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Abidji language
Kwa language spoken in Ivory Coast From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Abidji (also known as Abiji and Ambidji) is a language of uncertain classification within the Kwa branch of the Niger–Congo family. It is spoken in the Ivory Coast.[2]
It has two dialects: "enyembe" and "ogbru". These dialects' names are used by the members of these Abidji-speaking ethnic groups to refer to themselves. The name Ambidji was given to the language by these groups' neighbors.[3]
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Villages
Abidji is spoken in these villages:[4]
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Writing system
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Abidji is written with a Latin alphabet, using the graphemes of the practical writing for the languages of the Ivory Coast. The letter upsilon ⟨Ʊ, ʊ⟩ is often replaced with the V with hook ⟨Ʋ, ʋ⟩.
The nasal vowels are written with ⟨n⟩ (⟨m⟩ before ⟨p⟩ and ⟨b⟩): ⟨an, en, ɛn, in, on, ɔn, un, ʊn ou ʋn, ɩn⟩.
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Phonology
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Consonants
Vowels
All vowels except /e/ have contrastive nasal forms.[5]
Abidji's phonology is characterized by vocal harmony: its 9 vowels are divided into two sets, based on the position of the root of the tongue at the time of articulation.
- The vowels /i, e, u, o/ are fronted because they are articulated with the root of the tongue at the front of the mouth.
- The vowels /ɩ, ɛ, ʋ, ɔ/ are retracted because they are articulated with the root at the back.
- The vowel /a/ behaves like a retracted vowel in verbal forms, but in nominal forms, it can appear with both fronted and retracted vowels (ex: atingbre: "trail"; abrɛbɛ: "pineapple")
- All the vowels included in a single word belong to one of these two sets: yɔfʋ: love; kikeu: "shake".
All of these 9 vowels can be nasalized. Beyond that, Abidji only contains open syllables, with the sole exception being the first syllable of the worse darsɛ: "metal pot", likely a loanword.[2]
Tones
Abidji is a tonal language. Therefore the pitch of each syllable plays a role in the meaning of words or conjugated form of a verb. Abidji has two phonemic tones, described as high /˦/ and low /˨/.[5] These can be attached to one or two vowels (e.g. kpan (H): "all"; kpan (HL)).[2]
Grammar
The language's most distinct grammatical aspect is it's verbal system, which is highly structured. Abidji contains 4 verb groups which are distinguished by their combination of tonal and syllabic arrangements.
The first group contains verbs with a monosyllabic root which cannot accommodate modulated tones (e.g. mɩkan: "I say" (L - H))
The second group contains verbs with a monosyllabic root which can carry a modulated tone (e.g. mɩkan: "I have" (L - HL))
The third group contains verbs with a polysyllabic root in which each syllable can only carry a singular tone (e.g. mubutu: "I ask" (L - H - L))
The fourth group only contains 5 exceptionally common verbs ("to go"; "to come"; "to eat"; "to die"; and "to fight") for which the verbal root alternates between a sequence of h followed by a vowel ('hi'), a sequence of two vowels ('ie'), and a sequence of ʔ followed by three vowels, based upon the conjugation of the verb in a given aspect/tense (e.g. mehi: "I come"; mie: "I came"; ʔieu: "to come" (infinitive))
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Dialectic differences
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Lexical differences between the enyembe et ogbru dialects:[4]
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Noun construction
References
External links
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