| Bench | |
|---|---|
| Bencnon | |
| Pronunciation | [bentʂnon] |
| Native to | Ethiopia |
| Region | Bench Maji Zone, SNNPR |
Native speakers | 348,000 Bench Non, 8,000 Mer, 490 She (2007) [1] |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | bcq |
| Glottolog | benc1235 |
| ELP | Shé |
| Linguasphere | 16-BBA-a |
Bench (Bencnon, Shenon or Mernon, formerly called Gimira [2] ) is a Northern Omotic language of the "Gimojan" subgroup, spoken by about 174,000 people (in 1998) in the Bench Maji Zone of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region, in southern Ethiopia, around the towns of Mizan Teferi and Shewa Gimira. In a 2006 dissertation, Christian Rapold described three varieties of Bench (Benchnon, Shenon, and Mernon) as "...mutually intelligible...varieties of one and the same language". [2] Bench is the ancestral language of the Bench people. [3]
In unusual variance from most of the other languages in Africa, Bench has retroflex consonant phonemes. [4] The language is also noteworthy in that it has six phonemic tones, one of only a handful of languages in the world that have this many. [5] Bench has a whistled form used primarily by male speakers, which permits communication over greater distances than spoken Bench. The whistle can be created using the lips or made from a hollow created with both hands. Additionally, this form of the language may be communicated via the 5-stringed krar. [6]
The phonemic vowels of Bench are /ieaou/.
There are six phonemic tones: five level tones (numbered 1 to 5 in the literature, with 1 being the lowest) and one rising tone 23 /˨˧/. The top tone is sometimes realized as a high rising 45 [˦˥]. [7] On the vowel o, they are /őóōòȍǒ/
The consonants are:
| Bilabial | Coronal | Palato- alveolar | Retroflex | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | |||||
| Plosive | Voiceless | p | t | k | ʔ | ||
| Voiced | b | d | ɡ | ||||
| Ejective | pʼ | tʼ | kʼ | ||||
| Affricate | Voiceless | ts | tʃ | tʂ | |||
| Ejective | tsʼ | tʃʼ | tʂʼ | ||||
| Fricative | Voiceless | s | ʃ | ʂ | h | ||
| Voiced | z | ʒ | ʐ | ||||
| Trill | r | ||||||
| Approximant | l | j | |||||
All of these can occur palatalized, but only before /a/, suggesting an alternate analysis of a sixth phonemic vowel /ja/. Labialized consonants are reported for [p,b,s,ɡ,] and [ʔ], but their phonemic status is unclear; they only occur after /i/.
For the phoneme /p/ the realizations of [pʰ] and [f] are in free variation; /j/ has the allophone [w] before back vowels.
The syllable structure is (C)V(C)(C)(C) + tone or (C) N (C), where C represents any consonant, V any vowel, N any nasal, and brackets an optional element. CC clusters consist of a continuant followed by a plosive, fricative, or affricate; in CCC clusters, the first consonant must be one of /r//j//m//p/ or /pʼ/, the second either /n/ or a voiceless fricative, and the third /t/ or /k/.
Plurals may optionally be formed by adding the suffix [-n̄d]; however, these are rarely used except with definite nouns. E.g.: [wűīŋɡn̄d] "her relatives"; [ātsn̄dībáka̋ŋɡ] "all the people".
| English | oblique | subject | locative | vocative |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I | [tá] | [tān] | [tȁtʼn̄] | |
| you (sg.) | [ní] | [nēn] | [nȉtʼn̄] | [wȍ] (m.), [hȁ] (f.) |
| you (hon.) | [jìnt] | [jìnt] | [jìnt] | |
| he | [jı̋] | [jīs] | _ | |
| he (hon.) | [ı̋ts] | [ı̋ts] | [ı̋ts] | |
| she | [wű] | [wūs] | _ | |
| she (hon.) | [ɡēn] | [ɡēn] | [ɡēn] | |
| himself/herself | [bá] | [bān] | [bȁtʼn̄] | |
| we (excl.) | [nú] | [nūn] | [nȕtʼn̄] | |
| we (incl.) | [nı̋] | [nīn] | [nȉtʼn̄] | |
| you (pl.) | [jìntȁjkʼn̄] | [jìntȁjkʼn̄] | [jìntȁjkʼn̄] | |
| they | [ı̋tsȁjkʼn̄] | [ı̋tsȁjkʼn̄] | [ı̋tsȁjkʼn̄] |
The word [bá] goes slightly beyond being a reflexive pronoun; it can mark any third person that refers to the subject of the sentence, e.g.:
[jȉsī
he.SUBJ
bá
own
dōr
sheep
ɡȍtùē]
sell.he.FIN
"he sold his (own) sheep"
[bȍdám
road.ABL
hāŋkʼá
go.self
bājístāɡùʂn̄
self.be.STAT.DET.when
pāntsʼà
leopard-NPMk
ěz]
big see.he.FIN
"when he was going along the road, he saw a big leopard"
The oblique form is basic, and serves as object, possessive, and adverbial. The subject form has three variants: normal (given above), emphatic - used when the subject is particularly prominent in the sentence, especially sentence-initially - and reduced, used as part of a verb phrase. The "locative" term means "to, at, or for one's own place or house", e.g.:
[kȁrtá
return.I
tȁtʼn̄
to.my.house
tā
I
hāŋkʼùē]
go.I.FIN
"I went home"
The main determiners are "that, the" (masc. [ùʂ], fem. [èn], pl. [ènd]) and "this" (masc. [hàʂ], fem. [hàn], pl. [hànd]). As suffixes on a verb or an ablative or locative phrase, they indicate a relative clause. E.g.:
[ātsn̄dà
person.PL.NPMk
hàndīs
these.OBJ
hǎrám
what.ABL
bād
separate
átsn̄dȁ?]
