Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-nwzlb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-29T10:46:01.259Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Kunama

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 April 2009

John Abraha Ashkaba
Affiliation:
Department of African Languages and Cultures, School of Oriental and African Studies, Thornkaugh St., Russell Sq., London WC1H 0XG., U.K.
Richard Hayward
Affiliation:
Department of African Languages and Cultures, School of Oriental and African Studies, Thornkaugh St., Russell Sq., London WC1H 0XG., U.K.

Extract

The Kunama are a people of western Eritrea. Kunama (/ku1naa23ma2/) is their selfname, and they call their language /ku1naa23ma1 au23ra2/ or /ki1naa23ma1 ɲeel23a2/ but this is usually referred to by Western scholars simply as ‘Kunama’. It is a language of the Nilo-Saharan phylum, though its family affiliations within that phylum are still a matter of debate; cf. Bender 1989; Ehret 1989. Overall, Kunama has approximately 100,000 speakers. It comprises seven lects (John Abraha Ashkaba 1999), the most widely known of which are Barka (/ba2ka2/) and Marda (/mar2da32/). The present work is based on the latter, though the differences between these two lects is not very great.

Type
Illustrations of the IPA
Copyright
Copyright © Journal of the International Phonetic Association 1999

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Banti, G. 1994. On Kunama Tones. Paper presented at the 24th Colloquium on African Languages and Linguistics. Leiden.Google Scholar
Bender, M.L. 1989. Nilo-Saharan pronouns/demonstratives. In Bender, M.L. (editor), Topics in Nilo-Saharan Linguistics. 131. (Nilo-Saharan Volume 3). Hamburg: Helmut Buske Verlag.Google Scholar
Bender, M.L., 1996. Kunama. München: Lincom Europa.Google Scholar
Zappa, Castelnuovo Del, Da, Giuseppe-Fermo, (1938). Grammatica della lingua cunama. Asmara: Missione Francescana.Google Scholar
Connell, B., Hayward, R., and Ashkaba, John Abraha, forthcoming. ‘Observations on Kunama tone (Barka dialect).’Google Scholar
Conti Rossini, C. (1903). Per la conoscenza della lingua cunama. Giornale Societa Asiatica Italiana 16: 187227.Google Scholar
Ehret, C. (1989). Subclassification of Nilo-Saharan: a proposal. In Bender, M.L. (editor), Topics in Nilo-Saharan Linguistics, 3549. (Nilo-Saharan Volume 3). Hamburg: Helmut Buske Verlag.Google Scholar
Ashkaba, John Abraha (1999.) Prerequisites for a Kunama - English Dictionary. Unpublished MA dissertation, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.Google Scholar
Boris, Nikodimos (1987). Sentence Structure of Kunama. Unpublished BA dissertation, Addis Ababa University.Google Scholar
Reinisch, L. (1881). Die Kunama-Sprache in Nordost-Afrika. Akadamie der Wissenschaften 98. Wien.Google Scholar
Thompson, D.E. (1983). Kunama: Phonology and Noun Phrase. In Bender, M.L. (editor), Nilo-Saharan Studies, 280322. (Monograph No. 13, Committee on Northeast African Studies). East Lansing, Michigan: .Michigan State University.Google Scholar
Thompson, D.E., (1989). Kunama Verb Phrase: In Bender, M.L. (editor), Topics in Nilo-Saharan Linguistics, 305346. (Nilo-Saharan Volume 3). Hamburg: Helmut Buske Verlag.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Ashkaba and Hayward sound files

Sound files zip. These audio files are licensed to the IPA by their authors and accompany the phonetic descriptions published in the Journal of the International Phonetic Association. The audio files may be downloaded for personal use but may not be incorporated in another product without the permission of Cambridge University Press

Download Ashkaba and Hayward sound files(File)
File 2.3 MB