Dahalo is an endangered South Cushitic language spoken by about 400 people in Kenya. ISO 639 is one of several international standards that lists short codes for language names. ... SIL International is a non-profit, Christian, scientific organization with the main purpose to study, develop and document lesser-known languages for the purpose of expanding linguistic knowledge, promoting world literacy and aiding minority language development. ... This list of languages is alphabetical by English name. ... An endangered language is a language with so few surviving speakers that it is in danger of falling out of use. ... The Cushitic languages are a subgroup of the Afro_Asiatic languages phylum, named after the Biblical figure Cush by analogy with Semitic. ...

It is largely spoken in the area of the Tana River. Many, if not all, of its speakers are bilingual, their other language being Swahili. The Tana River is the longest river in Kenya. ... The term bilingualism (from bi meaning two and lingua meaning language) can refer to rather different phenomena. ... Swahili (also called Kiswahili; see Kiswahili for a discussion of the nomenclature) is an agglutinative Bantu language widely spoken in East Africa. ...

It is distinguished by the use of clicks as phonemes (although it is neither related to nor currently in contact with the Khoisan languages). Clicks are stops produced with two articulatory closures in the oral cavity. ... In spoken language, a phoneme is a basic, theoretical unit of sound that can distinguish words (i. ... Map showing the distribution of the Khoi-San languages. ...

Sounds

Consonants

Dahalo has 62 consonants:

The prenasalized voiceless stops have been analysed as syllabic nasals plus stops by some researchers. However, one would expect this additional syllable to give Dahalo words additional tonic possibilities, as Dahalo pitch accent is syllable-dependent (see below), and Ladefoged reports that this does not seem to be the case. Labials are consonants articulated either with both lips (bilabial articulation) or with the lower lip and the upper teeth (labiodental articulation). ... Postalveolar (or palato-alveolar) consonants are consonants articulated with the tip of the tongue between the alveolar ridge (the place of articulation for alveolar consonants) and the palate (the place of articulation for palatal consonants). ... Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate (the middle part of the roof of the mouth). ... Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate (the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum). ... An epiglottal consonant is a consonant that is articulated with the epiglottis against the back of the pharynx. ... Glottal consonants are consonants articulated with the glottis. ... Dentals are consonants such as t, d, n, and l articulated with either the lower or the upper teeth, or both, rather than with the gum ridge as in English. ... Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli (the sockets) of the superior teeth. ... Labialisation is secondary articulatory feature of sounds in a language, most usually used to refer to consonants. ... Labialisation is secondary articulatory feature of sounds in a language, most usually used to refer to consonants. ... A stop or plosive or occlusive is a consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract. ... In phonetics, a voiceless consonant is a consonant that doesnt have voicing. ... A voiced consonant is a sound made as the vocal cords vibrate, as opposed to a voiceless consonant, where the vocal cords are relaxed. ... In phonetics, a voiceless consonant is a consonant that doesnt have voicing. ... A voiced consonant is a sound made as the vocal cords vibrate, as opposed to a voiceless consonant, where the vocal cords are relaxed. ... A nasal consonant is produced when the velum—that fleshy part of the palate near the back—is lowered, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. ... Ejective consonants are a class of consonants which may contrast with aspirated or unaspirated consonants in a language. ... Implosive consonants are glottalic ingressive consonants, meaning that air is sucked into the mouth while pronouncing them rather than expelled out of the mouth via the lungs as in pulmonic consonants. ... An affricate is a consonant that begins like a stop (most often an alveovelar, such as [t] or [d]) and that doesnt have a release of its own, but opens directly into a fricative (or, in one language, into a trill). ... In phonetics, a voiceless consonant is a consonant that doesnt have voicing. ... A voiced consonant is a sound made as the vocal cords vibrate, as opposed to a voiceless consonant, where the vocal cords are relaxed. ... In phonetics, a voiceless consonant is a consonant that doesnt have voicing. ... A voiced consonant is a sound made as the vocal cords vibrate, as opposed to a voiceless consonant, where the vocal cords are relaxed. ... Clicks are stops produced with two articulatory closures in the oral cavity. ... In phonetics, a voiceless consonant is a consonant that doesnt have voicing. ... A voiced consonant is a sound made as the vocal cords vibrate, as opposed to a voiceless consonant, where the vocal cords are relaxed. ... Ejective consonants are a class of consonants which may contrast with aspirated or unaspirated consonants in a language. ... A central or medial consonant is a consonant sound that is produced when air flows across the center of the mouth over the tongue. ... Laterals are L-like consonants pronounced with an occlusion made somewhere along the axis of the tongue, while air from the lungs escapes at one side or both sides of the tongue. ... Note: This page contains phonetic information presented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using Unicode. ... A central or medial consonant is a consonant sound that is produced when air flows across the center of the mouth over the tongue. ... Laterals are L-like consonants pronounced with an occlusion made somewhere along the axis of the tongue, while air from the lungs escapes at one side or both sides of the tongue. ... Approximants are speech sounds that could be regarded as intermediate between vowels and typical consonants. ... A central or medial consonant is a consonant sound that is produced when air flows across the center of the mouth over the tongue. ... Laterals are L-like consonants pronounced with an occlusion made somewhere along the axis of the tongue, while air from the lungs escapes at one side or both sides of the tongue. ... In phonetics, a trill is a consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the articulator and the place of articulation. ... This article or section uses Ruby annotation. ...

