Sungor
Assangori
Native toChad
RegionOuaddaï
EthnicitySungor, Erenga people
Native speakers
(24,000 cited 1993)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3sjg
Glottologassa1269
ELPAssangori
Linguasphere05-DAA-ae

Sungor (also Assangorior, Assangor, Assangori) is a language of eastern Chad and western Sudan and a member of the Taman language family. It is closely related or identical to Tama.[2][3]

Sungor is spoken in an area located to the south of Biltine and to the north of Adré in Chad, as well as in Darfur in Sudan.[4][2] It is spoken by the Sungor people, of which a majority are Muslim.[3] The number of speakers was estimated at 23,500 according to the 1993 census of Chad.[1]

Morphology

Source:[3]

Noun classes

Sungor, like Tama, follows a noun class system. Similarly to other Sudanese languages that also utilise noun classes, Sungor differentiates through the use of suffixes. However, there is little overlap between the suffixes used.

Plurals

Plurals are mostly formed by suffixion. Suffixes change depending on class and number. Lukas lists 31 different suffix pairs which do not necessarily constitute separate noun classes. There are six ways of forming plurals in Sungor:

  1. Most plurals are formed by changing the class suffix. Some examples are "skin" gera | geriŋ (Singular -a, Plural -iŋ), "love" tárī | tárā (Sg. -ī, Pl. -ā), "name" iget | igā (Sg. -et, Pl. -ā), or arabic loan "muslim" miselem | muselmīn (Pl. -īn).
  2. Other plurals only take a suffix. Some arabic loanwords fall into this category. Examples include "heart" ámel | ámelā (Pl. -ā), "human" at | árē or árī (Pl. -ē or -ī), "mouth" kul | kulō (Pl. -ō), "head" ŋor | ŋūrū (Pl. -ū), "lip" oróyik | oroyikiŋ (Pl. -iŋ).
  3. There are some broken plurals, most of which are arabic loanwords. Examples are "scholar" fik | fókora, "robber" afrīt | afārit, "pet" zāmela | zwāmel, or non-arabic "grandpa" anat | ónut.
  4. Lukas lists one example of pluralisation where the vocal length is changed "cow" tḛ | tḝ.
  5. A small number of words form the singular from a collective plural. Examples are "witch" émet | émē (Sg. -t), "horse" ferda | fērat (Sg. -da, Pl. -at), "wild cat" lūlut | lǘlu.
  6. Some words do not follow a regular pattern. Some examples are "woman" ī | īrin, "dog" wī | wḗā, "blacksmith" mēat | mīnyak.

Pronouns

Nominative Oblique Possessive
1st person singular wa / wo waŋ nar / na
plural wē / wui wēŋ oŋon / uŋun
2nd person singular ī īŋ nor / nur
plural ai eiŋ ō / ḗŋkun
3rd person singular ési / ísē ésiŋ an(er) / un
plural ésiŋ1 ésiŋkoŋ2 ōn / ūn

1. 3rd person Plural also exists as áiŋko

2. from ésiŋko which corresponds to áiŋko


References

  1. 1 2 Sungor at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023) closed access
  2. 1 2 Rilly, Claude. 2010. Le méroïtique et sa famille linguistique. Leuven: Peeters Publishers. ISBN 978-9042922372
  3. 1 2 3 Lukas, J. (1938). Die Sprache der Sungor in Wadai (Aus Nachtigals Nachlaß) (in German). Mitteilungen der Ausland-Hochschule Universität Berlin. pp. 171–246.
  4. ↑ Voeglin, C. F.; Voeglin, F. M. (1964). "Languages of the World: Africa Fascicle One". Anthropological Linguistics. 6 (5): 226. JSTOR 30022465.

Guinet, X. 1973. Esquisse d’une phonologie du Sungor. in Boyeldieu, P. (éd.), Problèmes de phonologie, Bibliothèque de la SELAF, 38 :73-100. Nachtigal, G. 1938. Die Sprache der Sungor in Wadai. [J. Lukas ed.] Mitteilungen der Ausland- Hochschule und Universität, Berlin, 41: 171-246.


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