Garre (also known as Af-Garre) is an
Afro-Asiatic language spoken by the
Garre
The Garre (also Gurreh, Karre, "Binukaaf") ( Somali: ''Reer Garre'', Arabic: بنو كاف, romanized: ''Banī kāf'' ) is a major Somali clan whose origins trace back to Samaale who traces the lineage from the Arabian Peninsula through Aqiil ...
people inhabiting southern
Somalia
Somalia, , Osmanya script: 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒕𐒖; ar, الصومال, aṣ-Ṣūmāl officially the Federal Republic of SomaliaThe ''Federal Republic of Somalia'' is the country's name per Article 1 of thProvisional Constituti ...
,
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
and northern
Kenya
)
, national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"()
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Nairobi
, coordinates =
, largest_city = Nairobi
...
. It belongs to the family's
Cushitic
The Cushitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken primarily in the Horn of Africa, with minorities speaking Cushitic languages to the north in Egypt and the Sudan, and to the south in Kenya and Tanzania. As o ...
branch, and has an estimated 2.5 million speakers. Garre language is considered an ancient Somali dialect.Af-Garre is in the
Digil classification of Somali dialects. Garre language is readily intelligible to
Digil speaker as it has some affinity with
Af-Maay
Mai-Mai, commonly spelled Maay Maay (also known as ''Af-Maay'', ''Af-Maymay'', or simply ''Maay''; the ''Mai-Mai'' spelling is rarely used but it is most often spoken), is a dialect of the Somali language of the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asia ...
and
Af-Boon.
Classification
They constitute the carrier of pre-Hawiya clans: "They occur in four large autonomous groups: on the lower reaches of the
Shebelle
The Shebelle River ( so, Webi Shabeelle, ar, نهر شبيلي, am, እደላ) begins in the highlands of Ethiopia, and then flows southeast into Somalia towards Mogadishu. Near Mogadishu, it turns sharply southwest, where it follows the coast. ...
in
Audegle District, around
Dolo
Dolo is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Venice, Veneto, Italy. It is connected by the SP26 provincial road and is one of the towns of the Riviera del Brenta.
The growth of the town of Dolo is due to the gradual downsizing of t ...
on the
upper Juba, between the
Webi Gesiro and the
Webi Mana in contact and to some extent intermixed with the
Arussi Galla, and to the south-west between the
Ajuran and
Digodia Somali and the
Boran Galla of the Northern Frontier Province of Kenya. The northernmost group adjacent to the
Galla Arussi have acquired some features of Galla culture;
Galla and
Somali are both spoken.
Gala Arussi villages are intermixed with those of the Gerra (called
Gurra by Bottego) but are kept separate from those of the Somali. The
Gerra of this region have traditions similar to those of the other
Garre
The Garre (also Gurreh, Karre, "Binukaaf") ( Somali: ''Reer Garre'', Arabic: بنو كاف, romanized: ''Banī kāf'' ) is a major Somali clan whose origins trace back to Samaale who traces the lineage from the Arabian Peninsula through Aqiil ...
group.
The exclusively are divided into two groups ,
Garre Tuuf and
Garre Quranyow, The Quranyow dialect is strongly influenced by
Maay
Mai-Mai, commonly spelled Maay Maay (also known as ''Af-Maay'', ''Af-Maymay'', or simply ''Maay''; the ''Mai-Mai'' spelling is rarely used but it is most often spoken), is a dialect of the Somali language of the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiat ...
and that they claimed that
Tuuf dialect is the pure Af-Garre.
This affirm that while not associating the two dialects with different geographical areas, garre language is the "''one of the most heterogeneous dialects of Somali''", for example the loss of prefix conjugation between the Garre in
Baydhaba region, as in Maay, the dominant language in the area, of versus to its conservation among the Garre of
Qoryooley and
Buurhakaba
Burhakaba ( so, Buurhakaba) is a town located in the Bay region in Somalia.
The town takes its name from a big mountain in the city's center.
Overview
Burhakaba is the second largest town in the Bay region, with a reported population of 360,795 ...
.
Garre language is in the
Digil classification of Somali dialects, other
Digil Somali dialects are;
Af-Tunni,
Af Dabarre and
Af-Jiddu.
The
digil dialects is the most heterogenous dialectal group of all the Somali Democratic Republic and it is indeed questionable, whether the
Digil dialects form a single group, or whether each single Digil dialects constitutes its separate group. This does not apply so much to
Tunni
The Tunni (Somali: Tunni) are a Somali clan that make up part of the wider Digil-Rahanweyn branch. It is one of the major clans that inhabit in the South West State of Somalia and can also be found in Jubbaland.
