Bongor Arabic

Bongor Arabic
Native to	Chad
Language family	Arabic-based creole Turku Arabic Bongor Arabic
Early form	Bimbashi Arabic
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	bong1302

Bongor Arabic is an Arabic-based creole language that serves as a lingua franca in and around the town of Bongor, Chad. ^{[1] [2]} It is a direct descendant of Turku Arabic, a former lingua franca of Chad. ^[2]

Main changes

These are some of the main distinctive features of Bongor Arabic: ^[3]

• long vowels are replaced by short stressed vowels.
• /x/ tends to be replaced by /k/.
• /f/ tends to be replaced by /p/.
• /ʕ/ is lost.
• no gender distinction.
• no definite article (al-/il-).
• no personal affixes on verbs.
• the root system typical to Arabic and other Semitic languages is no longer productive.

Vocabulary

Bongor [2]	Origin [2]	English
žurnalíst	From French journaliste	journalist
zúska	From French jusqu'à	when; during
kalám	From Arabic كلام‎kalām	speech; to speak
wotír	From French voiture	car
úsum	From Arabic اسم‎ism	name
wáy	From Arabic واحد‎wāħid	one

References

1. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Bongor Arabic". Glottolog 3.0 . Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
2. Manfredi, Stefano; Lucas, Christopher (2019). Arabic and Contact-induced Change. Language Science Press. pp. 323–325. ISBN   9783961102518.
3. Lafkioui, Mena (2013). African Arabic: Approaches to Dialectology. Germany: De Gruyter. p. 162. ISBN   9783110292343.