Buwal language
| Buwal | |
|---|---|
| Gadala | |
| Native to | Far North Province |
Native speakers | 10,000 (2004)[1] |
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | bhs |
| Glottolog | buwa1243 |
Buwal, also known as Ma Buwal, Bual, or Gadala, is an
Phonology
| Labial | Alveolar | Lateral alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labialized velar |
Labial-velar
| |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n |
ŋ | ŋʷ | ŋm | ||
Voiceless plosive
|
p | t |
k | kʷ | kp | ||
Voiced plosive
|
b | d |
ɡ | ɡʷ | ɡb | ||
Prenasalized plosive
|
ᵐb | ⁿd | ᵑɡ | ᵑɡʷ | ᵑᵐɡb | ||
| Implosive | ɓ | ɗ | |||||
| Voiceless affricate | ts | ||||||
| Voiced affricate | dz | ||||||
Prenasalized affricate
|
ⁿdz | ||||||
| Voiceless fricative | f | s | ɬ |
x | xʷ | ||
| Voiced fricative | v | z | ɮ |
ɣ | ɣʷ | ||
Flap
|
ⱱ | ɾ | |||||
| Approximant | l |
j | w |
The
Buwal has the vowels /
Palatalization in Buwal occurs across an entire word, and also affects the affricate consonants /ts dz ⁿdz/, which surface as [tʃ dʒ ⁿdʒ] in a palatalized word. As a result, all of the vowels within a single word are either front or back, producing vowel harmony. An example of this contrast is between [mɐ̄ⁿdʊ́wɐ́n] 'rat' (underlyingly /māⁿdwán/), which is non-palatalized, and [mɛ̀vɛ̄ɗvɛ̄ɗɛ̄ŋ] (underlyingly /màvāɗvāɗāŋ/) 'turtle', which is palatalized. This process does not affect loanwords, e.g. [nɛ̀bɐ̄m] 'oil' (from Fulfulde nebbam) or [lɛ̀kʷól] 'school' (from French l'école). Some loanwords have been modified to accommodate Buwal phonology, e.g. [sɐ́j] 'tea', from Fulfulde sha'i.[2]
Notes
- ^ a b Buwal at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- hdl:1959.9/513436.
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