Cebaara (Tyebala), one of a cluster of languages called Senari, is a major Senufo language, spoken by a million people in Ivory Coast.
| Cebaara | |
|---|---|
| Senari | |
| Native to | Ivory Coast |
Native speakers | (860,000 cited 1993)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | sef |
| Glottolog | ceba1235 |
Phonology
editCebaara has the following sound inventory:[2]
Consonants
edit| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labio- velar |
Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | c | k | k͡p | ʔ |
| voiced | b | d | ɟ | ɡ | ɡ͡b | ||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ||||
| voiced | v | z | |||||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | |||
| Rhotic | r | ||||||
| Lateral | l | ||||||
| Approximant | j | w | |||||
- /b/ can be heard as a voiced fricative [β] when in intervocalic position.
- Voiceless stops /p, t/ can occur as slightly voiced before /i/ as [p̬, t̬]
- /s/ can be palatalized before an /i/, and can be recognized as a post-alveolar fricative [ʃ] before another vowel in /siV/ position.
- Palatal sounds /c, ɟ/ can also be heard as affricate sounds [t͡ʃ, d͡ʒ] within free variation.
- /ŋ/ can also be heard as a post-nasal [ɡ ̃] within word final positions.[3]
Vowels
edit| Oral vowels | Nasal vowels | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front | Central | Back | Front | Central | Back | |
| Close | i iː | u uː | ĩ ĩː | ũ ũː | ||
| Close-mid | e eː | ə | o oː | |||
| Open-mid | ɛ ɛː | ɔ ɔː | ɛ̃ ɛ̃ː | ɔ̃ ɔ̃ː | ||
| Open | a aː | ã ãː | ||||
- Vowels /e, o/ can be realized as [ɪ, ʊ] when in shortened form.
References
edit- ^ Cebaara at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ Soro, Tenena Moise (1986). On Senari Tense and Aspect: An Analysis of the Cebaari of Korhogo. Northwestern University.
- ^ Roulon-Doko, Paulette (1968). Essai d'une phonologie du tyembara, dialecte senoufo parlé à Korhogo. Bulletin de la SELAF (Société des Etudes Linguistiques et Anthropologiques de France), 9.) Paris.