make.FUT.INTL
"how can I separate these people?" Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help);
[átsín
woman
kétn̋
house.LOC
jískèn]
be.that
"the woman who is in the house"
The demonstratives include [háŋ] "here", [ēk] "there (nearby)", [jìŋk] "there (far away)", [nēɡ] "down there", [nèk] "up there". Alone, or with the determiner suffixes [ùʂ] or [àʂ] added, these function as demonstrative pronouns "this person", "that person", etc. With the noun phrase marker [-à], they become demonstrative adjectives. E.g.:
[hàŋ
here
nás
man
dȁdn̄
near
àtāɡùʂn̄]
reach.STAT.DET.when
"when he came near to the man..."
[njāʔà
boy.NPMk
nēɡà
down.there.NPMk
hàndī]
DET.SUBJ
"these boys down there"
The numbers are:
| 1 | [mātʼ] |
| 2 | [nám] |
| 3 | [káz] |
| 4 | [ód] |
| 5 | [ùtʂ] |
| 6 | [sàpm̄] |
| 7 | [nàpm̄] |
| 8 | [njàrtn̄] |
| 9 | [ìrstn̄] |
| 10 | [ta̋m] |
| 100 | [bǎl] |
| 1000 | [wňm] |
20, 30, etc. are formed by adding [tàm] "ten" (with tone change) to the unit. In compound numbers, [-á] is added to each 'figure, thus:
When a cardinal number functions as an adjective, the suffix [-ās] can be added (e.g.[njāʔàkázās] "three children"). Ordinal numbers are formed by suffixing [-nás] to the cardinal, e.g.: [ódnás] "fourth".
Adjectives are sometimes intensified by changing the tone to top; e.g. [ěz] "big" → [e̋z] "very big".
Verbs with monosyllabic roots can have three different forms of their active stems: the singular imperative, which is just the root; the past stem, usually identical to the root but sometimes formed by adding -k (with changes to the preceding consonant); and the future stem, usually identical to the root but sometimes formed by changing the tone from mid 3 to high 4 or from bottom 1 to top 5. Some have causative (formed by adding [-ās] or [-̏s], and changing mid tone to high) and passive (formed by adding [-n̄], [-t], or [-̏k] to the causative) forms. Verbal nouns are formed from the stem, sometimes with tone change or addition or [-t].
Verbs with polysyllabic roots have at least two forms, one with an intransitive or passive meaning and one with a transitive or causative meaning; the former ends in [-n̄], the latter in [-ās]. A passive may be formed by ending in [-āsn̄]. Verbal nouns are formed by taking the bare stem without [-n̄] or [-ās].
Compound verbs are formed with [màk] "say" or [màs] "cause to say", a formation common among Ethiopian languages.
The primary tenses are simple past (formed from the past stem), future (future stem plus [-n̄s-]), present perfect (from present participle stem); negative (future stem plus [-árɡ-].) E.g.: [hām] → [hāŋkʼùē] "he went"; [hámsm̄sùē] "he will go"; [hāŋkʼńsùē] "he has gone".
There are four corresponding participles: past (formed from the past stem), present perfect (formed from the past stem with the suffix [-ńs-], [-ńɡ], or [-áŋkʼ-]), imperfect (formed from the future stem with the stative suffix [-āɡ-]), and negative (formed from the future stem with the negative suffix [-árɡ-] or [-ù-] or a person/number marker.) The order of affixes is: root-(tense)-(negative)-(foc. pn.)-person/number-marker.
A Latin-based orthography was adopted in 2008. [1] Previously, the New Testament had been published in the Bench language using an orthography based on the Ethiopian syllabary. Tones were not indicated. Retroflex consonants were indicated by such techniques as using extra symbols from the syllabary (the "nigus s") and forming new symbols (the addition of an extra arm on the left side for "t").
The Omotic languages are a group of languages spoken in southwestern Ethiopia, in the Omo River region and southeastern Sudan in Blue Nile State. The Geʽez script is used to write some of the Omotic languages, the Latin script for some others. They are fairly agglutinative and have complex tonal systems. The languages have around 7.9 million speakers. The group is generally classified as belonging to the Afroasiatic language family, but this is disputed by some linguists.
Amharic is an Ethiopian Semitic language, which is a subgrouping within the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages. It is spoken as a first language by the Amharas, and also serves as a lingua franca for all other populations residing in major cities and towns in Ethiopia.
