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Dahl's Law
Dahl's law (German: ''Das Dahlsche Gesetz'') is a sound rule in some of the Northeast Bantu languages that illustrates a case of voicing dissimilation. In the history of these languages, a voiceless stop, such as , became voiced () when immediately followed by a syllable with another voiceless stop. For example, Nyamwezi has ''-datu'' "three" where Swahili, a Bantu language that did not undergo Dahl's law, has ''-tatu'', and Shambala has ''mgate'' "bread" where Swahili has ''mkate''. Dahl's law is the reason for the name Gikuyu when the language prefix normally found in that language is ''ki-'' . The law was named in 1903 by Carl Meinhof in his paper "Das Dahlsche Gesetz": in the paper, Meinhof explains that he named the rule after his pupil, the Moravian missionary Edmund Dahl, who reported it in 1897 when visiting the Wanyamwezi tribe in Urambo. It is productive in Sukuma, in the Nyanyembe dialect of Nyamwezi, most E50 languages (such as Kikuyu, Embu and Meru) and some J ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
German (language)
German ( ) is a West Germanic language mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Italian province of South Tyrol. It is also a co-official language of Luxembourg and Belgium, as well as a national language in Namibia. Outside Germany, it is also spoken by German communities in France (Bas-Rhin), Czech Republic (North Bohemia), Poland (Upper Silesia), Slovakia (Bratislava Region), and Hungary (Sopron). German is most similar to other languages within the West Germanic language branch, including Afrikaans, Dutch, English, the Frisian languages, Low German, Luxembourgish, Scots, and Yiddish. It also contains close similarities in vocabulary to some languages in the North Germanic group, such as Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish. German is the second most widely spoken Germanic language after English, which is also a West Germanic language. German is one of the maj ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rwanda Language
Kinyarwanda, Rwandan or Rwanda, officially known as Ikinyarwanda, is a Bantu language and a dialect of the Rwanda-Rundi language that is spoken in Rwanda and adjacent parts of Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda (where there is a dialect known as Rufumbira or Urufumbira) and Tanzania. Kinyarwanda is universal among the native hearing population of Rwanda. The mutually intelligible Kirundi dialect is the national language of neighbouring Burundi. Kinyabwishya and Kinyamulenge are mutually intelligible dialects spoken in North Kivu and South Kivu provinces of neighbouring DR Congo. In 2010, the Rwanda Academy of Language and Culture (RALC) was established to help promote and sustain Kinyarwanda. The organization attempted an orthographic reform in 2014, but it was met with pushback due to their perceived top-down and political nature, among other reasons. Geographic distribution Kinyarwanda is spoken in Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sound Laws
A sound change, in historical linguistics, is a change in the pronunciation of a language. A sound change can involve the replacement of one speech sound (or, more generally, one phonetic feature value) by a different one (called phonetic change) or a more general change to the speech sounds that exist (phonological change), such as the merger of two sounds or the creation of a new sound. A sound change can eliminate the affected sound, or a new sound can be added. Sound changes can be environmentally conditioned if the change occurs in only some sound environments, and not others. The term "sound change" refers to diachronic changes, which occur in a language's sound system. On the other hand, " alternation" refers to changes that happen synchronically (within the language of an individual speaker, depending on the neighbouring sounds) and do not change the language's underlying system (for example, the ''-s'' in the English plural can be pronounced differently depending on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Makhuwa Language
Makhuwa (''Emakhuwa''; also spelt Makua and Macua) is the primary Bantu language of northern Mozambique. It is spoken by 4 million Makua people, who live north of the Zambezi River, particularly in Nampula Province, which is virtually entirely ethnically Makua.''Relatório do I Seminário sobre a Padronização da Ortografia de Línguas Moçambicanas''. NELIMO, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, 1989. It is the most widely spoken indigenous language of Mozambique. Apart from the languages in the same group, eMakhuwa is distinguished from other Bantu languages by the loss of consonant + vowel prefixes in favour of ''e''; compare ''epula'', "rain", with Tswana ''pula''. Long and short vowels distinguish five vowel qualities /i e a o u/, which is unusually sparse for a Bantu language: *''omala'' - to finish *''omaala'' - to paste, stick *''omela'' - to sprout, bud *''omeela'' - to share out The consonants are more complex: postalveolar ''tt'' and ''tth'' exist, both ''p'' and ''ph'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aspiration (phonetics)
