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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.

Status

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

Phonology

Consonants

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

Vowels

/a/ is realized as in unstressed word-medial syllables.

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

Suprasegmentals

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

Morphophonemics

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" → 'hit!'.

Grammar

Morphology

Chara generally uses noun case suffixes and postpositions.

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

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

/mansa/ 'ox', /mija/ 'cow'

/izi/ 'he', /iza/ 'she'

Nouns and adjectives inflect for plural with the suffix /-eːndi/. Examples:

/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. Adjectives take /-bi/ in the masculine and /-ena/ in the feminine. Examples:

/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. The nominative suffix is /-i/, accusative /-(i)s/, dative /-(i)ri/, genitive /-e/, ablative /-kaj/, instrumental /-ne/, and vocative /-o/.

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

Syntax

Chara is a subject–object–verb language.

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

Examples

Notes

1. ^ Yilma (2002:4)
2. Ethiopia 2007 Census
3. Yilma & Siebert (2002:4)
4. ^ Chara language at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
5. ^ Yilma (2002:4–5)
6. ^ Yilma (2002:5)
7. ^ Yilma (2002:6)
8. Yilma (2002:7)
9. ^ Yilma (2002:8)
10. Yilma (2002:8–9)
11. ^ Yilma (2002:9)
12. ^ Yilma (2002:9–11)
13. Yilma (2002:11–12)
14. Yilma (2002:12)
15. ^ Yilma (2002:11)
16. Numbers in Afro-Asiatic Languages

References

• 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.

External links

• Resources in and about the Chara language
• Chara basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database

• North Omotic languages
• Languages of Ethiopia