Kandi
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| Kandi | |
|---|---|
| Kāndi tsūyi | |
| Pronunciation | [[Help:IPA|kandi t͡suβ̞ʝɪ]] |
| Created by | – |
| Native to | Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso |
| Native speakers | 4 million (2014) |
Jasi-Jivan
| |
Early form | Proto-Tanisi
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Dialects |
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| Official status | |
| Regulated by | Aytshin Sasháatsandi |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | ts |
| ISO 639-2 | ts |
| ISO 639-3 | qts |
Kāndi, or Tsan (kāndi tsūyi or tsani tsūyi) is a language spoken by the Tsan people in Western Africa. It belongs to the Tanisi language family and is thus distantly related to the Ris language. Tsani is a heavily agglutinating with a complex verbal morphology. The language has repeatedly been analysed as lacking nouns and adjectives altogether, in favour of verbs. Phonologically it exhibits ejective consonants, which are also realised as voiced stops in some dialects.
Phonology
The Kandi inventory has been documented and assessed repeatedly since the 19th century, the foremost scholars in the field being the Belgian linguist Émile d'Ivoire and the Scottish linguist John Glenn Crossing, an expert on Jivan languages. This page uses a standard notation where C is a consonant, N a nasal consonant, and V is a vowel. Features are indicated by square brackets [ ] and plus or minus signs, ±.
Phonemic inventory of vowels and consonants
The following is a Tsani inventory of consonants, according to Émile d'Ivoire, a model nowadays serving as standard when analysing the language. Émile analyses the Tsani inventory as unusual in that it has ejective consonants, as well as an ill-defined dorsal consonant. The consonantal phonology is fairly symmetrical.
| Bilabial | Dental | Alveolar | Dorsal | Glottal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| central | central | lateral | palatal | |||||
| Nasals | m /m/ | n /n/ | ||||||
| Stops | ||||||||
| voiceless | p /p/ | t /t/ | k /k/ | |||||
| ejective | b /pʼ/ | d /tʼ/ | g /kʼ/ | [ʔ] | ||||
| Affricates | ts /t͡s/ | tl /t͡ɬ/ | tš /t͡ɕ/ | |||||
| Fricatives | th/θ /θ/ | s /s/ | š /ɕ/ · y /ʝ/ | h /x/ | h /h/ | |||
| Approximants | [β̞] | l /l/ | w /ɰ/ [w] | |||||
| Trills | r /ʀ ~ r/ | |||||||
D'Ivoire standardised the phonemic inventory of vowels in the language. He divided the four primary vowels into four categories by length; granting short, long, diphthong and long diphthong vowels. It is important to note that in the modern language, the so called diphthongs are not realised as diphthongs at all, but rather a closed VC syllable.
| Oral | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| short | long | short diphthong | long diphthong | |
| Close front unrounded | i /i/ | ii /i:/ | í /iɰ/ | - |
| Open back unrounded | a /a/ | aa /aː/ | á /aɰ/ | áa /aːɰ/ |
| Close back rounded | u /u/ | uu /uː/ | ú /uɰ/ | úu /uːɰ/ |
Debuccalisation of nasal stops
- In the old language, vowels preceding nasals were mandatorily nasalised, which influencing their modern articulation in manners close to what occurs in French.
- An unprecedented change in the language is the apparent debuccalisation of the nasal stops, that is, «m» /m/ and «n» /n/. In the language, these phonemes have been completely lost in all but the word initial positions. The nasal stops are debuccalised into a coup de glotte, [ʔ] intervocalically. The glottal stop is deleted in word final and pre-consonantal positions.
Émile does not represent the nasalisation and debuccalisation in his transcription of the language. Other linguists prefer to analyse the process as a nasalisation of the preceding vowels, after which the nasals are lost. They claim the glottal stop is a consequence of diaeresis. D'Ivoire defends his assertion by pointing out the widespread glottalisation of intervocalic stops.
