Acheron (Asheron) is a Niger–Congo language in the Talodi family spoken in South Kordofan, Sudan.
| Acheron | |
|---|---|
| Asheron | |
| Native to | Sudan |
| Region | Nuba Hills |
Native speakers | 20,000 (2006)[1] 9,800 in home area (2006)[1] |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | acz |
| Glottolog | ache1245 |
| ELP | Acheron |
 Acheron is classified as Severely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger | |
Acheron derives from the Arabic word aɟɟur-uun [sic] which means "innocent people",[2] it was later "indigenised as /acʊrʊn/"[3] and turned into /aʃərɔn/. The autoethonym in Acheron is /wɑ-rəmɛ/ for the people and /ɡə-rəmɛ/ for the language.[2]
The number of active speakers is estimated to be 9,800.[2] This number includes the community members and "diaspora speakers" in other Sudanese towns and abroad.[2]
Phonology
editConsonants
edit| Bilabial | Dental | Alveolar | Post- alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | voiceless | pː | t̪ː | t | k | kː | |||
| voiced | b | d̪ | d | ɟ | g | gw | |||
| Fricative | voiceless | s | sː | ||||||
| voiced | ð | z | |||||||
| Nasal | short | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||||
| long | mː | nː | ɲː | ŋː | |||||
| Trill | r | rː | |||||||
| Tap | ɽ | ||||||||
| Approximant | short | l | j | w | |||||
| long | lː | wː | |||||||
Norton (2000) calls /s/ and /k/ "stiff cord" segments, saying they are always voiceless, with other short plosives and fricatives varying in voicing.[4]
Vowels
edit| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | [+ATR] | i | u | |
| [-ATR] | ɪ | ʊ | ||
| Mid | ɛ | ə | ɔ | |
| Open | a | |||
Norton (1995) posited 10 vowels: 5 [-ATR] /ɪ, ɛ, a, ɔ ʊ/ and 5 [+ATR] /i, e, ɜ, o, u/.[6] However, Norton (2013) has 8 vowels: [-ATR] /ɪ, ɛ, ə, ɑ, ɔ, ʊ/ and [+ATR] /i u/.[2]
Notes
edit- ^ a b Acheron at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ a b c d e Norton 2013, p. 195.
- ^ Stevenson 1956, p. 102, quoted in Norton 2013, p. 195
- ^ a b Norton 2000, p. 24.
- ^ Norton 2013, pp. 208.
- ^ Norton 1995, quoted in Norton 2013, p. 195
References
edit- Norton, Russell (1995). Variation and change in the phonology of Asheron (MA thesis). University of Essex.
- Norton, Russell (2000). "The noun classes of Asheron". Occasional Papers in the Study of Sudanese Languages. 8: 23–55.
- Norton, Russell (2013). "The Acheron vowel system: a participatory approach". In Blench, Roger; Schadeberg, Thilo (eds.). Nuba Mountain Language Studies. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe. pp. 195–217. ISBN 978-3-89645-427-0.
- Stevenson, Roland C. (1956). "A survey of the phonetics and grammatical structure of the Nuba Mountain languages, with particular reference to Otoro, Katcha and Nyimang". Afrika und Übersee. 40: 73–84, 93–115.
Further reading
edit- Stirtz, Timothy M. (1 January 2015). "Schadeberg, Thilo C. and Roger M. Blench: Nuba Mountain Language Studies". Journal of African Languages and Linguistics. 36 (1). doi:10.1515/jall-2015-0006. ISSN 0167-6164. S2CID 151944262.
External links
edit
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