Dahalik (ዳሃሊክ ''
aka (na)dahālík'', "
anguage (of)the people of Dahlak"; also Dahaalik, Dahlik, Dahlak) is an endangered
Afroasiatic language spoken exclusively in the
Dahlak Archipelago in
Eritrea
Eritrea, officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa, with its capital and largest city being Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia in the Eritrea–Ethiopia border, south, Sudan in the west, and Dj ...
. Its speech area is off the coast of
Massawa
Massawa or Mitsiwa ( ) is a port city in the Northern Red Sea Region, Northern Red Sea region of Eritrea, located on the Red Sea at the northern end of the Gulf of Zula beside the Dahlak Archipelago. It has been a historically important port for ...
, on three islands in the Dahlak Archipelago:
Dahlak Kebir,
Nora, and Dehil.
Dahalik belongs to the Afro-Asiatic family's
Semitic branch, a member of the
Ethiopic group, and is closely related to
Tigre and
Tigrinya. It is said to be not mutually intelligible with Tigre and, according to Simeone-Senelle, is sufficiently different to be considered a separate language. However, there are those who disagree.
[Idris, S. M. 2012. Dahalik: An Endangered Language or a Tigre Variety? ''Journal of Eritrean Studies'' 6 (1): 51–74.]
Status
Dahalik is spoken on the
Dahlak Archipelago, an island group belonging to Eritrea in the
Red Sea
The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...
. On the archipelago, most people are speakers of Dahalik with smaller populations of
Arabic
Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...
and
Afar native speakers. The situation is different for every village: Durrubishet and Dasquo have almost universal use of Dahalik, while other villages have a greater mix of languages. Most islanders are multilingual in Dahalik, Arabic, and Afar, while the language of education is Arabic. Most Dahalik men have regular contact with Arabic, Tigre, and Afar, and any mixed marriages usually result in the children learning two mother tongues. Dahalik speakers also consider their language to be a mix of Arabic, Tigre, and a small amount of Tigrinya. Overall, there are only a few elderly monolingual speakers of Dahalik. However, Dahalik speakers do have positive attitudes towards the language and see it as an essential part of their cultural identity.
Phonology
Vowels
might be another vowel. The vowel only occurs in unstressed syllables.
Consonants
Dahalik has 21 consonants.
* The emphatic alveolar ''ṭ'' is described by Simeone-Senelle as
pharyngealized
Pharyngealization is a secondary articulation of consonants or vowels by which the pharynx or epiglottis is constricted during the articulation of the sound.
IPA symbols
In the International Phonetic Alphabet, pharyngealization can be indicate ...
, as in Arabic, with pharyngealization being weak
Idris describes ''ṭ'' as an
ejective
In phonetics, ejective consonants are usually voiceless consonants that are pronounced with a glottalic egressive airstream. In the phonology of a particular language, ejectives may contrast with aspirated, voiced and tenuis consonants. Some l ...
, as in Tigre and other mainland Ethiopian Semitic languages.
It is only found in native vocabulary in the dialect of Dehil, and corresponds to both Ethiopian Semitic ''ṭ'' and ''ṣ''. The Dahlak Kebir and Nora dialects have in its place in these cases.
* is rare and limited to loanwords.
* The voiced uvular fricative is the most common articulation of in the intervocalic position, while the voiceless uvular fricative is used after a fricative.
* The velar fricative and the voiced alveolar sibilant are only used in loanwords from Arabic. Original Ethiopian Semitic *z has become .
Morphology
Pronouns
Dahalik has two different forms for second and third person pronouns, one masculine and one feminine.
Dahalik also has dependent (object) pronouns, suffixed to the end of the word.
Verbs
The word order of a simple sentence in Dahalik is
subject–object–verb. For conditional subordinate clauses, the subordinating marker ('if' or something similar) is at the end of the clause or just before the verb in the subordinating clause.
References
External links
Shaebia: Dahalik – Mysterious Tongue of the Dahlak Islands
Dahlak Archipelago
Endangered Afroasiatic languages
Languages of Eritrea
North Ethiopian Semitic languages
{{Semitic-lang-stub