Masalit language
Maban language in Chad and Sudan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Masalit (autonym Masala/Masara; Arabic: ماساليت) is a Nilo-Saharan language of the Maban language group spoken by the Masalit people in Ouaddaï Region, Chad and West Darfur, Sudan.
RegionOuaddaï, Sila (Chad), West Darfur, South Darfur (Sudan)
EthnicityMasalit
Native speakers
980,000 (2022–2024)[1]| Masalit | |
|---|---|
| Kanaa Masarak | |
| Native to | Chad, Sudan |
| Region | Ouaddaï, Sila (Chad), West Darfur, South Darfur (Sudan) |
| Ethnicity | Masalit |
Native speakers | 980,000 (2022–2024)[1] |
Nilo-Saharan?
| |
| Latin | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Either:mls – Masalitmdg – Massalat |
| Glottolog | nucl1440 Nuclear Masalitmass1262 Massalat |
| ELP | Massalat |
Masalit, known as the Massalat, moved west into central-eastern Chad. Their ethnic population in Chad was 30,000 as of the 1993 census, but only 10 speakers of their language were reported in 1991.[2]
Phonology
Vowels
Consonants
- It has been stated that occasional click sounds [ǀ] and [ǃ] may occur, however; they are considered to be rare.
- Sounds /r, l, m, k/ can occur as geminated [rː, lː, mː, kː].
- Sounds /t, m, n, ŋ/ can occur as palatalized [tʲ, mʲ, nʲ, ŋʲ] before front vowels.
- /z, x/ only occur as a result of words of Arabic origin.
- [ʔ] is not a phonemic sound, and is only heard before word-initial vowels.
- Sounds /p, ɥ, v/ only occur in word-initial position.[3]
Sociolects
The Masalit language has two sociolects:
- "Heavy" Masalit, spoken by higher-ranking people and those in the countryside, with a complicated agglutinative grammar
- "Light" Masalit, spoken particularly in the home and in the market, with a somewhat simplified grammatical structure and many borrowings from Sudanese Arabic, the regional lingua franca and language of education.