In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of breathing, breath that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the Stop consonant#articulation, closure of some obstruents. In English, aspirated consonants are allophones in complementary distribution#In phonology, complementary distribution with their unaspirated counterparts, but in some other languages, notably most Languages of South Asia, South Asian languages (including Languages of India, Indian) and East Asian languages, the difference is Contrastive distribution#Phonology, contrastive. In dialects with aspiration, to feel or see the difference between aspirated and unaspirated sounds, one can put a hand or a lit candle in front of one's mouth, and say ''spin'' and then ''pin'' . One should either feel a puff of air or see a flicker of the candle flame with ''pin'' that one does not get with ''spin''. Transcription In the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), aspirated consonants are written usi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indo-European Languages
The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutch, and Spanish, have expanded through colonialism in the modern period and are now spoken across several continents. The Indo-European family is divided into several branches or sub-families, of which there are eight groups with languages still alive today: Albanian, Armenian, Balto-Slavic, Celtic, Germanic, Hellenic, Indo-Iranian, and Italic; and another nine subdivisions that are now extinct. Today, the individual Indo-European languages with the most native speakers are English, Hindi–Urdu, Spanish, Bengali, French, Russian, Portuguese, German, and Punjabi, each with over 100 million native speakers; many others are small and in danger of extinction. In total, 46% of the world's population (3.2 billion people) speaks an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Logooli Language
Logooli (alternate names: Lugooli, Llugule, Llogole, Luragoli, Uluragooli, Maragooli, Maragoli, or Ragoli; native name: ''Lulogooli'') is a Bantu language with several hundred thousand speakers in Kenya and a few hundred speakers in Mara Region, Tanzania. It is spoken by the Maragoli, the second-largest Luhya tribe, but is not particularly close to other languages spoken by the Luhya. See also * Great Lakes Bantu languages The Great Lakes Bantu languages, also known as Lacustrine Bantu and Bantu zone J, are a group of Bantu languages of East Africa. They were recognized as a group by the ''Tervuren'' team, who posited them as an additional zone (zone J) to Guthrie ... References Languages of Kenya Luhya language {{Narrow Bantu languages, J-M Great Lakes Bantu languages ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Luhya Language
Luhya (; also Luyia, Luhia or Luhiya) is a Bantu language of western Kenya. Dialects The various Luhya tribes speak several related languages and dialects, though some of them are no closer to each other than they are to neighboring non-Luhya languages. For example, the Bukusu people are ethnically Luhya, but the Bukusu dialect is a variety of Masaba. (See Luhya people for details.) However, there is a core of mutually intelligible In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. It is sometimes used as an ... dialects that comprise Luhya proper: *Hanga *Tsotso *Marama *Kisa *Kabras *East Nyala Comparison A comparison between two dialects of Luhya proper, and to two other Bantu languages spoken by the Luhya: Comparison to Bantu Phonology The following is the phonology of the Luwanga dialect ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Taveta Language
Taveta or Tubeta is a Northeast Coast Bantu language spoken by the Taveta people of Kenya. It is closely related to Pare (called Chasu by speakers). Taveta was confused with Dawida by Jouni Maho in his (2009) classification. Christian Literature Items in Taveta were first published by Anglican missionaries. Rev. Albert Remington Steggall worked with a native called Yohana Nene Mdighirri, to translated the Scriptures into Taveta. In 1892 the Gospels of Mark and John were published as ''Sumu Yedi ya Isa Masiya, hena Marko and Sumu Yedi, yakwe Yohana''. They were printed at the Church Mission Society CMS Station. In 1894, the epistles 1-3 John were published. In 1896 The Gospels according to St. Matthew and St. Luke were published by BFBS as ''Sumu Yedi yakwe Yesu Masihi hena Mattayo'' and ''Sumu Yedi yakwe Yesu Masihi (niye Jesus Christ) hena Luka''. In 1897 the book of Exodus was published as ''Kitamo cha keri cha Musa chaitangwa ‘Kufuma’'', printed at the Office of the Tave ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kamba Language
Kamba, or Kikamba, is a Bantu language spoken by millions of Kamba people, primarily in Kenya, as well as thousands of people in Uganda, Tanzania, and elsewhere. In Kenya, Kamba is generally spoken in four counties of Kenya, counties: Machakos County, Machakos, Kitui County, Kitui, Makueni County, Makueni, and Kwale County, Kwale. The Machakos dialect is considered the standard variety and has been used in translation. The other major dialect is Kitui. Kamba has lexical similarities to other Bantu languages such as Kikuyu language, Kikuyu, Meru language, Meru, and Embu language, Embu. The Swedish National Museums of World Culture holds field recordings of kamba language made by Swedish ethnographer Gerhard Lindblom in 1911–12. Lindblom used phonograph cylinders to record songs along with other means of documentation in writing and photography. He also gathered objects, and later presented his work in ''The Akamba in British East Africa'' (1916)''.'' Phonology Vowels ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
