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Bilen language

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Cushitic language spoken in Eritrea

Bilen
ብሊን (Blin)
Native to	Eritrea
Region	Anseba,Keren
Ethnicity	Bilen
Native speakers	72,000 (2022)^[1]
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Cushitic Agaw Northern Bilen–Xamtanga Bilen
Dialects	Senhit T'aqwur
Writing system	Geʽez Latin
Official status
Recognised minority language in	Eritrea
Language codes
ISO 639-2	`byn`
ISO 639-3	`byn`
Glottolog	`bili1260`
ELP	Bilen
Linguistic map of Eritrea; Bilen is spoken in the dark blue region
This article containsIPA phonetic symbols. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead ofUnicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA.

This article containsEthiopic text. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Ethiopic characters.

TheBilen language (ብሊናb(ɨ)lina orብሊንb(ɨ)lin) is spoken by theBilen people in and around the city ofKeren inEritrea. It is the onlyAgaw (Central Cushitic) language spoken inEritrea. It is spoken by about 72,000 people.^[1]

Spelling of the name

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"Blin" is the English spelling preferred by native speakers,^{[citation needed]} butBilin andBilen are also commonly used.Bilin is the reference name arbitrarily used in the current initial English editions of ISO 639-3, butBlin is also listed as an equivalent name without preference. In the English list of ISO 639-2,Blin is listed in first position in both English and French lists, whenBilin is listed as an alternate name in the English list, andBilen is the alternate name in the French list. TheEthnologue report listsBilen as the preferred name, but alsoBogo, Bogos, Bilayn, Bilin, Balen, Beleni, Belen, Bilein, Bileno, North Agaw as alternative names.

Phonology

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It is not clear if Bilen has tone. It may havepitch accent (Fallon 2004) as prominent syllables always have a high tone, but not all words have such a syllable.

Vowels

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Vowel phonemes
	Front	Central	Back
High	i	ɨ	u
Mid	e	ə	o
Low		a

Consonants

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Note:/tʃ/ is found in loans, and the status of/ʔ/ as aphoneme is uncertain.

/r/ is typically realised as atap when it is medial and atrill when it is in final position.

Consonant phonemes
		Labial	Alveolar	Palato- (alveolar)	Velar		Pharyn- geal	Glottal
		Labial	Alveolar	Palato- (alveolar)	plain	labialized	Pharyn- geal	Glottal
Plosive / Affricate	voiceless		t	(tʃ)	k	kʷ		(ʔ)
	voiced	b	d	dʒ	ɡ	ɡʷ
	ejective		tʼ	tʃʼ	kʼ	kʷʼ
Nasal		m	n		ŋ	ŋʷ
Fricative	voiceless	f	s	ʃ	x	xʷ	ħ	h
Fricative	voiced		z				ʕ
Rhotic			r
Approximant			l	j		w

Fallon (2001, 2004) notes intervocaliclenition, such as/b/ →[β];syncope, as in the name of the language,/bɨlín/ →[blín];debuccalization with secondary articulation preserved, as in/dérekʷʼa/ →[dɛ́rɛʔʷa] 'mud for bricks'. Intriguingly, the ejectives have voiced allophones, which according to Fallon (2004) "provides an important empirical precedent" for one of the more criticized aspects of theglottalic theory of Indo-European. For example,

Ejective consonant	Voiced allophone	Gloss
/laħátʃʼɨna/	[laħádʒɨna]	'to bark'
/kʼaratʃʼna/	[kʼaradʒna]	'to cut'
/kʷʼakʷʼito/	[ɡʷaʔʷito]	'he was afraid'

Writing system

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Geʽez abugida

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A writing system for Bilen was first developed by missionaries who used theGeʽez abugida and the first text was published in 1882. Although the Geʽez script is usually used forSemitic languages, the phonemes of Bilen are very similar (7 vowels, labiovelar and ejective consonants). The script therefore requires only a slight modification (the addition of consonants forŋ andŋʷ) to make it suitable for Bilen. Some of the additional symbols required to write Bilen with this script are in the "Ethiopic Extended"Unicode range rather than the "Ethiopic" range.