There is also notable discussion concerning Émile's terminology, since debuccalisation is a term reserved for oral stops. Some consider the process a denasalisation, followed by a debuccalisation. This is however, no record of any intermediary stages.
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(1) |
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(2) |
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(3) |
Allophony of the velar approximant
The velar approximant w /ɰ/ is a particularly elusive phoneme, and is subject to a great deal of allophony. Émile d'Ivoire describes this phoneme as highly variable in the language.
- The semi-consonant commonly analysed as a velar approximant, is a true caméléon and has three different allophones, depending on the following vowel. Whilst historically analysed as purely velar, my research finds that it is variously bilabialised as [β̞] or palatalised into [j]. The pure velar approximant [ɰ] also occurs.
He goes on to describe the environments triggering the allophony.
- The bilabial approximant [β̞] is produced near the close back rounded vowel u /u/, and the palatal approximant y [j] is produced when adjacent to the close front unrounded vowel i /j/. Finally [ɰ] is used with the open back unrounded vowel a /a/.
The conditions are the following:
- ɰ > {β̞, j, ɰ} / _ {u, i a}C
- ɰ > {β̞, j, ɰ} / {u, i a}_C
Additionally, [w, β̞, ɰ] occur in the so called diphthongs and long diphthongs, namely á, áa, ú, and úu, with their associated vowels. When a diphthong precedes a nasal, the nasal is lost.
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(4) |
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(5) |
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(6) |
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(7) |
Allophony of vowels
D'Ivoire did indeed standardise the phonemic inventory of vowels in the language, but he did also supply a more detailed transcription of how the velar approximant and the debuccalisation of nasal stops affected the articulation of vowels. He divided the four primary vowels into another two categories, nasal and oral.
| Orthography and vowels | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oral | Nasal | |||||||
| short | long | short diphthong | long diphthong | short | long | short diphthong | long diphthong | |
| i [i] | ii [i:] | í [iɨ̯] | - | in · im [ẽ] | iin · iim [ẽ:] | ín · ím [in] | - | |
| a [a] | aa [aː] | á [aɰ] | áa [aːɰ] | an · am [ɑ̃] | aan · aam[ɑ̃ː] | án · ám [ʌŋ] | áan · áam [ʌːŋ] | |
| u [u] | uu [uː] | ú [uβ̞] | úu [uːβ̞] | un · um [ũ] | uun · uum [ũː] | ún · úm [um] | úun · úum [uːm] | |
Grammar
Kandi exhibits what’s called predicate/argument flexibility; all content words equivalent to English verbs, nouns and adjectives, can fill the role as predicate or as argument of a clause. The flexibility is due to that the lemma form of all content words corresponds to a predicative expression. All content words have a subject, which in the default is the third person: For example, the word for "dog" is kshawí, but it is also equivalent to "it is a dog".
In essence, the distinction between noun and verb is blurred. All content words may be conjugated and form verbal phrases, they may modify each other, and they all have one of three grammatical genders.
The Kandi grammar consists of a variety of grammatical prefixes and suffixes, all of which fit in a strict affixation template. The Tsan affixation template looks as follows:
Core affixes
The Kandi conjugation is rather a form of affixation of relevant arguments, aspects, cases, and moods. The core affixes are the main reason behind the Tsan predicate/argument flexibility, and they consist of a gender part and a stative or dynamic part.
The stative affixes convey a state of being, or function as a copula. The dynamic affixes transform a word into a more verb-like construction, and insinuates some sort of action. These two core affixes are mutually exclusive, and a word can only be affixed with one of them at a time.
