Bilen language

The Bilen language (ብሊና b(ɨ)lina or ብሊን b(ɨ)lin) is spoken by the Bilen people in and around the city of Keren in Eritrea. It is the only Agaw (Central Cushitic) language spoken in Eritrea. It is spoken by about 72,000 people.^[1]

Bilen
ብሊን (Blin)
Native to	Eritrea
Region	Anseba, Keren
Ethnicity	Bilen
Native speakers	72,000 (2022)[1]
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Cushitic Central Northern Bilen
Dialects	Senhit T’aqwur
Writing system	Geʽez Latin
Official status
Recognised minority language in	Eritrea
Language codes
ISO 639-2	byn
ISO 639-3	byn
Glottolog	bili1260
ELP	Bilen
Linguistic map of Eritrea; Bilen is spoken in the dark blue region
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Spelling of the name

"Blin" is the English spelling preferred by native speakers,^{[citation needed]} but Bilin and Bilen 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 is listed in first position in both English and French lists, when Bilin is 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 Bogo, Bogos, Bilayn, Bilin, Balen, Beleni, Belen, Bilein, Bileno, North Agaw as alternative names.

Phonology

It is not clear if Bilen has tone. It may have pitch accent (Fallon 2004) as prominent syllables always have a high tone, but not all words have such a syllable.

Vowels

Vowel phonemes

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

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

		Labial	Alveolar	Palato- (alveolar)	Velar		Pharyn- geal	Glottal
					plain	labialized
Plosive / Affricate	voiceless		t	(tʃ)	k	kʷ		(ʔ)
	voiced	b	d	dʒ	ɡ	ɡʷ
	ejective		tʼ	tʃʼ	kʼ	kʷʼ
Nasal		m	n		ŋ	ŋʷ
Fricative	voiceless	f	s	ʃ	x	xʷ	ħ	h
	voiced		z				ʕ
Rhotic			r
Approximant			l	j		w

Fallon (2001, 2004) notes intervocalic lenition, such as /b/ → [β]; syncope, as in the name of the language, /bɨlín/ → [blín]; debuccalization with secondary articulation preserved, as in /dérekʷʼa/ → [dɛ́rɛʔʷa] 'mud for bricks'. Intriguingly, the ejectives have voiced allophones, which according to Fallon (2004) "provides an important empirical precedent" for one of the more criticized aspects of the glottalic theory of Indo-European. For example,

Ejective consonant	Voiced allophone	Gloss
/laħátʃʼɨna/	[laħádʒɨna]	'to bark'
/kʼaratʃʼna/	[kʼaradʒna]	'to cut'
/kʷʼakʷʼito/	[ɡʷaʔʷito]	'he was afraid'

Writing system

Geʽez abugida

See also: Geʽez script § Adaptations to other languages

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

Blin Ethiopic Characters

IPA	e	u	i	a	ie	ɨ/-	o	ʷe	ʷi	ʷa	ʷie	ʷɨ/-
h	ሀ	ሁ	ሂ	ሃ	ሄ	ህ	ሆ
l	ለ	ሉ	ሊ	ላ	ሌ	ል	ሎ
ħ	ሐ	ሑ	ሒ	ሓ	ሔ	ሕ	ሖ
m	መ	ሙ	ሚ	ማ	ሜ	ም	ሞ
s	ሰ	ሱ	ሲ	ሳ	ሴ	ስ	ሶ
ʃ	ሸ	ሹ	ሺ	ሻ	ሼ	ሽ	ሾ
r	ረ	ሩ	ሪ	ራ	ሬ	ር	ሮ
kʼ	ቀ	ቁ	ቂ	ቃ	ቄ	ቅ	ቆ	ቈ	ቊ	ቋ	ቌ	ቍ
ʁ	ቐ	ቑ	ቒ	ቓ	ቔ	ቕ	ቖ	ቘ	ቚ	ቛ	ቜ	ቝ
b	በ	ቡ	ቢ	ባ	ቤ	ብ	ቦ
t	ተ	ቱ	ቲ	ታ	ቴ	ት	ቶ
n	ነ	ኑ	ኒ	ና	ኔ	ን	ኖ
ʔ	አ	ኡ	ኢ	ኣ	ኤ	እ	ኦ
k	ከ	ኩ	ኪ	ካ	ኬ	ክ	ኮ	ኰ	ኲ	ኳ	ኴ	ኵ
x	ኸ	ኹ	ኺ	ኻ	ኼ	ኽ	ኾ	ዀ	ዂ	ዃ	ዄ	ዅ
w	ወ	ዉ	ዊ	ዋ	ዌ	ው	ዎ
ʕ	ዐ	ዑ	ዒ	ዓ	ዔ	ዕ	ዖ
j	የ	ዩ	ዪ	ያ	ዬ	ይ	ዮ
d	ደ	ዱ	ዲ	ዳ	ዴ	ድ	ዶ
dʒ	ጀ	ጁ	ጂ	ጃ	ጄ	ጅ	ጆ
ɡ	ገ	ጉ	ጊ	ጋ	ጌ	ግ	ጎ	ጐ	ጒ	ጓ	ጔ	ጕ
ŋ	ጘ	ጙ	ጚ	ጛ	ጜ	ጝ	ጞ	ⶓ	ⶔ	ጟ	ⶕ	ⶖ
tʼ	ጠ	ጡ	ጢ	ጣ	ጤ	ጥ	ጦ
tʃʼ	ጨ	ጩ	ጪ	ጫ	ጬ	ጭ	ጮ
f	ፈ	ፉ	ፊ	ፋ	ፌ	ፍ	ፎ
z	ዘ	ዙ	ዚ	ዛ	ዜ	ዝ	ዞ
ʒ	ዠ	ዡ	ዢ	ዣ	ዤ	ዥ	ዦ
tʃ	ቸ	ቹ	ቺ	ቻ	ቼ	ች	ቾ
ɲ	ኘ	ኙ	ኚ	ኛ	ኜ	ኝ	ኞ
sʼ	ጸ	ጹ	ጺ	ጻ	ጼ	ጽ	ጾ
pʼ	ጰ	ጱ	ጲ	ጳ	ጴ	ጵ	ጶ
p	ፐ	ፑ	ፒ	ፓ	ፔ	ፕ	ፖ
v	ቨ	ቩ	ቪ	ቫ	ቬ	ቭ	ቮ
IPA	e	u	i	a	ie	ɨ/-	o	ʷe	ʷi	ʷa	ʷie	ʷɨ/-

