Bilen language

Blin
ብሊና
Region	central Eritrea
Native speakers	70,000
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Cushitic Central Cushitic Blin
Language codes
ISO 639-2	byn
ISO 639-3	byn
ELP	Bilen

The Blin language (ብሊና, translitterated to Latin as b(ə)lina or bɨlina), Bilin or Bilen has approximately 70,000 speakers in and around the city of Keren in Eritrea. It is the only Central Cushitic language which is spoken in Eritrea.

Note: Blin is the English spelling which is preferred by native speakers, but Bilin and Bilen (ቢለን) are also commonly used. Bilin is the reference name arbitrarily used in the current initial English editions of ISO 639-3, but Blin is also listed as an equivalent name without preference. In the English list of ISO 639-2, Blin (the native spelling) is listed in first position in both English and French lists, when Bilin is just listed as an alternate name in the English list, and Bilen is the alternate name in the French list. The Ethnologue report lists Bilen as the preferred name, but also lists Bogo, Bogos, Bilayn, Bilin, Balen, Beleni, Belen, Bilein, Bileno, North Agaw as alternate names.

Phonology

Consonants

Note: /tʃ/ is found in loans and the status of /ʔ/ as a phoneme is uncertain.

/r/ is typically realised as a tap when it is medial and a trill when it is in final position.

Consonant phonemes

		Bilabial	Labio- dental	Alveolar	Postalveolar or palatal	Velar		Pharyn- geal	Glottal
						Plain	Labialized
Stops and affricates	Voiceless			t	(tʃ)	k	kʷ		(ʔ)
	Voiced	b		d	dʒ	ɡ	ɡʷ
	Ejective			tʼ	tʃʼ	kʼ	kʷʼ
Nasals		m		n		ŋ	ŋʷ
Fricatives	Voiceless		f	s	ʃ	x	xʷ	ħ	h
	Voiced			z				ʕ
Rhotic				r
Semivowels					j		w
Lateral approximant				l

Vowels

Vowel phonemes

	Front	Central	Back
High	i	ɨ	u
Mid	e	ə	o
Low		a

Writing system

Ge'ez abugida

See also: Ge'ez alphabet#Modifications for other languages

A writing system for Blin was first developed by missionaries who used the Ge'ez abugida and the first text was published in 1882. Although the Ge'ez script is usually used for Semitic languages, the phonemes of Blin are very similar. (7 vowels, labiovelar and ejective consonants.) The script therefore only requires a slight modification (the addition of consonants for ŋ and ŋʷ) to make it suitable for Blin. Some of the additional symbols required to write Blin with this script are in the "Ethiopic Extended" Unicode range rather than the "Ethiopic" range.

The basic signs, in order, are as follows. Note that there are some differences between the list order in Blin and the standard Ge'ez list order. (Note: the exact contents of these table are subject to verification.)

Sound	/h/	/l/	/ħ/	/m/	/s/	/ʃ/	/r/	/kʼ/		/b/	/t/	/n/	/ʔ/	/k/	/x/	/w/	/ʕ/
Ge'ez	ሀ	ለ	ሐ	መ	ሰ	ሸ	ረ	ቀ	ቐ	በ	ተ	ነ	አ	ከ	ኸ	ወ	ዐ

Sound	/j/	/d/	/dʒ/	/ɡ/	/ŋ/	/tʼ/	/tʃʼ/	/f/	/z/		/t͡ʃ/					/ʃ/
Ge'ez	የ	ደ	ጀ	ገ	ጘ	ጠ	ጨ	ፈ	ዘ	ዠ	ቸ	ኘ	ጰ	ጸ	ፐ	ቨ

Blin also needs 5 labiovelar variants:

Sound	/kʷʼ/	/kʷ/	/xʷ/	/ɡʷ/	/ŋʷ/
Ge'ez	ቈ	ኰ	ዀ	ጐ	ⶓ

Latin alphabet

In 1985 the Eritrean People's Liberation Front decided to use the Latin alphabet for Blin and all other minority languages in Eritrea. This was largely a political decision: the Ge'ez script is associated with Christianity because of its liturgical use. The Latin alphabet is seen as being more neutral. In 1993 the government set up a committee to standardize the Blin language and the Latin-based orthography.

See also

• Blin people

References

• Consonant Mutation and Reduplication in Blin Singulars and Plurals
• Language, Education, and Public Policy in Eritrea

External links

• Ethnologue
• Online Blin language tutorial
• The Ethiopic Alphabet

Further reading

• F.R. Palmer. 1958. "The noun in Bilin," Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 21:376-391.
• Leo Reinisch. 1882. Die Bilin-Sprache in Nordost-Afrika. Vienna: Carl Gerold's Sohn.
• A.N. Tucker & M.A. Bryan. 1966. Linguistic Analyses: The Non-Bantu Languages of North-Eastern Africa. London: Oxford University Press.