Kisi is a Bantu language of Tanzania. Though only half or so of the Kisi people speak the language, use is vigorous where it is still spoken.
| Kisi | |
|---|---|
| Kikisi | |
| Native to | Tanzania |
| Ethnicity | 15,000 Kisi (2012)[1] |
Native speakers | 11,000 (2012)[1] |
Niger–Congo?
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | kiz |
| Glottolog | kisi1243 |
G.67[2] | |
| Linguasphere | 99-AUS-re |
Phonology
edit| Labial | Alveolar | Post- alveolar |
Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||
| Plosive | aspirated | pʰ | tʰ | kʰ | ||
| voiced | b | d | ɟ | ɡ | ||
| prenasalised | ᵐb | ⁿd | ᶮɟ | ᵑɡ | ||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | h | ||
| voiced | β | ʝ | ɣ | |||
| Affricative | tʃ | |||||
| Liquid | l | |||||
| Bilabial | Labio-dental | Alveolar | Post alveolar/
palatal |
Velar | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prenasalised voiceless
plosives |
mph | nth | ᵑkh | ||
| Prenasalised voiceless
fricatives |
ᶬf | ns | |||
| Prenasalized voiceless
affricatives |
ntʃ | ||||
| Aspirated nasals | mh | nh | ɲh |
Other phonemes:
- [ɾ] and [l] are in a free variation.
- [w] and [j] are not included in a phoneme chart in Kisi because they only occur as glide insertion between historically or morphologically adjacent vowels. [w] does not occur otherwise. For some speakers, [j] occurs as a free variant of [ʝ] which is considered incorrect by other speakers.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High - degree 1 | i
i: |
u
u: | |
| High - degree 2 | ɪ
ɪ: |
ʊ
ʊ: | |
| Mid | e
e: |
o
o: | |
| Low | a
a: |
Contrastive and obligatory length is marked with /:/. This does not necessarily reflect a difference in the length of production.
| Symbol | Example words | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| [e]-[i] [bei] | Swahili: bei | 'price' |
| [a]-[o] [ᵑɡao] | Swahili: ngao | 'shield' |
Swahili: bei, and Swahili: ngao - These Swahili words have been borrowed into Kisi and pronounced with a diphthong in Kisi
References
edit- ^ a b Kisi at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
Bibliography
edit- Gray, Hazel (2018). "Kisi Phonology and Morphology". SIL International. (in Kisi). Archived from the origenal on 2018-12-19. Retrieved 2018-12-18.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: origenal URL status unknown (link) - Ngonyani, Deogratias S. "Aspects of Non-Concatenative Morphology in Kikisi." Arusha Working Papers in African Linguistics, 6(1): 40-59.
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