no more than a few thousand people; its name, Kora-n-dje, means "village's language". While retaining a basically Songhay structure, it is extremely heavily influenced by Berber and Arabic; Lacroix estimates that only 40% of its vocabulary is Songhay, with another 30% each from Arabic and Berber.
| Korandje | |
|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Algeria |
| Region: | Tabelbala, wilaya of Bechar |
| Total speakers: | A few thousand |
| Ranking: | Not in top 100 |
| Genetic classification: | Nilo-Saharan Songhay |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | ssa |
| SIL | KCY |
| Linguasphere | 01-AAA-ba |
| Contents |
Sounds
Little study of Korandje has been done, so the phonology of the language is necessarily somewhat tentative. According to Robert Nicolai, it has the following consonants (those in brackets are found mainly in borrowings):
| Plosives | b | t d | k g | kw gw | (q) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Affricates | ts dz | ||||||||
| Pharyngealized plosives | (ṭ ḍ) | ||||||||
| Semivowels | w | l | y | ||||||
| Fricatives | f | s z | š ž | k | (x) γ | (ḥ `) | h | ||
| Pharyngealized fricatives | (ṣ ẓ) | ||||||||
| Nasals | m | n | |||||||
| Pharyngealized nasals | (ṇ?) | ||||||||
| Trills | r |
Tilmatine also reports a pharyngealized r and affricate dž.
Korandje appears to have a six-vowel system: a, i, u, e, o, and ə (schwa). It is unclear whether vowel length is phonemic or not.
Grammar
Pronouns
The pronouns are: aγi, I; ni, you; ana, he/she/it; yayu, we; n'd'yu, y'all; ini, they. Possessive pronouns are an, my; nen, your; an, his/her/its; yan, our; n'd'en, your (pl.); in, their.
Verbs
The infinitive and singular imperative are both the stem (eg xani "sleep"); the plural imperative takes a prefix u- (uxani "sleep! (pl.)). Cancel describes the conjugations as follows (also for xani):
| English | Preterite | English | Aorist |
|---|---|---|---|
| I slept | a xani | I sleep | a (ba) am xani |
| you slept | n(e) xani | you sleep | n ba am xani |
| he/she/it slept | a xani | he/she/it sleeps | a âm xani |
| we slept | ia xani | we sleep | ia âm xani |
| you (pl.) slept | nd'(a) xani | you (pl.) sleep | nd'ba âm xani |
| they slept | ia xan | they sleep | iba am xani |
Verbs are negated by surrounding them with `as ... hé/hi, eg ni `as ba enγa hé > n`esbanγa hé "do not eat!". "No" is hoho or ho: n'd'xani bînu, willa ho? "did you sleep yesterday, or not?".
Nouns
The plural is formed by adding -yu, eg bîri "horse" > bîriyu "horses". Some Berber loans take their original plurals in i-...-en, eg thaserdent "mule" > thiserdanen "mule"; this type is even extended to Arabic loanwords, eg dra` "arm" > dra`n "arms". Some take both plurals: adra "mountain" > adrayu or idranen "mountains".
The possessive is expressed by the particle n, with the possessor preceding the possessed: wi n âtaffa "woman 's knife".
Numbers
The numbers include fu "one", inka "two".
External links
- See Information on Korandje. (in PDF format; go to p. 163)
Bibliography
- Cancel, «Etude sur le dialecte de Tabelbala », in Revue Africaine, 1908, Nº 270-271, 302-347.
- Dominique Champault. Une oasis du Sahara nord-occidental, Tabelbala, Paris:CNRS 1969.
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