| Korandje | |
|---|---|
| Kwarandzyey | |
| Native to | Algeria |
| Region | Tabelbala,Béchar Province |
| Ethnicity | Belbali |
Native speakers | 3,000 (2010)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | kcy |
| Glottolog | kora1291 |
| ELP | Kwarandzyey |
 | |
Korandje (Korandje:kwạṛa n dzyəy;Arabic:البلبالية,romanized: al-Balbaliyyah) is aNorthern Songhay language[3] which is by far the most northerly of theSonghay languages. It is spoken around the Algerian oasis ofTabelbala by about 3,000 people; its name literally means "village's language". While retaining a basically Songhay structure, it is extremely heavily influenced byBerber andArabic; about 20% of the 100-wordSwadesh list of basic vocabulary consists of loanwords from Arabic or Berber, and the proportion of the lexicon as a whole is considerably higher.[4]
The only published studies of Korandje based on first-hand data are Cancel (1908),[5] a 45-page article by a French lieutenant covering basic grammar and vocabulary and a couple of sample texts; Champault (1969),[6] an anthropological study containing some incidental linguistically relevant materials such as sentences and rhymes; Tilmatine (1991, 1996),[7] an article (published in German, then reworked in French) revisiting Cancel and Champault and adding about a page of new data recorded by the author; and Souag (2010a, 2010b),[8] the former arguing the case forWestern Berber loans in the lexicon, the latter studying the effect of contact with Berber and Arabic on its grammar.
No complete phonological study of Korandje, systematically justified by minimal pairs, has yet been made. According to Souag (2010),[9] the vowel system consists of lax ə, ŭ [ʊ], ə̣̣ [ʌ] and tense a [a], i, u, ạ [ɑ], ụ [o], while the consonant system is as follows:
| Labial | Coronal | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Pharyngeal | Glottal | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | lab. | plain | pha. | plain | lab. | plain | lab. | |||||
| Nasal | m | mʷ | n | |||||||||
| Plosive | voiceless | t | tˤ | k | kʷ | q | qʷ | ʔ | ||||
| voiced | b | bʷ | d | dˤ | g | gʷ | ||||||
| Affricate | voiceless | t͡s | ||||||||||
| voiced | d͡z | |||||||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | fʷ | s | sˤ | (ʃ) | x | xʷ | ħ | h | ||
| voiced | z | zˤ | (ʒ) | ɣ | ɣʷ | ʕ | ||||||
| Approximant | w | l | lˤ | j | ||||||||
| Trill | r | rˤ | ||||||||||
Items in brackets are not normally used by older speakers. A bilabial click is attested in one baby-talk word.
An earlier proposal by Nicolaï (1981),[10] based on a very limited corpus of recordings provided by Champault, suggested a smaller phoneme inventory:
| Labial | Coronal | Palatal | Velar | Labiovelar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosives | b | t d | k ɡ | kʷ ɡʷ | ||
| Affricates | ts dz | |||||
| Approximants | l | j | w | |||
| Fricatives | f | s z | ʃ ʒ | ɣ | h | |
| Nasals | m | n | ||||
| Trill | r |
alongsidepharyngealised consonantsṭ ḍ ṣ ẓ ṇ ḥ as well asx q, found mainly in loanwords, and a six-vowel system:a, i, u, e, o, andə (schwa).
The pronouns are:aγəy, I;ni, you;ana, he/she/it;yayu, we;ndzyu, you (plural);ini, they. Possessive forms areʕan, my;nən, your;an, his/her/its;yan, our;ndzən, your (pl.);in, their. Subject agreement prefixes on the verb areʕa- I;n-, you;a-, he/she/it;ya-, we;ndz-, you (plural);i-, they.
The infinitive and singular imperative are both the stem (e.g.kani "sleep"); the plural imperative takes a prefixwə- (wə-kkani "sleep! (pl.)"). Cancel describes theconjugations as follows (also forxani):
| English | Preterite | English | Aorist |
|---|---|---|---|
| I slept | a xani | I sleep | a (ba) am xani |
| you slept | n(e) xani | you sleep | n ba am xani |
| he/she/it slept | a xani | he/she/it sleeps | a âm xani |
| we slept | ia xani | we sleep | ia âm xani |
| you (pl.) slept | nd'(a) xani | you (pl.) sleep | nd'ba âm xani |
| they slept | ia xan | they sleep | iba am xani |
According to Tilmatine, verbs are negated by surrounding them with`as ... hé/hi, e.g.ni `as ba enγa hé >n`esbanγa hé "do not eat!". "No" ishoho orho:n'd'xani bînu, willa ho? "did you sleep yesterday, or not?".
The most productive plural marker is theclitic=yu:
tsəksi
"goat"
>
tsəks=yu
"goats"
tsəksi > tsəks=yu
"goat" {} "goats"
This marker comes at the end of the "core noun phrase", the unit consisting of noun+numeral+adjective+demonstrative:
Some Berber loans retain versions of their original plurals, usually with thecircumfix(ts)i-...-ən,
awṛəẓ
"heel"
>
iwṛạẓən
"heels"
awṛəẓ > iwṛạẓən
"heel" {} "heels"
While the morphemes involved are clearly of Berber origin, the details of this system differ from any one attested Berber language, and this plural is extended to at least one item of Songhay origin,tsạṛə̣w "spoon" >tsiṛạwən. Some Arabic loans similarly retain Arabic plurals.
The possessive is expressed by the particlen, with the possessor preceding the possessed:
The only non-Arabic numbers in normal use area-ffu "one",inka "two", andinẓa "three". There also exist "cryptic" (argot) and children's counting systems. The syntax of numerals in the noun phrases is complicated.