Oromo, historically also called Galla, is an Afroasiatic language that belongs to the Cushitic branch. It is native to the Ethiopian state of Oromia and Northern Kenya and is spoken predominantly by the Oromo people and neighboring ethnic groups in the Horn of Africa. It is used as a lingua franca particularly in the Oromia Region and northeastern Kenya.
The Erzya language, also Erzian or historically Arisa, is spoken by approximately 300,000 people in the northern, eastern and north-western parts of the Republic of Mordovia and adjacent regions of Nizhny Novgorod, Chuvashia, Penza, Samara, Saratov, Orenburg, Ulyanovsk, Tatarstan and Bashkortostan in Russia. A diaspora can also be found in Armenia and Estonia, as well as in Kazakhstan and other states of Central Asia. Erzya is currently written using Cyrillic with no modifications to the variant used by the Russian language. In Mordovia, Erzya is co-official with Moksha and Russian.
Beja is an Afroasiatic language of the Cushitic branch spoken on the western coast of the Red Sea by the Beja people. Its speakers inhabit parts of Egypt, Sudan and Eritrea. In 2022 there were 2,550,000 Beja speakers in Sudan, and 121,000 Beja speakers in Eritrea according to Ethnologue. As of 2023 there are an estimated 88,000 Beja speakers in Egypt. The total number of speakers in all three countries is 2,759,000.
Hurrian is an extinct Hurro-Urartian language spoken by the Hurrians (Khurrites), a people who entered northern Mesopotamia around 2300 BC and had mostly vanished by 1000 BC. Hurrian was the language of the Mitanni kingdom in northern Mesopotamia and was likely spoken at least initially in Hurrian settlements in modern-day Syria.
Crow is a Missouri Valley Siouan language spoken primarily by the Crow Nation in present-day southeastern Montana. The word Apsáalooke translates to "Children of the Large Beaked Bird", which was later incorrectly translated into English as 'Crow'. It is one of the larger populations of American Indian languages with 4,160 speakers according to the 2015 US Census.
Yaqui, locally known as Yoeme or Yoem Noki, is a Native American language of the Uto-Aztecan family. It is spoken by about 20,000 Yaqui people in the Mexican state of Sonora and across the border in Arizona in the United States. It is partially intelligible with the Mayo language, also spoken in Sonora, and together they are called Cahitan languages.
Anfillo is a Northern Omotic language spoken in western Ethiopia by a few hundred people. The term Anfillo is used to refer both to the language and the people found in a small community in the Anfillo woreda, part of the Mirab Welega Zone. The language is on the verge of extinction as it is spoken only by adults above the age of sixty. All younger generations have shifted to Western Oromo as of 2007.
Hungarian grammar is the grammar of Hungarian, a Finno-Ugric language that is spoken mainly in Hungary and in parts of its seven neighboring countries.
Big Nambas is an Oceanic language spoken by about 3,400 people in northwest Malekula, Vanuatu. Approximately nineteen villages in the Big Nambas region of the Malekula Interior use the language exclusively with no variation in dialect. It was studied in-depth over a period of about 10 years by missionary Greg. J. Fox, who published a grammar and dictionary in 1979. A Big Nambas translation of the Bible has been completed recently by Andrew Fox.
Hamer or Hamer-Banna is a language within the South Omotic branch of the Afroasiatic language family. It is spoken primarily in southern Ethiopia by the Hamar people, Banna people, and by speakers of Karo.
Southern Oromo, or Borana, is a variety of Oromo spoken in southern Ethiopia and northern Kenya by the Borana people. Günther Schlee also notes that it is the native language of a number of related peoples, such as the Sakuye.
Dirasha is a member of the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic family. It is spoken in the Omo region of Ethiopia, in the hills west of Lake Chamo, around the town of Gidole.
Arbore is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken by the Arbore people in southern Ethiopia in a few settlements of Hamer woreda near Lake Chew Bahir.
Baiso or Bayso is an Afro-Asiatic, more specifically a Lowland East Cushitic language belonging to the Omo-Tana subgroup, and is spoken in Ethiopia, in the region around Lake Abaya.
Sheko is an Omotic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family spoken in the area between Tepi and Mizan Teferi in western Ethiopia, in the Sheko district in the Bench Maji Zone. The 2007 census lists 38,911 speakers; the 1998 census listed 23,785 speakers, with 13,611 identified as monolinguals.
Dizin is an Omotic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family spoken by the Dizi people, primarily in the Maji woreda of the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region, located in southwestern Ethiopia. The 2007 census listed 33,927 speakers. A population of 17,583 was identified as monolinguals in 1994.
Mungbam is a Southern Bantoid language of the Lower Fungom region of Cameroon. It is traditionally classified as a Western Beboid language, but the language family is disputed. Good et al. uses a more accurate name, the 'Yemne-Kimbi group,' but proposes the term 'Beboid.'
Babanki, or Kejom, is a Bantoid language that is spoken by the Babanki people of the Western Highlands of Cameroon.