Awngi language

The Awngi language, in older publications also called Awiya (an inappropriate ethnonym),Template:Sfn is a endangered indigenous Central Cushitic language spoken by the Awi people, traditionally living in Central Gojjam in northwestern Ethiopia.

Most speakers of the language live in the Agew Awi Zone of the Amhara Region, but there are also communities speaking the language in various areas of Metekel Zone of the Benishangul-Gumuz Region. Until recently, Kunfäl, another Southern Agaw language spoken in the area west of Lake Tana, has been suspected to be a separate language. It has now been shown to be linguistically close to Awngi, and it should be classified as a dialect of that language.Template:Sfn

Phonology

Vowels

VowelsTemplate:Sfn

	Front	Central	Back
Close	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Open	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link

The central vowel is the default epenthetic vowel of the language and almost totally predictable in its occurrence.Template:Sfn Likewise, , normally an allophone of , is fossilized in some words and might be justified as a separate phoneme.Template:Sfn

Consonants

ConsonantsTemplate:Sfn

		Labial	Alveolar	Palato-velar		Uvular
				plain	labialized	plain	labzd
Plosive	voiceless	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
	voiced	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Affricate	voiceless		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
	voiced		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Fricative	plain	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
	post-stopped
Nasal		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Flap			Template:IPA link
Approximant		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link

• Palatal and velar together in Awngi form only one place of articulation, which is called palato-velar.Template:Sfn
• Post-stopped fricatives are assumed to be single segments in Awngi for phonotactic reasons.Template:Sfn
• is found word-initially in loanwords, but it can also be left out.
• does not occur word-initially. It is pronounced as a flap when not geminate.Template:Sfn
• Between vowels, is pronounced as a voiced bilabial fricative .Template:Sfn
• is pronounced retracted, with slight retroflexion.Template:Sfn
• and are usually pronounced as voiced uvular fricatives and .
• Although and are phonetically realized as fricatives and in many environments, they are very much the voiced counterparts of the voiceless affricates with respect to phonological rules.
• The labialization contrast in the palato-velar and uvular consonants is found only before the vowels and word-finally.Template:Sfn

Tones

PalmerTemplate:Sfn and HetzronTemplate:Sfn both identified three distinctive tone levels in Awngi: high, mid and low. The low tone, however, only appears in word-final position on the vowel . A falling tone (high-mid) appears on word-final syllables only. JoswigTemplate:Sfn reanalyzes the system as having only two distinctive tone levels, with the low tone being a phonetic variant of the mid tone.

Syllable structure

The Awngi syllable in most cases fits the maximum syllable template CVC (C standing for a consonant, V for a vowel). This means there is only one (if any) consonant each in the syllable onset and the rhyme. Exceptions to this happen at word boundaries, where extrametrical consonants may appear.

Phonological processes

Gemination

In positions other than word-initial, Awngi contrasts geminate and non-geminate consonants. The consonants , however, have no contrast in gemination.

Vowel harmony

Whenever a suffix containing the [+high] vowel is added to a stem, a productive vowel harmony process is triggered. Hetzron calls this process regressive vowel height assimilation. The vowel harmony only takes place if the underlying vowel of the last stem syllable is . This vowel and all preceding instances of and will take over the feature [+high], until a different vowel is encountered. Then the vowel harmony is blocked. HetzronTemplate:Sfn provides the following example: ‘nun’ vs. ‘monk’.

Orthography

Awngi is used as Medium of Instruction from Grade 1 to 6 in primary schools of Awi Zone. It is written with an orthography based on the Ethiopian Script. Extra fidels used for Awngi are Template:Script/Ethiopic for the sound Template:IPAslink and Template:Script/Ethiopic for the sound Template:IPAslink. The fidel Template:Script/Ethiopic is used for Template:IPAslink, the fidel Template:Script/Ethiopic for the sound Template:IPAslink. Various aspects of the Awngi orthography are yet to be finally decided.

Morphology

Nouns

The noun is marked for number and gender (masculine, feminine or plural) as well as case. The nominative is unmarked for one class of nouns, or marked by for masculine nouns and for feminine nouns. Other cases are accusative, dative, genitive, locative, directional, ablative, comitative, comparative, invocative and translative. HetzronTemplate:Sfn also mentions adverbial as a case of Awngi, but an interpretation as a derivational marker seems to be more appropriate. Number, gender, and case are marked through suffixes to the noun stems.Template:Sfn

Verbs

The Awngi verbal morphology has a wealth of inflectional forms. The four main tenses are imperfective past, imperfective non-past, perfective past and perfective non-past. There are various other coordinate and subordinate forms which are all marked through suffixes to the verb stems. The following distinctions are maintained for person: Template:Gcl, Template:Gcl, Template:Gcl, Template:Gcl, Template:Gcl, Template:Gcl, and Template:Gcl. Hetzron demonstrated that the Awngi verbal morphology is most economically described when it is assumed that for every verb there are four distinct stems, marked A, B, C, and D in the following table. The first stem (A) is for Template:Gcl, Template:Gcl, and Template:Gcl. The second stem (B) is for Template:Gcl only, the third stem (C) for Template:Gcl and Template:Gcl, and the fourth stem for Template:Gcl only. These four stems need to be noted for every verb in the lexicon and serve as the basis for all other verbal morphology. The stems remain the same throughout all verbal paradigms, and it is possible to predict the surface form of each paradigm member with these stems and the simple tense suffixes.Template:Sfn

Stems

Person/ Gender		Singular	Plural
1		Template:CellCategory	Template:CellCategory
2		Template:CellCategory	Template:CellCategory
3	Masc	Template:CellCategory	Template:CellCategory
	Fem	Template:CellCategory	Template:CellCategory

Syntax

The main verb of a sentence is always at the end. The basic word order is therefore SOV. Subordination and coordination is achieved exclusively through verbal affixation.

Bibliography

• Template:WALS