Fur language

The Fur language or For; (Fur: poor’íŋ belé’ŋ) is a Nilo-Saharan language spoken by the Fur of Darfur in Western Sudan and Chad. It is part of a broader family of languages known as the Fur languages.

Phonology

The consonantal phonemes are:

The vowels are: ''a e i o u''. There is dispute whether the –ATR vowels are phonetic variants or separate phonemes.

There are two underlying tonemes, ''L'' (low) and ''H'' (high); phonetically, ''L'', ''H'', ''mid'', ''HL'', and ''LH'' are all found.

Metathesis is an extremely common and regular grammatical phenomenon in Fur: when a consonant pronoun prefix is prefixed to a verb that begins with a consonant, either the verb's first consonant is deleted or it changes places with the following vowel; e.g.:

There are also various assimilation rules.

Writing

Fur is written in the Latin alphabet with the addition of the letters a̱ (a with macron below), ɨ, ŋ, and ʉ, and the digraph ny.

High tone is marked by the acute accent, falling tone is marked by circumflex, rising tone is marked by caron ("wedge"), and low tone is unmarked.

Morphology

Plurals

Noun, and optionally adjective, plurals can be formed with ''-a'' (''-ŋa'' after vowels):

This suffix also gives the inanimate 3rd person plural of the verb:

Vowel-final adjectives can take a plural in ''-lá'', as well as ''-ŋa'':

A similar suffix (metathesized and assimilated to become ''-ól/-úl/-ál'') is used for the plural of the verb in some tenses.

A few CVV nouns take the plural suffix H''-ta'';

At least two nouns take the suffix -i:

Nouns with the singular prefix ''d-'' (> ''n-'' before a nasal) take the plural ''k-''; these are about 20% of all nouns. In some cases (mostly body parts) it is accompanied by L; e.g.:

*In some cases, the singular also has a suffix ''-ŋ'', not found in the plural:

*Sometimes, a further plural suffix from those listed above is added:

*Sometimes the suffix ''-(n)ta'', is added:

*One noun, as well as the demonstratives and the interrogative "which", take a plural by simply prefixing ''k-''L:

*Several syntactic plurals with no singulars, mostly denoting liquids, have ''k-''L-''a''; ''kewa'' "blood", ''koro'' "water", ''kona'' "name, song" ''koonà''.

Nouns

The locative case can be expressed by the suffix ''-le'' or by reversing the noun's final tone, e.g.:

The genitive (English possessive s) is expressed by the suffix ''-iŋ'' (the ''i'' is deleted after a vowel.) If the relationship is possessive, the possessor comes first; otherwise, it comes last; e.g.:

Pronouns

Independent subject:

The object pronouns are identical, apart from being low tone and having -ŋó added to the plural forms.

Prefixed subject pronouns:

Thus, for example, on the verb ''bʉo-'' "tire":

''gi'', described as the "participant object pronoun", represents first or second person objects in a dialogue, depending on context.

Possessives (singular; take k- with plural nouns):

Verbs

The Fur verbal system is quite complicated; verbs fall into a variety of conjugations. There are three tenses: present, perfect, and future. Subjunctive is also marked. Aspect is distinguished in the past tense.

Derivational suffixes include ''-iŋ'' (intransitive/reflexive; e.g.

and gemination of the middle consonant plus ''-à/ò'' (intensive; e.g.

Negation is done with the marker ''a-...-bà'' surrounding the verb; ''a-bai-bà'' "he does not drink".

Adjectives

Most adjectives have two syllables, and a geminate middle consonant: e.g. ''àppa'' "big", ''fùkka'' "red", ''lecka'' "sweet". Some have three syllables: ''dàkkure'' "solid".

Adverbs can be derived from adjectives by addition of the suffix ''-ndì'' or L''-n'', e.g.:

Abstract nouns can be derived from adjectives by adding ''-iŋ'' and lowering all tones, deleting any final vowel of the adjective, e.g.:

Media in Fur language

Radio Dabanga – broadcasts daily news in the Fur language and in other languages local to Darfur.

References

Sources

* Beaton, A.C. ''A Grammar of the Fur Language''. Linguistic Monograph Series, No. 1. Khartoum: Sudan Research Unit, Faculty of Arts, University of Khartoum 1968 (1937).
* Bariwarig Tooduo, "Participant Reference in the Fur language of the Sudan". University of Juba 2014
* Bariwarig Tooduo, "Number Marking in the Fur language of the Sudan"
* Bariwarig Tooduo, "Modifiers in the Fur language of the Sudan"
* Jakobi, Angelika. ''A Fur Grammar''. Buske Verlag: Hamburg 1989.
* Kutsch-Lojenga, Constance and Christine Waag, "The Sounds and Tones of Fur", in ''Occasional Papers in the Study of Sudanese Languages No. 9''. Entebbe: SIL-Sudan 2004.
* Noel, Georgianna
''An Examination of the Tone System of Fur and its Function in Grammar''
University of Texas at Arlington, 2008.

External links

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{{Authority control
Fur languages
Languages of Chad
Languages of Sudan