When geminate, the epiglottals are a voiceless stop and fricative. (Thus /ʡ/ is not pharyngeal as sometimes reported, since pharyngeal stops are not believed to be possible.) In utterance-initial position they may be a partially voiced (negative voice onset time) stop and fricative. However, as singletons between vowels, /ʡ/ is a flap or even an approximant with weak voicing, while /ʜ/ is a fully voiced approximant. Other obstruents are similarly affected intervocalically, though not to the same degree. In phonetics, voice onset time, commonly abbreviated VOT, is the length of time that passes between when a stop consonant is released and when voicing, vibration of the vocal cords, begins. ... In phonetics, a flap or tap is a type of consonantal sound, which is produced with a single contraction of the muscles so that one articulator is thrown against another. ... In phonetics, an obstruent is a consonant sound formed by obstructing the airway. ...

Vowels

Dahalo has 10 vowels:

Dahalo has both long and short vowels. A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. ... A mid vowel is a vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... An open vowel is a vowel sound of a type used in most spoken languages. ...

Syllable and phonotactics

Dahalo words are commonly 2-4 syllables long. Syllables are exclusively of the CV pattern, except that consonants may be geminate between vowels. As with many other Afro-Asiatic languages, gemination is grammatically productive. Voiced consonants partially devoice, and prenasalized stops denasalize when geminated as part of a grammitical function. However, lexical prenasalised geminate stops also occur. Jump to: navigation, search This article discusses the unit of speech. ... Phonotactics (in Greek phone = voice and tactic = course) is a branch of phonology that deals with restrictions in a language on the permissible combinations of phonemes. ... Listen to this article · (info) This audio file was created from the revision dated 2005-07-20, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. ... Listen to this article · (info) This audio file was created from the revision dated 2005-07-18, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. ... In phonetics, gemination is when a spoken consonant is doubled, so that it is pronounced for an audibly longer period of time than a single consonant. ... Jump to: navigation, search Map showing the distribution of Afro-Asiatic languages The Afro-Asiatic languages are a language family of about 240 languages and 285 million people widespread throughout North Africa, East Africa, the Sahel, and Southwest Asia. ...

(It is likely that the glottals and clicks do not occur as geminates, although only a few words with intervocalic clicks are known, such as /ʜáŋ̊|ana/.)

Dahalo has pitch accent, normally with zero to one high-pitched syllables (rarely more) per root word. If there is a high pitch, it is most frequently on the first syllable; in the case of disyllabic words, this is the only possibility: e.g. /ʡani/ head, /p’úʡʡu/ pierce. For pitch accent in music, see: accent (music). ...

Grammar

External links

Ethnologue entry for Dahalo

Bibliography

• Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (Ed.). (2005). Ethnologue: Languages of the world (15th ed.). Dallas, TX: SIL International. ISBN 1-55671-159-X. (Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com).
• Maddieson, Ian; Spajić, Siniša; Sands, Bonny; & Ladefoged, Peter. (1993). Phonetic structures of Dahalo. In I. Maddieson (Ed.), UCLA working papers in phonetics: Fieldwork studies of targeted languages (No. 84, pp. 25-65). Los Angeles: The UCLA Phonetics Laboratory Group.