Day | |
---|---|
Native to | southern Chad |
Native speakers | (50,000 cited 1993 census) [1] |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | dai |
Glottolog | dayy1236 |
Day (also spelled Daye) is an Adamawa language of southern Chad, spoken by 50,000 or so people southeast of Sarh. Ethnologue reports that its dialects are mutually intelligible, but Blench (2004) lists Ndanga, Njira, Yani, Takawa as apparently separate languages.
Pierre Nougayrol's publications and field notes of Day from the 1970s constitute almost all of the available materials on the Day language. [2] [3] [4]
Güldemann (2018) notes that Day has few morphological and lexical features that are typical of Niger-Congo, and hence cannot be classified with certainty. [5]
Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Plosive | p b | t d | ɟ | k g | ʔ |
Implosive | ɓ | ɗ | |||
Prenasalized | ᵐb | ⁿd | ᶮɟ | ᵑg | |
Fricative | v | s | h | ||
Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | |
Approximant | w | r l | j |
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
High | i iː | u uː | |
Mid-high | e eː ẽ ẽː | ə̃ ə̃ː | o oː õ õː |
Mid-low | ɔ ɔː | ||
Low | a aː |
There are three tones: high, low, and mid. [2]
Some fish names in Day: [3]
Day (Bouna) | Scientific name |
---|---|
gàgà | Chrysichthys auratus |
jí yēē | Hepsetus odoe |
gūrú | Heterobranchus bidorsalis |
bɔ́gɔ̀ | Heterotis niloticus |
sɔ̄rɔ̄ŋ | Ophiocephalus obscurus |
jīɲ | Protopterus annectens |
kɔ̀tɔ̀kúnɔ̀ | Tetraodon fahaka |
Other animal names:
Plant names in Day: [3]
The Gur languages, also known as Central Gur or Mabia, belong to the Niger–Congo languages. They are spoken in the Sahelian and savanna regions of West Africa, namely: in most areas of Burkina Faso, and in south-central Mali, northeastern Ivory Coast, the northern halves of Ghana and Togo, northwestern Benin, and southwestern Niger. A few Gur languages are spoken in Nigeria. Additionally, a single Gur language, Baatonum, is spoken in Benin and in the extreme northwest of Nigeria. Three other single Gur languages, the Tusya, Vyemo and Tiefo languages, are spoken in Burkina Faso. Another unclassified Gur language, Miyobe, is spoken in Benin and Togo. In addition, Kulango, Loma and Lorhon, are spoken in Ghana, Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso. Additionally, a few Mossi speakers are in Senegal, and speakers of the Dagaare language are also found in Cameroon. The Samu languages of Burkina Faso are Gur languages.
The West Atlantic languages of West Africa are a major subgroup of the Niger–Congo languages.
The Songhay, Songhai or Ayneha languages are a group of closely related languages/dialects centred on the middle stretches of the Niger River in the West African countries of Mali, Niger, Benin, Burkina Faso and Nigeria. In particular, they are spoken in the cities of Timbuktu, Djenné, Niamey, Gao, Tillaberi, Dosso, Parakou, Kandi, Natitingou, Djougou, Malanville, Gorom-Gorom, In-Gall and Tabelbala. They have been widely used as a lingua franca in that region ever since the era of the Songhai Empire. In Mali, the government has officially adopted the dialect of Gao as the dialect to be used as a medium of primary education.
The Bua languages are a subgroup of the Mbum–Day subgroup of the Savanna languages spoken by fewer than 30,000 people in southern Chad in an area stretching roughly between the Chari River and the Guéra Massif. They were labeled "G13" in Joseph Greenberg's Adamawa language-family proposal. They are ultimately part of the Niger–Congo family, and have exerted a significant influence on Laal.
The Adamawa languages are a putative family of 80–90 languages scattered across the Adamawa Plateau in Central Africa, in northern Cameroon, north-western Central African Republic, southern Chad, and eastern Nigeria, spoken altogether by only one and a half million people. Joseph Greenberg classified them as one branch of the Adamawa–Ubangi family of Niger–Congo languages. They are among the least studied languages in Africa, and include many endangered languages; by far the largest is Mumuye, with 400,000 speakers. A couple of unclassified languages—notably Laal and Jalaa—are found along the fringes of the Adamawa area.
The Mbum or Kebi-Benue languages are a group of the Mbum–Day branch of the Adamawa languages, spoken in southern Chad, northwestern Central African Republic, northern Cameroon and eastern Nigeria. Their best-known member is Mbum; other languages in the group include Tupuri and Kare.
The Savannas languages, also known as Gur–Adamawa or Adamawa–Gur, is a branch of the Niger–Congo languages that includes Greenberg's Gur and Adamawa–Ubangui families.
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