Laal

Infobox Language
name=Laal
nativename="yəw láà:l"
states=Chad
region=Gori, Damtar, Mailao villages in Moyen-Chari prefecture
speakers=749 (As of|2000|alt=2000)
iso2=mis
iso3=gdm
familycolor=
fam1=Unclassified language


Chad where the Laal language is spoken]

Laal is a still-unclassified language spoken by 749 people (as of|2000|lc=on) in three villages in the Moyen-Chari prefecture of Chad on opposite banks of the Chari River, called Gori ("lá"), Damtar ("ɓual"), and Mailao. It may be a language isolate, in which case it would represent an isolated survival of an earlier language group of central Africa. It is unwritten (except in transcription by linguists). According to SIL-Chad member David Faris, it is in danger of extinction, with most people under 25 shifting to the locally more widespread Baguirmi language.

This language first came to the attention of academic linguists in 1977, through Pascal Boyeldieu's fieldwork in 1975 and 1978. His fieldwork was based for the most part on a single speaker, M. Djouam Kadi of Damtar.

peakers and status

The language's speakers are mainly river fishermen and farmers, who also sell salt extracted from the ashes of doum palms and "Vossia cuspidata". Like their neighbors the Niellim, they were formerly cattle herders, but lost their herds around the turn of the 19th century. They are mainly Muslims, although until the latter half of the 20th century they followed the traditional "Yondo" religion of the Niellim. The area is fairly undeveloped; while there are Qur'anic schools in Gori and Damtar, the nearest government school is 7 km away, and there is no medical dispensary in the region (as of|1995|lc=on).

The village of Damtar formerly had a distinct dialect, called Laabe ("la:bé"), with two or three speakers remaining in 1977; it was replaced by the dialect of Gori after two Gori families fled there at the end of the 19th century to escape a war. No other dialects of Laal are known.

Under Chadian law, Laal — like all languages of Chad other than French and Arabic — is regarded as a national language. While the 1996 Constitution stipulates that "the law shall fix the conditions of promotion and development of national languages", national languages are not used for education nor for official purposes, nor usually for written media, although some of the larger ones (not Laal) are used on the radio.

Classification

Laal remains unclassified, although extensive Adamawa-Ubangi (particularly Bua) and to a lesser extent Chadic influence is found. It is sometimes grouped with one of those two language families, and sometimes seen as a language isolate. Boyeldieu (1982) summarizes his view as "Its classification remains problematic; while it shows certain lexical, and no doubt morphological, traits with the Bua languages (Adamawa-13, Niger-Congo family of Joseph H. Greenberg), it differs from them radically in many ways of which some, "a priori", make one think of geographically nearby Chadic languages." Roger Blench (2003), similarly, considers that "its vocabulary and morphology seem to be partly drawn from Chadic (i.e. Afro-Asiatic), partly from Adamawa (i.e. Niger-Congo) and partly from an unknown source, perhaps its original phylum, a now-vanished grouping from Central Africa." It is the latter possibility which attracts particular interest; if this proves true, Laal may be the only remaining window on the linguistic state of Central Africa before the expansion of the main African language families—Afro-Asiatic, Nilo-Saharan, and Niger-Congo—into it.

It contains many loanwords from Baguirmi, since the region was for several centuries part of the Baguirmi Empire; the local capital was Korbol. In addition, they almost all speak Niellim as a second language, and "at least 20%-30%" of their attested vocabulary (Boyeldieu 1977) shows similarities to that language. Their immediate neighbors speak Bua, Niellim, and Ndam. Like the Baguirmi, they are Muslims; partly because of this, some Arabic loanwords are also found.

ounds

The sounds of Laal are transcribed here using International Phonetic Alphabet symbols. The consonants are:

Interrogative

"jé" "what?", "ɟè" "who?", "ɗé" "where?", "sɨ̀g" "how much?".

Prepositions

Prepositions precede their objects: "gɨ̀ pə:l" "in(to) the village", "kɨ́ jà:ná" "to his body" (="to near him".)

