Turkana language

Turkana /tɜːrˈkɑːnə/[2] is the language of the Turkana people of Kenya. It is spoken in northwestern Kenya, primarily in Turkana County, which lies west of Lake Turkana. It is one of the Eastern Nilotic languages, and is closely related to Karamojong, Jie and Teso of Uganda, to Toposa spoken in the extreme southeast of South Sudan, and to Nyangatom in the South Sudan/Ethiopia Omo valley borderland; these languages together form the cluster of Ateker Languages.

Turkana
Ng'aturk(w)ana
Native toKenya
RegionTurkan
EthnicityTurkana people
Native speakers
1,013,000 (2007-2009)[1]
Dialects
Language codes
ISO 639-3Either:
tuv – Turkana
nnj – Nyangatom
Glottologturk1308

The collective group name for these related peoples is Ateker.

Phonology

Consonants
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar
Plosive/
Affricate		 voiceless p t tʃ k
voiced b d dʒ ɡ
Fricative s
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Lateral l
Trill r
Approximant j w
  • /p/ can also occur as affricated [pɸ] when in syllable-initial positions.
  • Affricate sounds /tʃ dʒ/ can also be heard as palatal stops [c ɟ].
  • Voiced stops /b d dʒ ɡ/ may also occur glottalized as implosives [ɓ ɗ ʄ ɠ] when in syllable-initial positions. In syllable-final position, they are realized as unreleased.
  • /k/ is realized as a uvular stop [q] when occurring in between vowels /a ɔ o/. When it is preceded and followed by back vowels, it is then lenited and heard as the following sounds [χ], [ʁ] or [ʀ].[3]

Vowels
Front Central Back
Close i u
Near-close ɪ ʊ
Close-mid e o
Open-mid ɛ ɔ
Open a

There is also phonemic distinction with voiceless vowels:

Front Central Back
Close i̥ u̥
ɪ̥ ʊ̥
Mid e̥ o̥
ɛ̥ ɔ̥
Open ḁ

Vocabulary
English Turkana
singular form		 Turkana
plural form
face ereetngiReetin
body akwaanngaWat
clothes eworungiWorui
food akimujngaMuja
tobacco etabangiTab
goat akinengaKinei
cattle aitengaAtuk
donkey esikiriangiSikiria
camel ekaalngiKaala
water ngakipingaKipi

Bibliography
  • Dimmendaal, Gerrit J. (1983) The Turkana language. Dordrecht: Foris. ISBN 90-70176-83-1
  • Barrett, A. (1988) English–Turkana dictionary. Nairobi: MacMillan Kenya. ISBN 0-333-44577-5
  • Barrett, A. (1990) Turkana–English dictionary. London: MacMillan. ISBN 0-333-53654-1

References
  1. Turkana at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
    Nyangatom at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student’s Handbook, Edinburgh
  3. Dimmendaal 1983.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.