Jump to content

Tera language

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Nyimatli language)
Tera
Nyimalti
RegionNigeria
Native speakers
101,000 (2000)[1]
Dialects
  • Pidlimdi (Kurba, Hinna and Deba)
Language codes
ISO 639-3ttr
Glottologtera1251
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Tera is a Chadic dialect cluster spoken in north-eastern Nigeria in the north and eastern parts of Gombe State and Borno State.[2] Blench (2006) believes Pidlimdi (Hinna) dialect is a separate language.[3]

Varieties

[edit]

Blench lists these language varieties as part of the Tera language cluster.[4]

  • Nyimatli
  • Pidlimdi
  • Bura Kokura

Phonology

[edit]
Consonants[5]
Labial Alveolar Post-al.
/Palatal
Velar Glottal
plain palatal. central lateral plain labial.
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Stop1 plain p b t2 d2 2 2 k ɡ ɡʷ
prenasal. ᵐb ⁿd ᶮdʒ ᵑɡ ᵑɡʷ
implosive ɓ ɓʲ ɗ ɠ
Fricative f v s z ɬ ɮ ʃ ʒ x ɣ ɣʷ h3
Approximant plain l j w
glottal. 4
Trill r
^1 Voiceless plosives are lightly aspirated but unreleased before another consonant.[6]
^2 /t/ and /d/ formally had /tʃ/ and /dʒ/ respectively as allophones but the two pairs have split; however, the alveolar plosives never precede front vowels and the postalveolar affricates rarely precede anything but front vowels.[6]
^3 /h/ is a relatively new phoneme, appearing in loanwords from English and Hausa.[6]
^4 /jˀ/ derives from a /ɗʲ/ that has lost its alveolar contact while retaining the palatal and glottal action.[6]
Monophthongs of Tera, from Tench (2007:230)
Diphthongs of Tera, from Tench (2007:231)
Vowels[7]
Front Central Back
Close i ɨ u
Mid e o
Open a

Vowel length contrasts are neutralized in monosyllabic words with no coda consonants.[7]

All vowels but /a/ and /aː/ are more open in closed syllables such as in [ɮɛp] ('to plait') and [xʊ́r] ('to cook soup'). /a/ and /aː/ tend to be fronted to [æ, æː] when following palatalized consonants.[8]

Diphthongs, which have the same length as long vowels, consist of a non-high vowel and a high vowel:[8]

Diphthong Example Orthography Gloss
/eu/ /ɓeu/ ɓeu 'sour'
/oi/ /woi/ woi 'child'
/ai/ /ɣài/ ghai 'town'
/au/ /ɮàu/ dlau 'sickle'
  • Phonetically, these diphthongs are [e̞ʊ, o̞ɪ, ɐɪ, ɐʊ].[8]

Tone

[edit]

Tera is a tonal language, distinguishing high, mid and low tone. Tone is not indicated orthographically since no minimal trios exist; minimal pairs can be distinguished by context.[9]

Orthography

[edit]

The first publication in Tera was Labar Mbarkandu nu Yohanna Bula Ki, a translation of the Gospel of John, which established an orthographic system. In 2004, this orthographic system was revised.[2]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Tera at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ a b Tench (2007:227)
  3. ^ Blench, 2006. The Afro-Asiatic Languages: Classification and Reference List (ms)
  4. ^ Blench, Roger (2019). An Atlas of Nigerian Languages (4th ed.). Cambridge: Kay Williamson Educational Foundation.
  5. ^ Tench (2007:228)
  6. ^ a b c d Tench (2007:229)
  7. ^ a b c d Tench (2007:230)
  8. ^ a b c Tench (2007:231)
  9. ^ Tench (2007:232)

Bibliography

[edit]