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Acheron language

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Acheron
Asheron
Native toSudan
RegionNuba Hills
Native speakers
20,000 (2006)[1]
9,800 in home area (2006)[1]
Dialects
  • Gathuk
  • Gandok
  • Garong
Language codes
ISO 639-3acz
Glottologache1245
ELPAcheron
Acheron is classified as Severely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Acheron (Asheron) is a Niger–Congo language in the Talodi family spoken in South Kordofan, Sudan.

Acheron derives from the Arabic word aɟɟur-uun [sic] which means "innocent people",[2] it was later "indigenised as /acʊrʊn/"[3] and turned into /aʃərɔn/. The autoethonym in Acheron is /wɑ-rəmɛ/ for the people and /ɡə-rəmɛ/ for the language.[2]

The number of active speakers is estimated to be 9,800.[2] This number includes the community members and "diaspora speakers" in other Sudanese towns and abroad.[2]

Phonology

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Consonants

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Consonants[4]
Bilabial Dental Alveolar Post-
alveolar
Palatal Velar
Plosive voiceless t̪ː t k
voiced b d ɟ g gw
Fricative voiceless s
voiced ð z
Nasal short m n ɲ ŋ
long ɲː ŋː
Trill r
Tap ɽ
Approximant short l j w
long

Norton (2000) calls /s/ and /k/ "stiff cord" segments, saying they are always voiceless, with other short plosives and fricatives varying in voicing.[4]

Vowels

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Vowels[5]
Front Central Back
Close [+ATR] i u
[-ATR] ɪ ʊ
Mid ɛ ə ɔ
Open a

Norton (1995) posited 10 vowels: 5 [-ATR] /ɪ, ɛ, a, ɔ ʊ/ and 5 [+ATR] /i, e, ɜ, o, u/.[6] However, Norton (2013) has 8 vowels: [-ATR] /ɪ, ɛ, ə, ɑ, ɔ, ʊ/ and [+ATR] /i u/.[2]

Notes

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  1. ^ a b Acheron at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ a b c d e Norton 2013, p. 195.
  3. ^ Stevenson 1956, p. 102, quoted in Norton 2013, p. 195
  4. ^ a b Norton 2000, p. 24.
  5. ^ Norton 2013, pp. 208.
  6. ^ Norton 1995, quoted in Norton 2013, p. 195

References

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  • Norton, Russell (1995). Variation and change in the phonology of Asheron (MA thesis). University of Essex.
  • Norton, Russell (2000). "The noun classes of Asheron". Occasional Papers in the Study of Sudanese Languages. 8: 23–55.
  • Norton, Russell (2013). "The Acheron vowel system: a participatory approach". In Blench, Roger; Schadeberg, Thilo (eds.). Nuba Mountain Language Studies. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe. pp. 195–217. ISBN 978-3-89645-427-0.
  • Stevenson, Roland C. (1956). "A survey of the phonetics and grammatical structure of the Nuba Mountain languages, with particular reference to Otoro, Katcha and Nyimang". Afrika und Übersee. 40: 73–84, 93–115.

Further reading

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