What may make many linguists get the hiccups is the seemingly ignorant mixes of nominal and verbal categories. In Tsan, however, these are not important distinctions.
| Stative and dynamic affixes | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| person → | 1 | 2 | 3.PROX (3) | 3.OBV (4) | 0 | |
| -w- | -k- | - | -y- | -h- | ||
| Stative | ||||||
| same | -á- | -wá | -ká | -í (Vy) | -yá | -há |
| different | -í- | -wí | -kí | - | -yi | -hí |
| Dynamic | ||||||
| same | -u- | wu- | ku- | u- | yu- | hu- |
| different | -a- | wa- | ka- | a- | ya- | ha- |
Grammatical gender
Kāndi has a peculiar system of grammatical gender. The genders are purely natural: Women are feminine f, men and males are masculine m, and everything else is neuter n.
Do note, however, that the grammatical gender is not marked. Rather, there is a form of dual marking. The gender of the subject of a content word is marked as either the "same" or "different" to that of the speaker. If the subject gender is the same as that of the speaker, it is marked as the same sam, whereas if the subject gender is different to that of the speaker, it is marked as "different" diff.
It is standard to assume a male speaker in stories. A male speaker is assumed in all examples on the page unless otherwise stated.
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(11) |
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(12) |
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(13) |
The system is sometimes more versatile than the English grammatical gender. In the last example (13), we are able to deduce that the speaker in this instance is a male, since he is of the same gender as the speaker.
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(14) |
Predicative complements
Simple predicative expressions
In Kandi, the predicative complement of an expression is equivalent to the predicate itself. All content words are predicates in their own right, due to a copula suffix. This copula is a null suffix in the third person proximate, but it congruates with the subject. The subject does not need to be independent, and is only marked on the predicate.
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(1) |
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(2) |
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(3) |
Predicative nominatives
If the subject of the expression is stated independently, it is marked with a specifier, (SPEC), which roughly translates as the English relative determiner that which, or the construction it is […] that is […]. The post-vocalic form is –n and the post-consonantal form is –i.
The predicative complement, or predicate, agrees with the topic. The topic, most often the subject, is marked with the third person singular homus suffix, as well as the specifier.
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(2.5) |
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(2.6) |
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(2.7) |
Predicative accusatives
Kandi has one copula, and one copula only. In English you may find a variety of related verbs with similar function to the main copula to be; for example to feel, to seem and to become. In Tsan, the semantics of these verbs are all conveyed by means of modifying the copula with evidentials, mood markers, applicatives and other constructions.
Typically, what may be percieved as an increase in valency is marked with the copula and an appropriate applicative-like affix. The former subject is always demoted to the object or patient.
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(2.8) |
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(2.9) |
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(2.10) |
Intransitive clauses
When you accept that two content words in a predicative expression co-function as predicate and subject, it is not difficult to imagine other clauses with one core argument. The simplest are the corresponding English intransitive clauses. Tsan makes an important dichotomy between stative and dynamic content words.
Stative clauses
Stative predicates, such as to hang, to lie, to be on fire, to taste like and to know are almost exclusively expressed by means of the copula suffix. See also predicative complements, which is an equivalent interpretation.
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(3.11) |
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(3.12) |
Dynamic clauses
Dynamic predicatives on the other hand, including to run, to lay, to put on fire, to savour, and to learn, are formed with a conjugating dynamic prefix, acting in the same manner as the copula.
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(3.13) |
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(3.14) |
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(3.15) |
Flexibility of arguments and predicates
It is in these dynamic and static clauses that Tsan first exhibits its flexibility of arguments. By simply switching the prefixes of the content words, the meaning is reversed or changed drastically.
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(3.16) |
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(3.17) |
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(3.18) |
See also
| Tsani language | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Orthography | Cree syllabary | ||
| Phonology | IPA for Tsan • Phonology | ||
| Grammar | Grammar • Arguments • Syntax | ||
| Vocabulary | Basic vocabulary • Swadesh list | ||
| Numerals | |||
| Example texts | The Lord's Prayer • The North Wind and the Sun • The Tower of Babel • The Universal Declaration of Human Rights | ||
| Geneaology | Tanisi languages • Proto-Tanisi | ||