Iraqw language

File:WIKITONGUES- Xwatsá and Basilisa speaking Iraqw.webm

Two Iraqw speakers, recorded in Tanzania.

Iraqw (Template:IPAc-en) is a Cushitic language spoken in Tanzania in the Arusha and Manyara Regions. It is expanding in numbers as the Iraqw people absorb neighbouring ethnic groups. The language has many Datooga loanwords, especially in poetic language. The Gorowa language, to the south, shares numerous similarities and is sometimes considered a dialect.

Phonology

Vowels

Whiteley (1958) lists the following vowel phonemes for Iraqw. All of the vowels except /ə/ occur in both short and long versions:

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

Template:IPAslink can be heard as Template:IPAblink within the environment of pharyngeal consonants.

Consonants

Whiteley (1958) and Mous (1993) list the following consonants:

Iraqw consonant phonemes

		Labial	Alveolar		Palatal / Palato- alveolar	Velar/Uvular		Pharyngeal	Glottal
			Central	Lateral		Plain	Labialized
Nasal		Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink		(Template:IPA link Template:Grapheme)	Template:IPAlink Template:Grapheme	Template:IPAlink
Plosive/ Affricate	Voiceless	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink		(Template:IPAlink Template:Grapheme)	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink
	Voiced	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink		(Template:IPA link Template:Grapheme)	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink
	Laryngealized		Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink Template:Grapheme		Template:IPAlink ~ Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink ~ Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink Template:Grapheme
Fricative	Voiceless	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink Template:Grapheme	(Template:IPAlink Template:Grapheme)	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink Template:Grapheme	Template:IPAlink
	Voiced							Template:IPAlink Template:Grapheme
Trill			Template:IPAlink
Approximant				Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink Template:Grapheme		Template:IPAlink

In the popular orthography for Iraqw used in Lutheran and Catholic materials as well as in collections of traditional Iraqw stories and academic literature (e.g. Nordbustad 1988 and Mous 1993), the majority of the orthography follows the Swahili orthography with the addition of x and q. Other additions to the orthography are the sound is spelled Template:Angle bracket, the is spelled Template:Angle bracket, the is spelled Template:Angle bracket, and is spelled Template:Angle bracket. Consonants /ɲ, tʃ, dʒ, ʃ/ mainly occur from loanwords of Swahili and Datooga.

Morphology

Noun morphology

Gender

Nouns in Iraqw have three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter. The gender of a noun can be deduced from the type of agreement that it triggers on other elements in the sentence, but the agreement system is unusual, and obeys the following principle:

• Masculine nouns require the masculine form of the verb
• Feminine nouns require the feminine form of the verb
• Neuter nouns require the plural form of the verb

The masculine, feminine, and plural forms of the verb are identified by the form the verb takes when the subject is pronoun which is a.) a third person masculine singular ('he'), b.) a third person feminine singular ('she'), or c.) a third person plural ('they').

Masculine verb forms
Template:Interlinear	Template:Interlinear

Feminine verb forms
Template:Interlinear	Template:Interlinear

Neuter verb forms
Template:Interlinear	Template:Interlinear

There are several unusual things that are worth noting. One is that 'tail' is neuter in the singular and feminine in the plural; despite this, the plural verb form is used for 'tail', since it is neuter, and neuters use the plural verb form. This is why "plural" is often used as a label for this gender; plural gender is common in a number of Cushitic languages. Another is that the verbs do not agree with their subjects in number, so the masculine plural Template:Gloss takes the masculine form of the verb, not the plural form of the verb.

Number

Nouns typically have separate singular and plural forms, but there are many distinct plural suffixes. reports that there are fourteen different plural suffixes. The lexical entry for a noun must specify the particular plural suffix it takes.

The gender of a plural noun is usually different from the gender of the corresponding singular. Compare the following singular and plural nouns, with their genders:

singular	singular gender	plural	plural gender	meaning
	m		f	Template:Gloss
	m		f	Template:Gloss
	m		f	Template:Gloss
	m		n	Template:Gloss
	f		n	Template:Gloss
	f		n	Template:Gloss
	m		n	Template:Gloss
	n		n	Template:Gloss

While it is not possible to predict the gender of a noun or which plural suffix it will take, the form of the plural suffix determines the gender of the plural noun. So, for example, all plural nouns with the Template:Angbr suffix are neuter.

Construct case suffixes and gender linkers

The gender of a noun is important for predicting the construct case suffix and the gender linker that it will use. When a noun is directly followed by

• an adjective
• a possessive noun phrase
• a numeral
• a relative clause
• a verb

then a construct case suffix must appear after the noun. The construct case marker is Template:Angbr or Template:Angbr for masculine nouns; Template:Angbr or Template:Angbr for feminine nouns; and Template:Angbr for neuter nouns:

The gender linkers are similar to the construct cases suffixes, but appear between the noun and other suffixes (such as the demonstrative, indefinite, and possessive suffixes). The following example shows masculine, feminine, and neuter nouns before the 'their' possessive suffix and the demonstrative Template:Angbr Template:Gloss.

masculine	feminine	neuter
Template:Gloss	Template:Gloss	Template:Gloss
Template:Interlinear	Template:Interlinear	Template:Interlinear
Template:Interlinear	Template:Interlinear	Template:Interlinear

Adverbial case clitics

Iraqw has four adverbial case clitics: the directive, the ablative, the instrumental and the reason case clitics. Adverbial case clitics occur in the position immediately before the verb and are cliticised to the preceding noun with the gender linker, or they might occur in a position after the verb, in which case they are obligatorily followed by a resumptive pronoun alé.

Cases	Clitic	Example
Directive	i	Template:Interlinear
Ablative	wa	Template:Interlinear
Instrumental	ar	Template:Interlinear
Reason	sa	Template:Interlinear

Syntax

Noun phrases

The noun comes first in the noun phrase, and precedes possessors, adjectives, numerals, and relative clauses. An element called the construct case suffix appears between the noun and these modifiers, as discussed in the Morphology section above:

Sentences

An Iraqw sentence contains a verb in final position, and an auxiliary-like element called the 'selector'. Either the subject or the object of the sentence may precede the selector, and the selector agrees with the preceding noun. So in the first example below, iri shows agreement with /ameenirdá' 'that woman', and in the second example, uná shows agreement with gitladá' :

External links

• Iraqw language topical vocabulary list (from the World Loanword Database)