Latin alphabet

In 1985 the Eritrean People's Liberation Front decided to use the Latin script for Bilen and all other non-Semitic languages in Eritrea. This was largely a political decision: the Geʽez script is associated with Christianity because of its liturgical use. The Latin alphabet is seen as being more neutral and secular. In 1993 the government set up a committee to standardize the Bilen language and the Latin-based orthography. "This overturned a 110-year tradition of writing Blin in Ethiopic script." (Fallon, Bilen Orthography ^[2])

As of 1997, the alphabetic order was:

e, u, i, a, é, o, b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, z, ñ, ñw, th, ch, sh, kh, kw, khw, qw, gw.

Their values are similar to the IPA apart from the following:

Letter	Value
é	ɨ
c	ʕ
j	dʒ
q	kʼ
x	ħ
y	j
ñ	ŋ
th	tʼ
ch	tʃʼ
sh	ʃ
kh	x

See also

• Bilen people

References

1. Bilen at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)
2. Paul D. Fallon (18 September 2006). "Blin Orthography: A History and an Assessment" (PDF). Retrieved 1 June 2014.

• Alibekit, Tekie; Hamde, Kiflemariam; Zemicael, Fessehazion (2010) [1994]. "Some Standardization of Blin Writing" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-06-05. Retrieved 20 February 2012.
• Daniels, Peter T.; Bright, William, eds. (1996). "Ethiopic Writing". The World's Writing Systems. Oxford University Press. p. 573. ISBN 978-0-19-507993-7.
• Fallon, Paul D. "Consonant Mutation and Reduplication in Blin Singulars and Plurals" (PDF). In Mugane, John; Hutchison, John P.; Worman, Dee A. (eds.). Selected Proceedings of the 35th Annual Conference on African Linguistics. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project. pp. 114–124. ISBN 978-1-57473-410-2. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-05-11.
• "Principles and Specification for Mnemonic Ethiopic Keyboards" (PDF). The Ge’ez Frontier Foundation. 2009-01-17. Retrieved 20 February 2012.
• Woldemikael, Tekle M. (April 2003). "Language, Education, and Public Policy in Eritrea". African Studies Review. doi:10.2307/1514983. JSTOR 1514983. Archived from the original on 2010-09-15.

External links

• Online Blin language tutorial

Further reading

• Appleyard, David L. (2007). "Bilin Morphology". In Kaye, Alan S. (ed.). Morphologies of Asia and Africa. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns. pp. 481–504.
• Fallon, Paul (2001). Simpson (ed.). "Some phonological processes in Bilin". Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society. 27 (2): 49. doi:10.3765/bls.v27i2.3421. ISSN 2377-1666.
• Fallon, Paul (2004). "The Best is Not Good Enough". In Akinlabi, Akinbiyi; Adesola, Oluseye (eds.). Proceedings of the 4th World congress of African linguistics: Rutgers University, New Brunswick (NJ), June 17–22, 2003. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe. ISBN 978-3-89645-338-9.
• Palmer, F. R. (1957). "The Verb in Bilin". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. 19 (1): 131–159. doi:10.1017/S0041977X00119251. JSTOR 609637. S2CID 162081536.
• Palmer, F. R. (June 1958). "The Noun in Bilin". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. 21 (2): 376–391. doi:10.1017/S0041977X0007275X. JSTOR 610548. S2CID 170094313.
• Palmer, F. R. (1965). "Bilin 'to be' and 'to have'". African Language Studies. 6: 101–111.
• Reinisch, Leo (1882). Die Bilīn-sprache in Nordost-Afrika (in German). Vienna: Carl Gerold's Sohn.
• Reinisch, Leo. Die Bilin-sprache (in German). Leipzig. LCCN 44015707.
• Reinisch, Leo (1884). Wörterbuch der Bilin-Sprache. Vienna: Alfred Hölder.
• Tucker, A. N.; Bryan, M. A. (1966). Linguistic Analyses: The Non-Bantu Languages of North-Eastern Africa. Oxford University Press.