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Daasanach (also known as Dasenech, Daasanech, Dathanaik, Dathanaic, Dathanik, Dhaasanac, Gheleba, Geleba, Geleb, Gelebinya, Gallab, Galuba, Gelab, Gelubba, Dama, Marille, Merile, Merille, Morille, Reshiat, Russia) is a Cushitic language spoken by the Daasanach in Ethiopia, South Sudan and Kenya whose homeland is along the Lower Omo River and on the shores of Lake Turkana.

Phonology

Consonants

• A glottal may also occur in word-initial position, when preceding vowels in various positions
• /ð/ may freely alternate with an alveolar among speakers.
• /w/ may be heard as a fricative when before front vowels.
• Sounds /t̪, k/ can be heard as spiranted in intervocalic positions. /k/ can also be heard as uvular when in between back vowel sounds.
• /k/ can be heard as a uvular when before back vowel sounds.
• /ɗ̠/ in intervocalic positions can be deglottalized, and heard as either retroflex sounds or .

Vowels

Writing system

Jim Ness and Susan Ness of Bible Translation and Literacy and Wycliffe Bible Translators devised a practical spelling and published a 1995 alphabet book. Yergalech Komoi and Gosh Kwanyangʼ published another alphabet book in 1995. An edition of the Gospel of Mark was published in 1997, and other Bible translations were published with this spelling in 1999. The alphabet was later revised, with the digraph ⟨dh⟩ replaced by a bowl-struck đ (approximately ⟨d̶⟩).

Vowels can be given with the acute accent, ⟨á, é, í, ó, ú⟩, or the circumflex accent ⟨â, ê, î, ô, û⟩.

Notes

1. Daasanach at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)
2. Raymond G. Gordon Jr., ed. 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 15th edition. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
3. Tosco 2001, p. 16-34.
4. ^ Tosco 2001, p. 7.
5. ^ Nyingole & Kwanyangʼ 2013a.
6. ^ Nyingole & Kwanyangʼ 2013b.

Further reading

• Sasse, Hans-Jürgen. 1976. "Dasenech" in: Bender, M. Lionel (ed.): The Non-Semitic Languages of Ethiopia. pp. 196–221. East Lansing: African Studies Center.
• Tosco, Mauro (2001). The Dhaasanac Language: Grammar, Texts, Vocabulary of a Cushitic Language of Ethiopia. Cushitic Language Studies. Vol. 17. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag. ISBN 978-3-89645-064-7.
• "Warꞌgát Hátlé Ke Túóy Muogká ꞌDéé Um Ke Oonootká". SIL International. 15 September 2022.
• "Af Daasanach Tuony Mé Gáá Koonlé". SIL International. 15 September 2022.

External links

• Linguistic map of Daasanach language at Muturzikin.com
• World Atlas of Language Structures information on Dhaasanac

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