Overview
The Tunni clan are spl ...
and
Dabarre but it does to
Garre
The Garre (also Gurreh, Karre, "Binukaaf") ( Somali: ''Reer Garre'', Arabic: بنو كاف, romanized: ''Banī kāf'' ) is a major Somali clan whose origins trace back to Samaale who traces the lineage from the Arabian Peninsula through Aqiil ...
.
We anticipate our doubts about the legitimacy of including the
Garre
The Garre (also Gurreh, Karre, "Binukaaf") ( Somali: ''Reer Garre'', Arabic: بنو كاف, romanized: ''Banī kāf'' ) is a major Somali clan whose origins trace back to Samaale who traces the lineage from the Arabian Peninsula through Aqiil ...
to the Digil dialects, both on the basis of agnatic considerations (''the Garre not being Digil at all, nor Sab, but
pre-Hawiya'')
and linguistic: the traits that connect Garre to the dialects of the river region are essentially phonological ( for example, 'absence of
pharyngals),
syntactic (the marking of interrogation suffixed to the verb, in part the system of marking the focus),
lexicals and
morphology
Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to:
Disciplines
* Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts
* Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies ...
Geographic Distribution
For a reconstruction of the historical movements of the af-Garre which places its original site in the
interfluvial area, perhaps near the upper
River Juba, the dialect described the one spoken by the
Garre (especially Tuuf) of the
Basso Shabeelle: the garre of this area would be the only ones to have maintain their language specific to them; as for the Garre of the
Mandera region
"''Around Dolo on the upper Juba'' "and, further west, up to
Moyale
Moyale is a market town on the border between Ethiopia and Kenya, and is the administrative centre for two Ethiopian woredas, Moyale of Oromia Region and Moyale of Somali Region.
Moyale is the main border post on the Nairobi-Addis Ababa road, ...
, they speak essentially a
Borana dialect, most as their bilingual language; and then there is
Garre Libin (Garre of the West that is Ethiopia and Kenya) and Garre
Kofar (Garre in Qoroyoley)
Af-Garre is spoken in the districts of
Baydhaba,
Dhiinsor,
Buurhakaba
Burhakaba ( so, Buurhakaba) is a town located in the Bay region in Somalia.
The town takes its name from a big mountain in the city's center.
Overview
Burhakaba is the second largest town in the Bay region, with a reported population of 360,795 ...
and
Qoryooley is one of the heterogeneous dialect of Somalia; in fact, some Garreh dialects ( those in
Buurhakaba
Burhakaba ( so, Buurhakaba) is a town located in the Bay region in Somalia.
The town takes its name from a big mountain in the city's center.
Overview
Burhakaba is the second largest town in the Bay region, with a reported population of 360,795 ...
and
Qoryooley) have, for instance, preserved the conjugations with prefixes to date, while others (those of
Baydhaba) have already given it up. Also, the typical Digil plural morpheme
—''tə'' has been replaced in some
Garre
The Garre (also Gurreh, Karre, "Binukaaf") ( Somali: ''Reer Garre'', Arabic: بنو كاف, romanized: ''Banī kāf'' ) is a major Somali clan whose origins trace back to Samaale who traces the lineage from the Arabian Peninsula through Aqiil ...
dialects (especially in those around
Baydhaba) by the common southern Somali morpheme''—
yaal
''.
Phonology
Consonants
Garre consonants consist of 22
phoneme
In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language.
For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-wes ...
s.
Occlusive consonants
= Soundproofing (Desonorizzazione) and neutralization
=
in the final position of words the voiced stops ''b, d'' are voided:
E1: b, d → p, t / __≠
In this position, therefore, the loudness opposition
d / t
is neutralized , See:
(1) ''karab'' —
'karap''“shoulder”
''heed'' -
'heet''“Sickle"
In the final position of word ''g'' it goes to
ʔ
E2: g ''→'' ʔ/__ ≠
(2) ''maʔag'' →
'maʔaʔ''“name”
Often, in the final position of a word followed by a word starting in a
consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced wi ...
, an
occlusive
In phonetics, an occlusive, sometimes known as a stop, is a consonant sound produced by occluding (i.e. blocking) airflow in the vocal tract, but not necessarily in the nasal tract. The duration of the block is the ''occlusion'' of the consonan ...
is not exploded.
E3: OCCL → OCCL'/__≠ C__≠
(OCCL': occlusive is not exploited)
This happens in particular if the two words are
morphologically united, as in the
periphrastic
In linguistics, periphrasis () is the use of one or more function words to express meaning that otherwise may be expressed by attaching an affix or clitic to a word. The resulting phrase includes two or more collocated words instead of one in ...
verbal forms:
(3) ''usu wa ara
rə'' → " He was selling (habitually).
