Annotated Swadesh wordlists for the Krongo-Kadugli group (Krongo-Kadugli family).

Languages included: Katcha [kad-kat]; Kadugli [kad-kdg]; Miri [kad-mir]; Tulishi [kad-tey]; Kanga [kad-kcp]; Tumma [kad-tbr]; Krongo [kad-kro]; Tumtum [kad-tmt]; Keiga [kad-kei].

DATA SOURCES

I. General

Schadeberg 1994 = Schadeberg, Thilo C. Comparative Kadu wordlists. In: Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere, 40, pp. 11-48. // The paper contains lexical data on nine Krongo-Kadugli dialects, collected by the author during his own fieldwork in the Nuba Mountains in 1974-75. This is an essential source of unique material, although further comparison shows that it is not entirely free of inaccuracies in either phonetic transcription or semantic glossing, and has to be used with caution.

II. Katcha

Stevenson 2005 = Stevenson, Roland C. Dictionary of Katcha. Ms., available at: http://www.rogerblench.info/Language/Nilo-Saharan/Kadu/Katcha%20Dictionary.pdf. // On-site annotation: "The dictionary is based on a typescript deriving from the papers of Roland Stevenson and was typed by Andrew and Janet Persson of SIL. Editing and formatting by Roger Blench. Tones not marked."

III. Kadugli

Matsushita 1984 = Matsushita, Shuji. A Preliminary Sketch of Kadugli Vocabulary. 1: Nouns, Numerals, and Adjectives. In: Sudan Sahel Studies I. Ed. by Morimichi Tomikawa. Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, pp. 15-73. // A mid-size vocabulary of Kadugli nominal and adjectival stems, collected by the author. Unfortunately, the second part (verbs) seems to have evaded publication.
Abdalla 1969 = Abdalla, Ibrahim Abdalla. Kadugli language and language usage. University of Khartoum. // A rather chaotic description of some aspects of the Kadugli language (based on transformational grammar theory) by a native speaker. Nevertheless, the work includes some bits of data that remain unavailable in other sources.

IV. Krongo

Reh 1985 = Reh, Mechtchild. Die Krongo-Sprache (Nìinò Mó-Dì). Beschreibung, Texte, Wörterverzeichnis. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer Verlag. // A detailed monograph treatment of the Krongo language: grammar, texts, and a comprehensive vocabulary. The best single available source on a Krongo-Kadugli language to this moment, and a default point of reference for any historical treatment of this group.

V. Keiga (Deiga)

Reh 1994 = Reh, Mechtchild. A Grammatical Sketch of Deiga. In: Afrika und Übersee, Bd. 77, pp. 197-261. // This grammatical sketch is the only published source of data on Keiga (Deiga) beyond Thilo Schadeberg's comparative wordlists, and is very useful as a "control source" due to containing plenty of independently collected illustrative data on Keiga basic lexicon.

NOTES

1. General.

It must be noted that Kadu (Krongo-Kadugli) languages are well known for their complex morphological systems; this concerns both verbal and nominal forms, with complex patterns of prefixal and suffixal derivational and inflectional morphology as well as occasional suppletivism, and plenty of "fossilization" of grammatical morphemes in various languages.

This means that, although we have tried to separate affixes from root morphemes to the best of our ability, certain mistakes in segmentation (e. g. unseparated fossilized markers, etc.) are inevitable, especially since detailed morphological descriptions are available for only a small handful of Kadu languages (most notably Krongo). As a rule, we place the "simplest" attested form ("unmarked" plural or singular for nouns, imperative or 3rd p. sg. form for verbs) in the primary slot, but fairly often, especially in the case of unanalyzed verbal forms recorded in Schadeberg's lists, proper segmentation is almost impossible. Improvements will be introduced gradually as we reach a better understanding of Krongo-Kadugli morphology.

I. Katcha

Although [Stevenson 2005] contains more data than [Schadeberg 1994], the latter source is still considered primary, both out of general convenience (it is also the primary source for the majority of other Kadu dialects) and also because Stevenson's dictionary does not systematically mark prosodic information. In a few cases, where Schadeberg's lists have gaps (e. g. 'green', 'not', 'walk(go)') the main entry still has to be filled in from Stevenson's data.

II. Kadugli

[Schadeberg 1994] remains the default source for Kadugli, despite being one of the few Kadu languages on which several lengthy works have been published. This is because the vocabulary in [Matsushita 1984] is incomplete (it includes only nouns and adjectives, but not the verbs); and the description in [Abdalla 1969] is not only somewhat erratic, but also focuses a little too strongly on the application of transformational grammar to Kadugli, and contains relatively little in the way of linguistic data. Nevertheless, Schadeberg himself, in his wordlists, occasionally makes use of Abdalla's and Matsushita's fieldwork (such instances have been specially marked in the data).

III. Krongo

The best available source on Krongo is the monograph [Reh 1985], although Th. Schadeberg's comparative wordlists may be used as an additional supporting source (a few discrepancies on the Swadesh wordlist between the two might be ascribed to inaccurate semantic glossing or very minor dialectal variations).

2. Transcription.

I. Katcha

For the most part, Schadeberg's and Stevenson's transcriptions fully match UTS conventions. The only exceptions are affricates (Sch. and St. j = UTS ʓ) and dental consonants, which Stevenson marks as th (= UTS t̪) and dh (= UTS d̪) respectively. It should be noted that Schadeberg and Stevenson often contradict each other in marking a particular consonant as dental (t̪, d̪) or alveolar (t, d): we make no judgements on these contradictions and transcribe the forms with discrepancies.

Schadeberg distinguishes two tones in Katcha as well as most other Kadu languages (high and low), consistently leaving low tone unmarked. We try to just as consistently mark it as V̀, according to UTS regulations.

II. Kadugli

There are a few typographic conventions in [Matsushita 1984] that have been over\-rid\-den in the process of UTS transliteration:

(a) Matsushita's centralized vowels E, O are rendered as ɛ, ɔ;
(b) Matsushita's dental stops t, d are rendered as t̪, d̪;
(c) Matsushita's alveolar stops T, D are rendered as t, d;
(d) Matsushita's bilabial implosive B is rendered as ɓ;
(e) Matsushita's palatal series c, j, ny is rendered as ɕ, ʓ, ɲ.

Additionally, Matsushita, unlike Schadeberg, distinguishes three tonal levels in Kadugli: high, mid, low, marking high and low in standard IPA/UTS fashion and leaving mid tone unmarked; we consistently mark his mid tone as V̄, according to UTS regulations.

III. Krongo

The absolute majority of M. Reh's transcriptions remains unchanged when transliterated to UTS. One important phonetic discrepancy between Schadeberg's and Reh's transcriptions should, however, be noted: Schadeberg's t, d = Reh's ʈ, ɖ, whereas Schadeberg's t̪, d̪ = Reh's t, d (this is a typical thing for languages of the Kordofanian area, where the same opposition may be interpreted as "alveolar vs. retroflex" or "dental vs. alveolar" depending on the dialect or the researcher's attitude).

Database compiled and annotated by: G. Starostin (last update: November 2014).