Zande language
| Zande | |
|---|---|
| Pazande | |
| Native to | Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, South Sudan |
| Ethnicity | Zande people |
Native speakers | (undated figure of 730,000 in Congo)[1] 1,000,000 in South Sudan (2017), 62,000 in CAR (1996)[2] |
Niger–Congo?
| |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | zne |
| Glottolog | zand1248 |
Zande is the largest of the Zande languages. It is spoken by the Azande, primarily in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and western South Sudan, but also in the eastern part of the Central African Republic. It is called Pazande in the Zande language and Kizande in Lingala.
Estimates about the number of speakers vary; in 2001 Koen Impens cited studies that put the number between 700,000 and one million.[3]
Phonology
Consonants
| Labial | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Labio- velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ||||
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k | k͡p | ||
| prenasal | ᵐb | ⁿd | ᵑɡ | ᵑɡ͡b | |||
| voiced | b | d | ɡ | ɡ͡b | |||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ||||
| prenasal | ᶬv | ⁿz | |||||
| voiced | v | z | |||||
| Rhotic | r ~ ɽ | ||||||
| Approximant | j | w | |||||
- Alveolar sounds /d, z, ⁿz, s, t, ⁿd/ have allophones as palato-alveolar sounds [d͡ʒ, ʒ, ⁿʒ, ʃ, t͡ʃ, ⁿd͡ʒ] when preceding /i/.
- The retroflex tap /ɽ/ can be heard as an alveolar trill [r] in free variation.[4]
Vowels
| Front | Back | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| unrounded | rounded | |||||
| Close | i | ĩ | u | ũ | ||
| Near-close | ɪ | ɪ̃ | ʊ | ʊ̃ | ||
| Close-mid | e | ẽ | o | õ | ||
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɛ̃ | ʌ | ʌ̃ | ɔ | ɔ̃ |
| Open | a | ã | ||||
Writing system
Zande spelling rules were established at the 1928 Rejaf Language Conference[5] following the principles of the International African Institute.[6]
| a | b | d | e | f | g | i | k | m | n | o | ö | p | s | t | u | v | w | y | z |
Nasalized vowels are indicated using the tilde : ⟨ã ẽ ĩ õ ũ⟩. Consonants with double articulation are represented by digraphs: ⟨gb kp mv nv ny⟩.
In 1959, Archibald Norman Tucker published a Zande alphabet proposed during the Bangenzi Conference of 1941.[8]
| a | ä | b | d | e | f | g | h | i | i̧ | k | m | n | o | p | r | s | t | u | u̧ | v | w | y | z | ’ |
Nasalized vowels are indicated using the tilde : ã ẽ ĩ ĩ̧ õ ũ ũ̧ r̃. Consonants with double articulation are represented by digraphs or trigraphs : kp gb ny mb nv nd nz ng ngb mgb
SIL International published a Zande alphabet in 2014.[9]
| a | ə | b | d | e | f | g | gb | h | i | ɨ | k | kp | l | m | mb | n | nd | ngb | nv | ny | nz | o | p | s | t | u | ʉ | v | w | y | z |
Sample text in Zande (Jehovah's Wittnesses)
Avunguagudee, oni nangarasa rukutu awironi na gu sosono yo i mangi agu asunge dunduko na ngbarago i afuhe fuyo i mangihe, singia si tii Bambu Kindo yo, watadu ba bakere adunguratise yo?
Translation
Parents, do you encourage your children and teenagers to work cheerfully at any assignment that they are given to do, whether at the Kingdom Hall, at an assembly, or at a convention site?
References
- ^ Zande at Ethnologue (10th ed., 1984). Note: Data may come from the 9th edition (1978).
- ^ Zande language at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ Impens, Koen (2001). "Essai de bibliographie des Azande". Annales Aequatoria. 22: 449–514.
- ^ Landi, Germain (2019). Phonologie et morphophonologie de la langue Zandé. Universität zu Köln.
- ^ Impens 2001.
- ^ Gore 1931, p. 1.
- ^ Gore 1931.
- ^ Tucker 1959, p. 94.
- ^ SIL International 2014.
Bibliography
- Gore, Edward Clive (1931). A Zande Grammar. Sheldon Press.
- Tucker, Archibald Norman (1959). Le groupe linguistique zande (in French). Musée royal du Congo belge.
- "Awalaga Gɨda Pazande. Alphabet Zande, R. D. Congo [PDF]". vdoc.pub.
External links
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