On the other hand, the
spirantization
In linguistics, lenition is a sound change that alters consonants, making them more sonorous. The word ''lenition'' itself means "softening" or "weakening" (from Latin 'weak'). Lenition can happen both synchronically (within a language at a ...
of voiced stops in
intervocalic
In phonetics and phonology, an intervocalic consonant is a consonant that occurs between two vowels. Intervocalic consonants are often associated with lenition, a phonetic process that causes consonants to weaken and eventually disappear entirel ...
positions, such as is present for example in
Dabarte, does not seem to be part of the
repertoire
A repertoire () is a list or set of dramas, operas, musical compositions or roles which a company or person is prepared to perform.
Musicians often have a musical repertoire. The first known use of the word ''repertoire'' was in 1847. It is a ...
of processes of
Garre
The Garre (also Gurreh, Karre, "Binukaaf") ( Somali: ''Reer Garre'', Arabic: بنو كاف, romanized: ''Banī kāf'' ) is a major Somali clan whose origins trace back to Samaale who traces the lineage from the Arabian Peninsula through Aqiil ...
. - at least of the tuuf dialect variety of Qoryooley -
The
spirantization
In linguistics, lenition is a sound change that alters consonants, making them more sonorous. The word ''lenition'' itself means "softening" or "weakening" (from Latin 'weak'). Lenition can happen both synchronically (within a language at a ...
and the passage of ''"b" to "w"'' are instead quite frequent in the list of words Garres. i.e:
''hawar = habar "woman"''
''taweel = tabeel "wind"''
This is a typical feature of the Garre dialect spoken in the
Baydhaba area. Note that a similar process occurs in the Maay dialect of the same region.
Despite the existence of the implosion J
> , The postalveolare ɖ is never glottalized
= q
=
From our articulated
(
voiced uvular stop
The voiced uvular plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is G\.
is a rare sound, even ...
), in general also in
intervocalic
In phonetics and phonology, an intervocalic consonant is a consonant that occurs between two vowels. Intervocalic consonants are often associated with lenition, a phonetic process that causes consonants to weaken and eventually disappear entirel ...
position; its
fricativization in
ʁ">nowiki/>ʁ.html" ;"title="ʁ.html" ;"title="nowiki/>ʁ">nowiki/>ʁ">ʁ.html" ;"title="nowiki/>ʁ">nowiki/>ʁcould be a derivation of the Qoryoley dialect; we have been given pairs such as ''sii[G]a (T.)'' ~ ''sii
ʁ">nowiki/>ʁ]a'' (Q.) “dust”.
In a few cases, however, there is constantly realized
ʁ">nowiki/>ʁ.html" ;"title="ʁ.html" ;"title="nowiki/>ʁ">nowiki/>ʁ">ʁ.html" ;"title="nowiki/>ʁ">nowiki/>ʁin
intervocalic
In phonetics and phonology, an intervocalic consonant is a consonant that occurs between two vowels. Intervocalic consonants are often associated with lenition, a phonetic process that causes consonants to weaken and eventually disappear entirel ...
position, as in ''ho
ʁ">nowiki/>ʁ]al "''cloud".
As in the other dialects of the region, in final ''
q
'' and realized
ʔ
:
E4: q → ʔ/__≠
''(4) duq → [duʔ] __≠ "elderly''
= ʔ
=
In the initial position of speech, in front of vowel and sometimes realized a
glottal occlusion, especially at the beginning of a sentence or in the case that the word in question is emphasized: but in most cases this exclusion glottal is not ubidable. However, we believe that
ʔ is
Phonologically
Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...
present in all the words K. "''beginning in a vowel"'' - consequently, all the words K. begin phonologically in a consonant. A proof of the presence of initial
ʔ is given of the present tense of the verbs of the fourth conjugation by suffixing the present with prefixes of "to be" to the theme:
the theme of the verb will be affixed ''ahay'' "I am", in front of which a final nasal theme will be created
ɳ, that is, as in front of a consonant with a backward articulation point (for example, in front of the masculine morpheme, the present of ''wiin'' "be great", and ''wiiɳahay.''
It could also be argued that in this form "
n" passes to "''
ɳ''" since the word boundary is preserved between "''wiin'' and ''ahay''" - that is, "
n" would be found in the other context in which "''
ɳ''" is created . But a similar argument is falsified by the examination of other forms of the same paradigm, in which there is an assimilation between the final consonant of the theme and the initial consonant of the paradigm of "being"; thus, is ''wiinahay'', which derives from ''wiin + tahay.''
We are therefore forced to choose between two possible alternatives: the phonemic, distinctive consideration, the presence of an initial
ʔ - but in this case it would be difficult to explain its possible occurrence in certain contexts for all the words "''beginning in a vowel"''; or, and it is the alternative we propose, put a
ʔ phonological for all words which would otherwise begin in a vowel - and which as such are often phonetically spelled A similar alternative and has adapted, with similar arguments, by Hayward in the description of the Arbore.
[Hayward (1984: 84)]
However, being totally predictable, we do not indicate this initial
ʔ in the transcription.