Verbs

The verb does not vary according to the person or gender of the subject, but some verbs (about a quarter of the verbs attested) vary according to its number: "no kaw" "the person eats", "mùáŋ kɨw" "the people eat". The plural form of the verb is hard to predict, but is often formed by ablaut (typically raising the vowel height) with or without a suffix "-i(ɲ)" or "-ɨɲ" and tonal change. The verb does, however, change according to the direct object. It takes personal suffixes to indicate a pronominal direct object, and commonly changes when a non-pronominal direct object is added to a transitive form with final low tone (formed similarly to the "centripetal", for which see below); eg "ʔà ná ká" "he will do"; "ʔà ná kàrà mɨ́ná" "he will do something"; "ʔà kú na:ra" "he sees the man"; "ʔà kúù:rùúŋ" "he sees you (pl.)".

The verb has three basic forms: simple, "centripetal", and "participative" (to calque Boyeldieu's terminology.) The simple form is used in the simple present tense or the imperative, eg "ʔà duàg jə́w gə̀m" "he goes down the riverbank" (lit. "he descend mouth riverbank.") The "centripetal" indicates action "hither", either spatially - motion towards the speaker - or temporally - action up to the present moment; it is formed mainly by suffixing a vowel (often, but not always, identical to the last vowel in the word), eg "ʔà duàgà jə́w gə̀m" "he comes down the riverbank (towards me)". The "participative" - generally formed like the centripetal, but with final high tone - generally indicates an omitted object or instrument, eg "ʔà sá ɗa:g ʔà sɨ̀rɨ́ su" "he takes a calabash and drinks water with it" (lit. "he take calabash he drink-participative water".)

Immediately before the verb, a particle may be placed to indicate forms other than a simple present tense; such particles include "ná" (pl. "ní") marking future tense, "taá:/teé:" (pl. "tií:") marking continuous action, "wáa:" (pl. "wíi:") marking motion, "náa:" (pl. "níi:") being apparently a combination of "ná" and "wáa:", "mà" (pl. "mì") meaning "must", "mɨ́" marking reported speech (apparently an evidential), "mɨ́nà" (pl. "mínì") expressing intention, "kò" marking habitual action, "ɓə́l" or "ga" (pl. "gi") marking incomplete action, and "wó" (always accompanied by "ʔàle" after the verb) meaning "maybe".

Mediopassives (see passive voice, middle voice) can be formed from transitive verbs by adding a suffix "-↑ɨ́ɲ": eg "no siár sà:b" "someone ripped the cloth" > "sà:b sérɨ́ɲ" "the cloth ripped". For the inverse operation - forming transitive verbs from intransitives - tonal changes, or changes to the plural, sometimes occur.

Verbal nouns can sometimes be formed, mainly from intransitives, by the addition of a suffix -(vowel)"l", sometimes with ablaut and tone change; eg "wal" "fall" > "wàlál" "a fall", "sùbá" "lie" > "sɨ́blál" (pl. "súbɨ̀r") "a lie". The "l" here becomes "n" near a nasal, and "r" near "r": "man" "taste good", "manan" "a good taste".

Adjectives

Adjectives do not seem to constitute an independent category in Laal; to all intents and purposes, they behave just like verbs. Eg "gò: ʔì:r" "the goat is black". Attributively, they are typically linked as a relative clause: "gò: má ʔì:r" "the black goat" (literally "goat which black".)

Numbers

The numbers include "ɓɨ̀dɨ́l" "one", "ʔisi" "two", "ɓisan" "four". No other numbers are given specifically in the works so far published.

Adverbs

Adverbs generally come at the end of the clause. Some important adverbs are:

Adverbs of location:
* "here": "ɗágàl, núŋú"
* "there": "ɗaŋ"
* "over there, yonder": "ɗàŋá"

Temporal adverbs:
* "day before yesterday": "tá:r"
* "yesterday": "ʔiè:n"
* "today": "cicam", "tari-màá"
* "recently": "bèrè"
* "soon": "sugo"
* "tomorrow": "jìlí-kà:rì"
* "day after tomorrow": "miàlgà"

Modals

Among the most important modals are:

*Before the verb: "mɨ́" "(say) that", "gàná" "then"
*After the verb: "wó" "not", "(ʔà)le" "maybe", "ɓə́l" "again", "ʔá" or "gà" "already", "à" interrogative, "wá" exclamatory, "ta" "now", "cám" "again, anew".

