Alagwa (Alaagwa’isa) is a Cushitic language spoken in Tanzania in the Dodoma region.[2] Some Alagwa have shifted to other languages such as Sandawe.
Phonology
Consonants
- Sounds /c, ɟ, ɲ/ are considered rare, or mainly occur from loanwords.[3]
Vowels
Alagwa has five vowels /a, e, i, o, u/. The five vowels have contrastive long counterparts.[3][4]
Tone
There are two tone levels in Alagwa: low and high tone e.g., darimbáa "grass". Tone has grammatical function and limited lexical function. However, it cannot be described as a tone language because some words have only one tone (despite the number of the syllables) and the majority have none.[3]
Mainly, there are two intonation types: concluding intonation and non-concluding.[3]
Grammar
Word order
Alagwa sentences have a generalized order [Subject X Auxiliary Y Verb Z], and elements of the sentence other than the subject appear in the positions labelled X, Y, and Z, depending on their information status in the clause. New material tends to appear in the post-verbal position, Z, while old information appears in the pre-auxiliary position, X.
The following example (Kiessling 2007:138) shows the noun yaawáa 'dowry' introduced as new information after the verb in the first sentence and repeated as old information before the auxiliary ningi in the second sentence.
makimoo-w-ód,
guy-M-D
ning-aa
SEQ:S3-ABL
xay-ee’
come:3-PF.PL
ningi
SEQ:S3
bu’-i-yee’
pay-3-PF.PL
yaawáa
dowry
'that guy, they [i.e. the lions] came and paid the dowry.'
maa
so
dende’ee-w-ós
folks-N-3SG.POSS
yaawáa
dowry
ningi
SEQ:O3PL
bu’-i-yee’
pay-3-PF.PL
'His folks paid the dowry.'
References
Bibliography
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