**Blin Ethiopic Characters**
IPA	e	u	i	a	ie	ɨ/-	o	ʷe	ʷi	ʷa	ʷie	ʷɨ/-
h	ሀ	ሁ	ሂ	ሃ	ሄ	ህ	ሆ
l	ለ	ሉ	ሊ	ላ	ሌ	ል	ሎ
ħ	ሐ	ሑ	ሒ	ሓ	ሔ	ሕ	ሖ
m	መ	ሙ	ሚ	ማ	ሜ	ም	ሞ
s	ሰ	ሱ	ሲ	ሳ	ሴ	ስ	ሶ
ʃ	ሸ	ሹ	ሺ	ሻ	ሼ	ሽ	ሾ
r	ረ	ሩ	ሪ	ራ	ሬ	ር	ሮ
kʼ	ቀ	ቁ	ቂ	ቃ	ቄ	ቅ	ቆ	ቈ	ቊ	ቋ	ቌ	ቍ
ʁ	ቐ	ቑ	ቒ	ቓ	ቔ	ቕ	ቖ	ቘ	ቚ	ቛ	ቜ	ቝ
b	በ	ቡ	ቢ	ባ	ቤ	ብ	ቦ
t	ተ	ቱ	ቲ	ታ	ቴ	ት	ቶ
n	ነ	ኑ	ኒ	ና	ኔ	ን	ኖ
ʔ	አ	ኡ	ኢ	ኣ	ኤ	እ	ኦ
k	ከ	ኩ	ኪ	ካ	ኬ	ክ	ኮ	ኰ	ኲ	ኳ	ኴ	ኵ
x	ኸ	ኹ	ኺ	ኻ	ኼ	ኽ	ኾ	ዀ	ዂ	ዃ	ዄ	ዅ
w	ወ	ዉ	ዊ	ዋ	ዌ	ው	ዎ
ʕ	ዐ	ዑ	ዒ	ዓ	ዔ	ዕ	ዖ
j	የ	ዩ	ዪ	ያ	ዬ	ይ	ዮ
d	ደ	ዱ	ዲ	ዳ	ዴ	ድ	ዶ
dʒ	ጀ	ጁ	ጂ	ጃ	ጄ	ጅ	ጆ
ɡ	ገ	ጉ	ጊ	ጋ	ጌ	ግ	ጎ	ጐ	ጒ	ጓ	ጔ	ጕ
ŋ	ጘ	ጙ	ጚ	ጛ	ጜ	ጝ	ጞ	ⶓ	ⶔ	ጟ	ⶕ	ⶖ
tʼ	ጠ	ጡ	ጢ	ጣ	ጤ	ጥ	ጦ
tʃʼ	ጨ	ጩ	ጪ	ጫ	ጬ	ጭ	ጮ
f	ፈ	ፉ	ፊ	ፋ	ፌ	ፍ	ፎ
z	ዘ	ዙ	ዚ	ዛ	ዜ	ዝ	ዞ
ʒ	ዠ	ዡ	ዢ	ዣ	ዤ	ዥ	ዦ
tʃ	ቸ	ቹ	ቺ	ቻ	ቼ	ች	ቾ
ɲ	ኘ	ኙ	ኚ	ኛ	ኜ	ኝ	ኞ
sʼ	ጸ	ጹ	ጺ	ጻ	ጼ	ጽ	ጾ
pʼ	ጰ	ጱ	ጲ	ጳ	ጴ	ጵ	ጶ
p	ፐ	ፑ	ፒ	ፓ	ፔ	ፕ	ፖ
v	ቨ	ቩ	ቪ	ቫ	ቬ	ቭ	ቮ
IPA	e	u	i	a	ie	ɨ/-	o	ʷe	ʷi	ʷa	ʷie	ʷɨ/-

Latin alphabet

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In 1985 theEritrean People's Liberation Front decided to use theLatin script for Bilen and all other non-Semiticlanguages in Eritrea. This was largely a political decision: the Geʽez script is associated withChristianity because of itsliturgical use. The Latin alphabet is seen as being more neutral and secular. In 1993 the government set up a committee to standardize the Bilen language and the Latin-based orthography. "This overturned a 110-year tradition of writing Blin in Ethiopic script." (Fallon,Bilen Orthography^[2])

As of 1997, the alphabetic order was:

e, u, i, a, é, o, b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, z, ñ, ñw, th, ch, sh, kh, kw, khw, qw, gw.

