Sar language

Sar
Madjingay
Native toChad
Native speakers
(180,000 cited 1993 census)
Dialects
  • Sar
  • Nar
Language codes
ISO 639-3mwm
Glottologsarr1246

Sar or Sara, also known as Madjingay and Sara Madjingay, is a Bongo–Bagirmi language of southern Chad, and the lingua franca of regional capital of Sarh.

Phonology

The consonants are as follows.

Labial Alveolar Retroflex Postalveolar
/Palatal		 Velar
Plosive/
Affricate		 tenuis p t k
voiced b d d͡ʒ ɡ
prenasalized m͡b n͡d n͡dʒ ŋ͡ɡ
implosive ɓ ɗ
Fricative s
Nasal m n
Liquid oral l ɽ
nasalized ɽ̃
Semi-vowel oral j w
nasalized j̃

Vowels and nasal vowels are as follows:

Front Central Back
Close i ĩ ɨ u ũ
Mid e ẽ (ə) o õ
ɔ
Open a ã

/o, e/ can also be heard as [ə].

There are three tones.

ToneExampleGloss
highɡáŋɡádrum
midmālscavenger
lowjàbə̀hippopotamus
nasal tã sauce

References

  1. ↑ Sar at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ↑ (in French) Fournier, Maurice, Les consonnes du sar, dans Études phonologiques tchadiennes (Jean-Pierre Caprile, éd.), pp. 37-44, Paris, SELAF, 1977, ISBN 2-85297-019-8
  3. ↑ Keegan, John M. (2014). Lexique Sar. The Eastern Sara Languages: Cuenca: Morkeg Books.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
  4. ↑ (in French) Moundo Ndimajibay, Nei-Balway, Les limites des modifications en sar, dans Études phonologiques tchadiennes (Jean-Pierre Caprile, éd.), pp. 45-58, Paris, SELAF, 1977, ISBN 2-85297-019-8
  5. ↑ "PanAfriL10n - PanAfrLoc - Sara". PanAfrican Localisation Resource Wiki. Retrieved 2017-03-07.