Kwʼadza language
| Kwʼadza | |
|---|---|
| Ngomvia | |
| Native to | Tanzania |
| Region | Mbulu |
| Extinct | 1980s[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | wka |
wka.html | |
| Glottolog | kwad1248 |
| ELP | Kw'adza |
Kwʼadza (Qwadza), or Ngomvia, is an extinct South Cushitic language formerly spoken in Tanzania in the Mbulu District. The last speaker died sometime between 1976 and 1999.[1]
Classification
[edit ]Kwʼadza is poorly attested, and apart from perhaps being close to Aasax, its classification is not certain. Although it has a large number of identifiably Cushitic roots, the non-Cushitic numerals itame 'one' and beʼa ~ mbɛa 'two' suggest a connection with Hadza, while haka 'four' suggests a connection with Sandawe. It is possible that Kwʼadza borrowed e.g. 'four' from Sandawe, but also that it was a non-Cushitic language whose speakers were undergoing language shift to Cushitic when it was recorded.[citation needed ]
Phonology
[edit ]The phonology is not certain, but the following has been suggested (Ehret 1980):
Consonants
[edit ]| Labial | Alveolar | Post- alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | labial | ||||||||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | |||||
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k | kw | ʔ | |||
| voiced | b | d | ɡ | ɡw | |||||
| Affricate | dz | ||||||||
| Ejective | tsʼ | tɬʼ | tʃʼ | kʼ | kʼw | ||||
| Fricative | f | s | ɬ | x | xw | h | |||
| Approximant | β̞ | l | j | ||||||
/ɡ/ and /l/ have the allophones [dʒ] and [ɽ] before front vowels. /tʃʼ/ is 'mildly' ejective. Ehret reports that /kʼ/ and /kʼw/ are voiced [ɡ,ɡw] if a preceding consonant is voiced.
Vowels
[edit ]| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u |
| Close-mid | e | o |
| Open | a | |
Notes
[edit ]- ^ a b Kwʼadza at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon
References
[edit ]- Christopher Ehret, 1980. "Kwʼadza vocabulary". ms.
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