| Shilluk | |
|---|---|
| Dhøg Cøllø | |
| Pronunciation | [d̪ɔɡcɔllɔ] |
| Native to | South Sudan |
| Region | Upper Nile State |
| Ethnicity | Shilluk |
Native speakers | 570,000 (2017)[1] |
| Dialects |
|
| Latin | |
| Official status | |
Official language in | Shilluk Kingdom |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | shk |
| Glottolog | shil1265 |
Shilluk (nativelyDhøg Cøllø,[d̪ɔ́(ɡ)cɔ̀llɔ̀])[2] is a language spoken by theShilluk people ofSouth Sudan. It is closely related to otherLuo languages. The term Shilluk is a pronunciation ofArabic origin.[3]
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i[i] i̠[i̠] ɪ[ɪ] ɪ̠[ɪ̠] | u[u] u̠[u̠] ʊ[ʊ] ʊ̠[ʊ̠] | |
| Mid | e[e] e̠[e̠] ɛ[ɛ] ɛ̠[ɛ̠] | o[o] o̠[o̠] ɔ[ɔ] ɔ̠[ɔ̠] | |
| Open | ʌ[ʌ] ʌ̠[ʌ̠] a[a] a̠[a̠] |
Each of these vowels also exists in a long form and an overlong form which arephonemic.[4][5]
Shilluk, like mostNilotic languages, differentiates vowels according to their place of articulation. They are either pronounced withadvancement of the root of the tongue or with retraction of the root of the tongue. Gilley uses the terms "extended larynx" or "blown vowel".
The vowels with advancement of the root of the tongue are[i],[e],[o],[ɔ],[a] and their corresponding long variants. The vowels with retraction of the root of the language are denoted by amacron below the letter:[i̠],[e̠],[o̠],[ɔ̠],[u̠] and[a̠] and their corresponding long variants.
| Labial | Coronal | Dorsal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | |||
| Nasal | m[m] | n̪[n̪] | n[n] | ɲ[ɲ] | ŋ[ŋ] | |
| Plosive | voiceless | p[p] | t̪[t̪] | t[t] | c[c] | k[k] |
| voiced | b[b] | d̪[d̪] | d[d] | j[ɟ] | g[ɡ] | |
| Fricative | s[s] | |||||
| Liquid | rhotic | r[r] | ||||
| lateral | l[l] | |||||
| Glide | w[w] | y[j] | ||||
Shilluk has a rich inventory oftones, with at least seven distinctive tone patterns or tonemes.[5]
There are three level tonemes: Low, Mid and High. In addition, there are four contours – the Rise and three falling configurations: Fall, High Fall and Late Fall. These are denoted by the following diacritics:
| Tone description | Diacritic | Tone bars | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Level | Low | cv̀c (grave accent) | ꜖ |
| Mid | cv̄c (macron) | ꜔ | |
| High | cv́c (acute accent) | ꜒ | |
| Contoured | Rising | cv̌c (caron) | ꜖꜔ |
| Falling | cv̂c (circumflex) | ꜔꜖ | |
| High Falling | cv̂́c (circumflex with acute accent) | ꜒꜖ | |
| Late Falling | cv́c̀ (acute accent followed by grave accent) | ꜒꜒꜖ |
Uninflected native stemsyllables are overwhelmingly monosyllabic. With few exceptions, these monosyllabic stems typically consist of an onset, a vowel (nucleus), and a coda. Their structure is: C(Cj/w)V(V)(V)C.[5]
Monosyllabic stems give rise to polysyllabic words through processes ofderivation orinflection. For verbs and nouns alike, the most common prefixes are /a- ʊ-/, and the most common suffixes are /-Cɪ -ɪ -a (-ɔ)/.[5] Further, alternations of vowel length and tone play an important part in inflectional morphology.[6]
Shilluk transitive verbs have a phonological root that consists of a single closed syllable of the form /C(j/w)V(V)C/. "That is, the root vowel is either short or long, and clustering of consonants is restricted to the onset, where either of the semivowels /w,j/ may follow another consonant."[6] There are seven classes distinguished by alternations in terms of vowel length and tone. These differences are illustrated by subject-voice past, past second-person singular, and object-voice imperfective in the table below.
| Verb classes | Fixed short | Short with grade | Long | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low | Low fall | Low | Low fall | Low | Low fall | High fall | |
| Example | {ŋɔ̀l} ‘cut’ | {lɛ̂ŋ} ‘drum’ | {càm} ‘eat’ | {mʌ̂l} ‘roast’ | {lɛ̀ɛŋ} ‘throw’ | {mâat̪} ‘drink’ | {mấal} ‘praise’ |
| SV past | á-ŋɔ̀l | á-lɛ̂ŋ | á-càm | á-mʌ̂l | á-lɛ̀ɛŋ | á-mâat̪ | á-mấal |
| Past 2SG | á-ŋɔ̀l | á-lɛ̂ŋ | á-càaam | á-mʌ̂ʌʌl | á-lɛ̀ɛɛŋ | á-mâaat̪ | á-mấaal |
| OV IMPF | ʊ̀-ŋɔ̀l-ɔ̀ | ʊ̀-lɛ̂ŋ-ɔ̀ | ʊ̀-càaam-ɔ̀ | ʊ̀-mʌ̂ʌʌl-ɔ̀ | ʊ̀-lɛ̀ɛɛŋ-ɔ̀ | ʊ̀-mâaat̪-ɔ̀ | ʊ̀-mấaal-ɔ̀ |
Noun inflection is characterized byhead marking:pertensive andconstruct-state are both inflections that mark thehead, not thedependent. For example, English hasa person's rodent, where the head isrodent, and the possessive marking is on the dependentperson's. In contrast, Shilluk has a pretensive affix on the head (e.g.,dúup = "rodent",dû́uup = "rodent belonging to").[7]
Number is marked, but no predictable system has been identified. Instead, there are over 140 different patterns of number marking on nouns.[7]
Numerals in Shilluk are nouns.[7]
ALatin alphabet was developed for Shilluk byChristian missionaries in the early 20th century.[8] There are 29 characters in Shilluk orthography; 10 vowels and 19 consonants.[9]
| a | á | à | ä | aa | b | c | d | dh | e | é | è | ë | ee | f | g |
| i | í | ì | ï | ii | j | k | l | lg | lh | ly | m | ng | nh | ny | o |
| ó | ò | ö | oo | p | q | r | t | th | u | ú | ù | ü | uu | v | w |
| x | y | ø |
In 1912,Diedrich Westermann publishedThe Shilluk People, their Language and Folklore,[10] which contains a wide selection of texts in the Shilluk language with English translations; there are 61 tales in addition to prayers, songs and riddles. The book also contains a Shilluk grammar.[11] Here are some of the riddles:
For a selection of over 200 Shilluk proverbs and riddles with German translations, seeDie Schilluk. Geschichte, Religion und Leben eines Niloten-stammes by Wilhelm Hofmayr.[12] This book also contains songs in Shilluk, and some of the songs have an accompanying musical transcription.[13]
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