Chara (alternatively Ciara or C’ara) is an Afro-Asiatic language of the North Omotic variety spoken in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region of Ethiopia by 13,000 people.

Chara
Pronunciationsʼaːra[1]
Native toEthiopia
Native speakers
13,000 (2007 census)[2]
None
Language codes
ISO 639-3cra
Glottologchar1269
ELPC'ara
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Status

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Chara is geographically situated to the southeast of Nayi, west of Kullo, northeast of Mesketo, and northwest of Gofa.[3] Chara speakers live in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region, in the Debub Omo Zone, on both sides of the Omo river.[4] Chara speakers are scattered in three villages in Ethiopia: Geba a meša, Buna Anta, and Kumba.[1] Native speakers may also speak Melo, Wolaytta (54% lexical similarity with Chara) to the east, and Kafa to the west.[4]

Phonology

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Consonants

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Consonant phonemes of Chara[5]
Labial Alveolar Palatoalveolar/
Palatal
Velar Glottal
Nasal1 m n [ɲ]
Plosive Voiceless p t k ʔ
Voiced b d ɡ
Ejective
Implosive ɓ (ɗ)
Affricate Voiceless ts
Voiced
Ejective tɕʼ
Fricative [f] s ɕ, (ʑ) h
Approximant w j
Trill r
Lateral l

[p] and [f] are in free variation.[6] /ɗ/ only occurs in the word /jalɗa~jaltʼa/ 'crooked'.[5] Yilma (2002) found /ɓ/ to occur five times in around 550 lexical items.[6] He also found /ʑ/ occurring in two, both in the sequence /iʑa/.[6] Occurrence of /ɗ/ and /pʼ/ may be governed by dialectal variation.[6]

Vowels

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Vowel phonemes of Chara[6]
Front Central Back
Close i u
Mid e o
Open a

/a/ is realized as [ə] in unstressed word-medial syllables.[7]

Length is minimally contrastive.[6] Minimal pairs include /mola/ 'fish', /moːla/ 'egg'; /masa/ 'to wash', /maːsa/ 'leopard'; /buna/ 'flower', /buːna/ 'coffee'.[6]

Suprasegmentals

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Chara has phonemic stress.[7] Examples: /ˈbakʼa/ 'to slap', /baˈkʼa/ 'empty'; /ˈwoja/ 'to come', /woˈja/ 'wolf'.[7]

Morphophonemics

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Morpheme-initial nasals assimilate point of articulation to that of the preceding consonant, usually found when verbs are suffixed with the singular imperative morpheme /-na/, e.g. /dub-na/ "to hit.imp" → [dubma] 'hit!'.[8]

Grammar

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Morphology

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Chara generally uses noun case suffixes and postpositions.[4]

Nouns are inflected for gender, number, definiteness, case, and possession.[9] These are all suffixes, except for the possessive.[9]

Gender pairs are usually lexical, except for a few with /-i/ in the masculine and /-a/ in the feminine.[9] Examples:[9]

/mansa/ 'ox', /mija/ 'cow'
/izi/ 'he', /iza/ 'she'

Nouns and adjectives inflect for plural with the suffix /-eːndi/.[9] Examples:[10]

/ina/ 'mother', /ineːndi/ 'mothers'
/dala/ 'while (sg.)', /daleːndi/ 'white (pl.)'

Definiteness in nouns is marked with the suffix /-naːzi/ (as an independent word meaning 'the male/man') for masculines and /-ena/ for feminines.[11] Adjectives take /-bi/ in the masculine and /-ena/ in the feminine.[11] Examples:[11]

/mansa/ 'ox', /mansanaːzi/ 'the ox'
/mija/ 'cow', /mijena/ 'the cow/
/karta/ 'black', /kartabi/ 'the black (m.)', /kartena/ 'the black (f.)'

Nouns and adjectives may be marked for nominative, accusative, dative, genitive, ablative, instrumental, or vocative case.[12] The nominative suffix is /-i/, accusative /-(i)s/, dative /-(i)ri/, genitive /-e/, ablative /-kaj/, instrumental /-ne/, and vocative /-o/.[12]

Chara pronouns[13]
Person Independent Possessive
(s) (pl) (s)
1 /tani/ /noːne~nuni/ /tareri/
2 /neːni/ /inˈti/ /nereri/
3 (m) /izi/ /itsendi/ /izeri/
(f) /iza/

Bound possessive pronouns: /ta-mija/ 'my cow', /ne-mija/ 'your cow', /iza-mija/ 'his cow'.[14]

Syntax

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Chara is a subject–object–verb language.[4]

Adjectives end in /-a/ like nouns, and inflect for number, definiteness, plurality, and case.[15] In noun phrases adjectives precede their nouns, and are not inflected.[15]

Examples

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Numerals 1-10[16]
Number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Chara issa: nanta: keza: obda: uchcha sa:fun la:pun nandirse biza: tantsa:

Notes

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References

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  • Yilma, Aklilu (1995), "Some notes on the Chara language: Sound system and noun morphology", S.L.L.E. linguistic reports 32: 2-12
  • Survey of Chara, Dime, Melo and Nayi, part 1. Yilma, Aklilu; Siebert, Ralph. 1995. S.L.L.E. linguistic reports 25: 2-8. oai:sil.org:36294
  • Yilma, Aklilu; Siebert, Ralph (2002). "Sociolinguistic survey report of the Chara, Dime, Melo and Nayi languages of Ethiopia part 1" (PDF). SIL Electronic Survey Reports 2002-029. Retrieved 2009-08-12.
  • Yilma, Aklilu (2002). "Sociolinguistic Survey Report on the Chara Language of Ethiopia" (PDF). SIL Electronic Survey Reports 2002-032. Retrieved 2009-08-12.
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