Ma'di language
This article needs additional citations for verification. (June 2017) |
Ma'di | |
---|---|
Ma'di ti | |
Region | Uganda, South Sudan |
Ethnicity | Madi |
Native speakers | (310,000 cited 1982–2002)[1] |
Nilo-Saharan?
| |
Dialects |
|
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | mhi |
Glottolog | madi1260 |
Ma'di (pronounced
The Ma'di people are found in Magwi County in South Sudan, and in Adjumani and Moyo districts in Uganda. Their population is about 390,000 (90,000 in South Sudan).
Ma'di is
Sociolinguistics
Most Ma'di people are
There is an interesting linguistic interaction between the Ma'di, the Acholi and the Kuku. Most Ma'dis speak Acholi but hardly any Acholi speak Ma'di. This is possibly because during the first civil war in the Sudan, most Sudanese Ma'di were settled among the Acholi in Uganda. Possibly for the same reasons, most Kukus speak fluent Ugandan Ma'di, but hardly any Ma'di speak Kuku. It is still possible even today to find among the Sudanese Ma'di people who can trace their ancestry to the neighbouring tribes – Bari, Kuku, Pajulu, Acholi, etc. Hardly any of them can now speak their 'ancestral' languages; they speak Ma'di only and have become fully absorbed into the Ma'di community.
Crazzolara claims that there are linguistic traces of Ma'di found in
Phonology
Ma'di is a
|
|
Orthography
Currently there are two systems used in writing Ma'di, categorised as the old and the new system. The old system completely ignores tones, making reading more difficult. The old system also uses only five vowels (a, e, i, o, u). The new systems employs ten vowels (see the tables on the previous section). It also identifies four tones: high (close), mid, low and falling.
Examples:[citation needed]
- pắ - leg [high tone]
- pa - descendants of [ mid tone, unmarked]
- pá - pluck [low tone]
- sấ - time, clock [falling tone]
The examples below show how heavy and light vowels compare:[citation needed]
- Ốpí - waist [heavy vowel; high tones]
- Ópí - chief, king [light vowel; high tones]
- mvự - drink [heavy vowels; mid tones]
- mvu - jump, skip, gather [light vowels; mid tones]
Works in Ma'di
Printed material in Ma'di is scarce. The only general published works in Ma'di are missionary publications such as the translation of the New Testament, and prayer and song booklets by the Catholic missionaries. The Ma'di Ethnic and Heritage Welfare Association in Britain publishes a quarterly bilingual (English and Ma'di) paper called Ma'di Lelego.
In the spring of 1998,
Bibliography
- A'babiku, Rose A Key History of Ma'di
- Blackings, M and Fabb N (2003) A Grammar of Ma'di. Mouton
- Blackings, M (2011) Ma'di English - English Ma'di Dictionary. Lincom Europa.
- Fuli, Severino (2002) Shaping a Free Southern Sudan: Memoirs of our struggle. Loa Parish.
References
- ^ Ma'di at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)