Xamtanga language

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Xamtanga ˈχamtaŋa
Spoken in:	Ethiopia
Region:	North Amhara Region
Total speakers:	143,369
Language family:	Afro-Asiatic Cushitic Central Xamtanga
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	`cus`
ISO 639-3:	`xan`
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Xamtanga or Khamtanga is a Central Cushitic language spoken in Ethiopia by the Xamir people.

1 Sound system
2 Bibliography
3 External links

[edit] Sound system

[edit] Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i	ɨ	u
Mid vowel	ə
Low vowel	a

The central vowels /ɨ ə a/ have fronted and backed allophones, depending on the adjacent consonant(s).

[edit] Consonants

		Labial	Coronal	Postalveolar or palatal	Velar		Uvular		Glottal
		Labial	Coronal	Postalveolar or palatal	Plain	Labialized	Plain	Labialized	Glottal
Plosives and affricates	Voiceless		t	ʧ	k	kʷ	q	qʷ
	Voiced	b	d	ʤ	g	gʷ
	Ejective		tʼ	ʧʼ	kʼ	kʷʼ
Fricatives	Voiceless	f	s	ʃ			χ	χʷ	h*
	Voiced		z
	Ejective		sʼ
Nasals		m	n		ŋ	ŋʷ
Lateral			l
Tap			ɾ
Semivowels				j		w

/h/ is found only word-initial in loanwords, and may be glottal [h] or pharyngeal [ħ].
/t/ is alveolar before the vowel /i/, dental otherwise.
/q/ can be ejective [qʼ], and in some cases the ejectives appear to be in free variation with the voiceless plosives.

[edit] Phonological processes

[edit] Gemination

In positions other than word-initial, Xamtanga contrasts geminate and non-geminate consonants. With most consonants, the difference between a geminate and a non-geminate is simply one of length, but the cases of /b t q/ are more complex. When not word-initial, non-geminate /b/ is realized as a bilabial [β] or labiodental fricative [v], and /t/ and /q/ are realized as affricates: [tθ qχ]. Their geminate equivalents may be realized as prolonged [bː tː qː], or can simply be short [b t q].

In word-initial position, geminate consonants do not occur, and /b t q/ are realized as plosives.

[edit] Bibliography

D.L. Appleyard (1987). "A Grammatical Sketch of Khamtanga—I". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London Vol. 50 (2): 241–266.
D.L. Appleyard (1987). "A Grammatical Sketch of Khamtanga—II". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London Vol. 50 (3): 470–507.
Appleyard, David L. (1988) "A Definite Article in Xamtanga", African Languages and Cultures 1/1, pp. 15-24.
Appleyard, David L. (2006) A Comparative Dictionary of the Agaw Languages (Kuschitische Sprachstudien — Cushitic Language Studies Band 24). Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.