Their values are similar to the IPA apart from the following:

Letter	Value
é	ɨ
c	ʕ
j	dʒ
q	kʼ
x	ħ
y	j
ñ	ŋ
th	tʼ
ch	tʃʼ
sh	ʃ
kh	x

References

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^^a ^bBilen atEthnologue (27th ed., 2024)
^Paul D. Fallon (18 September 2006)."Blin Orthography: A History and an Assessment"(PDF). Retrieved1 June 2014.

Alibekit, Tekie; Hamde, Kiflemariam; Zemicael, Fessehazion (2010) [1994]."Some Standardization of Blin Writing"(PDF). Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 2014-06-05. Retrieved20 February 2012.
Daniels, Peter T.; Bright, William, eds. (1996). "Ethiopic Writing".The World's Writing Systems. Oxford University Press. p. 573.ISBN 978-0-19-507993-7.
Fallon, Paul D."Consonant Mutation and Reduplication in Blin Singulars and Plurals"(PDF). In Mugane, John; Hutchison, John P.; Worman, Dee A. (eds.).Selected Proceedings of the 35th Annual Conference on African Linguistics. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project. pp. 114–124.ISBN 978-1-57473-410-2. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 2006-05-11.
"Principles and Specification for Mnemonic Ethiopic Keyboards"(PDF). The Ge'ez Frontier Foundation. 2009-01-17. Retrieved20 February 2012.
Woldemikael, Tekle M. (April 2003)."Language, Education, and Public Policy in Eritrea".African Studies Review.doi:10.2307/1514983.JSTOR 1514983. Archived fromthe original on 2010-09-15.

External links

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Online Blin language tutorial

Appleyard, David L. (2007). "Bilin Morphology". In Kaye, Alan S. (ed.).Morphologies of Asia and Africa. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns. pp. 481–504.
Fallon, Paul (2001). Simpson (ed.)."Some phonological processes in Bilin".Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society.27 (2): 49.doi:10.3765/bls.v27i2.3421.ISSN 2377-1666.
Fallon, Paul (2004). "The Best is Not Good Enough". In Akinlabi, Akinbiyi; Adesola, Oluseye (eds.).Proceedings of the 4th World congress of African linguistics: Rutgers University, New Brunswick (NJ), June 17–22, 2003. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe.ISBN 978-3-89645-338-9.
Palmer, F. R. (1957). "The Verb in Bilin".Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies.19 (1):131–159.doi:10.1017/S0041977X00119251.JSTOR 609637.S2CID 162081536.
Palmer, F. R. (June 1958). "The Noun in Bilin".Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies.21 (2):376–391.doi:10.1017/S0041977X0007275X.JSTOR 610548.S2CID 170094313.
Palmer, F. R. (1965). "Bilin 'to be' and 'to have'".African Language Studies.6:101–111.
Reinisch, Leo (1882).Die Bilīn-sprache in Nordost-Afrika (in German). Vienna: Carl Gerold's Sohn.
Reinisch, Leo.Die Bilin-sprache (in German). Leipzig.LCCN 44015707.
Reinisch, Leo (1884).Wörterbuch der Bilin-Sprache. Vienna: Alfred Hölder.
Tucker, A. N.; Bryan, M. A. (1966).Linguistic Analyses: The Non-Bantu Languages of North-Eastern Africa. Oxford University Press.

v t e Languages of Eritrea
Working languages	Tigrinya Arabic English
National languages	Tigrinya Afar Beja Bilen Kunama Nara Saho Tigre
Other languages	Bitama Dahalik Italian
Main foreign languages	Italian Malay