Mbugu language

Phonology

Consonants

Normal Mbugu distinguishes 29 consonants. Inner Mbugu distinguishes an additional four: , for a total of 33. The table below displays the consonants of Mbugu in IPA format, along with Mous' (1995) practical orthography in angle brackets where it differs from IPA.

The voiced stop series can be realized as either explosives or implosives . According to Mous especially the bilabial is most often an implosive. Ehret describes the series as comprising three implosives ), but an explosive at the velar position.

Ehret describes also a prenasalized palatal , and transcribes in place of , standing in Afrasianist phonetic notation for a postalveolar . He notes the consonant to occur only in the Bantu component of the vocabulary and assumes consonant clusters in stead of voiceless prenasalized consonants.

Vowels

Both registers of Mbugu distinguish five vowels.

Tone

Three tones are distinguished in Mbugu: high, low, and falling. Low tone is default (unmarked). High tone is represented with an acute accent , while falling tone is represented with the sequence .

Lexicon

Mbugu is noted above all for its lexicon, which as noted is split in two distinct registers: the Bantu-derived Normal Mbugu and the largely Cushitic-derived Inner Mbugu, in earlier descriptions treated as a distinct language in its entirety. Mbugu has thus at least two synonyms for almost every basic concept: a Normal Mbugu word and a semantically exact equivalent Inner Mbugu word. Unlike typical loanword layers, Inner Mbugu has thorough coverage of basic vocabulary and of verb roots. This has given Mbugu notoriety as a case example of a mixed language, especially in the earlier conception where Ma'a would be a distinct language from Normal Mbugu, thus comprising Bantu grammar but little to no Bantu vocabulary.

Several sources are recognized for the divergent Inner Mbugu lexicon. Approximately 60% derive from various branches of Cushitic, including the West Rift languages; an unidentified Eastern Cushitic source similar to Oromo; Dahalo; and possibly also Yaaku and the extinct and unrecorded Taita Cushitic. Many of these can be identified by the appearance of the Cushitic-derived phonemes , and . Other parts of the Inner Mbugu lexicon are derived also from other languages in the area, such as Maasai (possibly specifically the Parakuyo dialect) and Zigua. Speculative proposals on yet further sources have appeared, such as Carl Meinhof having suggested a West African source similar to Ewe. Directly neighboring Bantu languages such as Shambala (Shambaa) have also contributed recent loanwords to Mbugu, but these are not restricted to Inner Mbugu and might appear in both registers. A number of word derivation means also exist for converting Normal Mbugu words into Inner Mbugu versions. An affix -é is common, and also e.g. conversion of the lateral approximant into the lateral fricative has been noted.

The lexicon of Normal Mbugu is, by contrast, typical Bantu and closely akin to Pare, though it too contains recent loanwords e.g. from Swahili.

References

Literature

References

1. Kießling, Roland. (2001). "New Data and New Methods in Afroasiatic Linguistics". Harassowitz.
2. Blench, Roger. (2006). "Classification of Afroasiatic".