ʔ also appears in the median position, but it seems that within the but it is always
intervocalic
In phonetics and phonology, an intervocalic consonant is a consonant that occurs between two vowels. Intervocalic consonants are often associated with lenition, a phonetic process that causes consonants to weaken and eventually disappear entirel ...
- with a preference for the Sequence -a? a- - and encounters with other consonants are excluded (which instead are allowed with suffixes):
5) ''maʔag=''"name"
''naʔas'' = "'breast"
t''owaʔdii'' = "the jackal" (''towaʔ'' + -''tii'' anaphoric determinant: )
ʔ also appears at the end of a word:
(6) ''karaʔ'' = "Rope used to wear/put the camel's chest"
''suusaʔ "Milk curds of camel"''
''kubaʔ'' = "Thunder"
The phonemic of ʔ at the end also confirmed by the treatment of the masculine morpheme k of the article, which falls after ʔas after the other consonants.
Occlusive glottalize ( ʝ)
The only glottidalized is a “sound palatal implosive (LP.A. -. Of limited occurrence, it was not found in the final position of the word
Examples in the initial position:
''(7) j-iif = "pleasure"''
''j-eeh = "'slash"''
Examples in the middle position:
''maj-ooj-i = "to crush"''
''j-ej-ab = "'pot-shards"''
= Fricative
=
x
We transcribe with x the voiceless
velar fricative
A velar fricative is a fricative consonant produced at the velar place of articulation. It is possible to distinguish the following kinds of velar fricatives:
*Voiced velar fricative, a consonant sound written as in the International Phonetic Alph ...
reports ''faqqar'' (glossing pot missing pieces), It's the same shape as ''faŋar.''
As we have seen (
E8
), “ŋ” appears in the final position, where seems to be the only possible nasal {equal in Maay, cf. Saced (1982: 5)]. But a final nasal is also performed ''ŋ'' in the intervocalic position, and precisely when an article or a possessive is affixed to a nasal masculine noun, determinants in which the morpheme of masculine & falls, the union of word "''uomo''" and of the (masculine) article "''ka''" will therefore give "''laga''".
In K. - at least in T. dialect - a process seems to operate which resolves a nasal + velar connection by assimilating the latter to the nasal, which becomes velarized in ''ŋ''; this process is lexically determined, given that with other determinants (the anaphoric and the indeterminate / interrogative) the link ''ŋ''k is preserved (naturally realized
'ŋ'' k E7
); but it could also depend on the rhythm of the sentence (more frequent with a fast pace and an informal style).
We will have lost:
Morphemic representation , phonological , phonetics
/ian/ + /ka/ ''lanka
aŋka'
''
aŋa'
Of the phonetic representations, the earliest & data from the application of
E7
(N → ''ŋ'' / __k), the second from the application of the (lexically determined) process of resolution of the link ''nk''.
On the contrary, with female names we will have:
Morphemic representation , phonological , phonetics
/islaan / + / ta / ''islaanta
siaanta'
''
slaanna'
''
slaana'
The first phonetic representation is given by the application of
E6
(N ~ n/ _t), the second from the assimilation of the dental to the nasal, Which can be subsequently determined (giving
'islaana').
Consequently, ''n'' and ''ŋ'' often distinguish, in an intervocalic position, the gender of the noun. On the basis of its possibility of occurrence in the intervocalic position - where the other nasals are naturally also allowed - we recognize the phonemic status of ''ŋ''. In fact, phonological representations such as ''lanka'' and ''islaanta'' would be not only too distant from the phonetic forms ''laŋa'' and ''islaana'', but the latter. they are not even linked to their presumed phonological representations by general processes (and non lexically or morphologically determined),
Only in the median
'ŋ''phonetic position will ''ŋ'' be transcribed in the final - given its complete predictability - we will transcribe ''n.''
1.2. Vowels
The vowel system of Garre. it seems to include 11 phonemes in total: 6 short and 5 long; the inhomogeneity in the number of phonemes of the two subsystems of long and short vowels is given by the presence, between the short vowels, of ə
The collected material does not allow to ascertain the presence of an opposition between advanced vowels (V) and vowels (V), as described for the north-central Somali(but not for the dialects of the river region),
the vowel system of Garre. can therefore be represented as follows:
1.2.1. "ə" and the problem of vowel length at the end of a word
The phonological status of ‘ə’ and problematic and the situation in Garre. appears in many ways similar to that of the Maay described by
Saeed (1982; 7). In particular, the question is whether ə should be considered a phoneme or the result of short vowel reduction rules. Not without doubts, we will consider "e" - historically derived certainly from the reduction of short vowels - as a phonological in
The following is to be considered a simple contribution to the problem, not a solution to it.
Notes
References
Omo–Tana languages
Languages of Somalia
{{Somalia-stub