Conjunctions

Syntactically, these can be divided into five types:

* only {main clause - conjunction - subordinate clause}: "mɨ́" "(say) that", "ɓə" "because"
* either {main clause - conjunction - subordinate clause} or {conjunction - subordinate clause - main clause}: "ɟò" "if", "dànngà" (possibly from Baguirmian) "when"
* circumposed: either {conjunction - main clause - conjunction - subordinate clause} or {conjunction - subordinate clause - conjunction - main clause}: "ɟò... gàná" "if"
* coordinate clause - conjunction - coordinate clause: "ní" "then afterwards", "ku" "then", "kó" "nonetheless", "á" or "ná" "and", "ɓe:" "or", "ʔàmá" (from Arabic or Baguirmian) "but".
* circumposed: conjunction - coordinate clause - conjunction - coordinate clause: "ku... ku" "then", "jàn... jàn" "both... and".

ample sentences

*"mùáŋ lá tií: kìrì jé?" "What do the people of Gori do?" (lit. "people Gori progressive-plural do-plural-transitive what?")
*"mùáŋ lá tií: pál." "The people of Gori fish." (lit. "people Gori progressive-plural fish.")
*"màr-ce ɓɨ́lá mɨ́ "bɨ̀là, ʔò teé: ɗɨ̀grɨ̀r"." "The farmer said 'No way! You're tricking me.'" (lit. "man+who-cultivate say that no-way you progressive trick-me".)
* "ɟá ná wùsù na pè:rí ní ʔárí ʔò ná kìnì jé?" "If/When I take out the snake, what will you give me?" (lit. "I(masc.) will take+out-transitive for-you(sg.) snake then first you give-me-transitive what?")
* "jà kàskàr mà mùáŋ lá sə̀ɲə́ be." "It's with swords that the people of Gori fight." (lit. "with swords emphatic(inan.) people Gori fight-participative battle.")

References

* Roger Blench. "Archaeology, Language, and the African Past." Altamira Press forthcoming.
* Pascal Boyeldieu. 1977. "Eléments pour une phonologie du laal de Gori (Moyen-Chari), "Etudes phonologiques tchadiennes", Paris, SELAF (Bibliothèque, 63–64), p. 186–198.
* Pascal Boyeldieu. 1982. "Deux études laal (Moyen-Chari, Tchad)", in "Verbindung mit SELAF, Paris". Berlin: Reimer. Marburger Studien zur Afrika- und Asienkunde: Ser. A, Afrika; Bd. 29. ISBN 3-496-00557-2.
* Pascal Boyeldieu. 1982. "Quelques questions portant sur la classification du laal (Tchad)". in JUNGRAITHMAYR, H., "The Chad languages in the Hamitosemitic-Nigritic Border Area (Papers of the Marburg Symposium, 1979)". Berlin : Reimer, p. 80–93. Coll. Marburger Studien zur Afrika- und Asienkunde, Serie A : Afrika.
* Pascal Boyeldieu. 1987. "Détermination directe/indirecte en laal". in BOYELDIEU, P., "La maison du chef et la tête du cabri : des degrés de la détermination nominale dans les langues d'Afrique centrale". Paris : Geuthner, p. 77–87. ISBN 2-7053-0339-1
* David Faris, 19 September 1994. "In-House Summary: Laal/Gori language". SIL/Chad Survey Team. (Unpublished.)

External links

* [http://llacan.cnrs-bellevue.fr/FRANCAIS/Rech/Langues/Laal.htm Laal] at LLACAN
*
* [https://www3.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/pi/zalloua_notes.html The Genographic Project: Zalloua's notes] including two recordings of the Laal recordings online