Kwʼadza (Qwadza), or Ngomvia, is an extinct Afroasiatic language formerly spoken in Tanzania in the Mbulu District. The last speaker died sometime between 1976 and 1999.[1]
Classification
Kwʼadza is poorly attested, and apart from perhaps being close to Aasax, its classification is not certain. Although it has a large number of identifiably Cushitic roots, the non-Cushitic numerals itame 'one' and beʼa ~ mbɛa 'two' suggest a connection with Hadza, while haka 'four' suggests a connection with Sandawe. It is possible that Kwʼadza borrowed e.g. 'four' from Sandawe, but also that it was a non-Cushitic language whose speakers were undergoing language shift to Cushitic when it was recorded.[citation needed]
Phonology
The phonology is not certain, but the following has been suggested (Ehret 1980):
Consonants
| Labial | Alveolar | Post- alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | labial | ||||||||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | |||||
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k | kʷ | ʔ | |||
| voiced | b | d | ɡ | ɡʷ | |||||
| Affricate | dz | ||||||||
| Ejective | tsʼ | tɬʼ | tʃʼ | kʼ | kʼʷ | ||||
| Fricative | f | s | ɬ | x | xʷ | h | |||
| Approximant | β̞ | l | j | ||||||
/ɡ/ and /l/ have the allophones [dʒ] and [ɽ] before front vowels. /tʃʼ/ is 'mildly' ejective. Ehret reports that /kʼ/ and /kʼʷ/ are voiced [ɡ, ɡʷ] if a preceding consonant is voiced.
Vowels
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u |
| Close-mid | e | o |
| Open | a | |
Notes
- ^ a b Kwʼadza at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
References
- Christopher Ehret, 1980. "Kwʼadza vocabulary". ms.
This page was last edited on 9 June 2024, at 07:31