Meʼen language
Meʼen (also Mekan, Mieʼen, Mieken, Meqan, Men) is a Nilo-Saharan language (Eastern Sudanic, Surmic, Southeast Surmic[2]) spoken in Ethiopia by the Meʼen people. In recent years, it has been written with the Geʽez alphabet, but in 2007 a decision was made to use the Latin alphabet. Dialects include Bodi (Podi) and Tishena (Teshina, Teshenna).
| Meʼen | |
|---|---|
| Mɛʼɛn | |
| Native to | Ethiopia |
| Region | Eastern Africa |
| Ethnicity | Me'en people |
Native speakers | 150,000 (2007 census)[1] |
Nilo-Saharan?
| |
| Latin | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | mym |
| Glottolog | meen1242 |
| ELP | Bodi |
Meʼen and Kwegu are unique among Surmic languages in that they have ejective consonants.
Reliable descriptions of some parts of the language have been produced by Hans-Georg Will, often contradicting Carlo Conti Rossini's work, the editing of the extensive language notes of a non-linguist.
Phonology
| Bilabial | Dental | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | voiceless | p | t | tʃ | k | |
| voiced | b | d | dʒ | ɡ | ||
| ejective | tʼ | tʃʼ | kʼ | |||
| implosive | ɓ | ɗ | ||||
| Fricative | voiceless | (f) | s | ʃ | h | |
| voiced | z | |||||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||
| Rhotic | ɾ | |||||
| Glide | w | l | j | |||
/p/ can be realized as a fricative [f] in initial and medial positions.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Close-mid | e | o | |
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɔ | |
| Open | a |
/i, u/ can have lax variants as [ɪ, ʊ].
Notes
- Ethiopia 2007 Census Archived 2010-11-14 at the Wayback Machine
- Peter Unseth. 1988. The Validity and Unity of the Southeast Surma Language Grouping. Northeast African Studies 10.2/3:151-163
- Will, Hans-Georg (1993) Meʼen phonology
References
- Conti Rossini, Carlo. (1913). "I Mekan o Suro nell'Etiopia meridionale e il loro linguaggio." Rendiconti della Reale Accademia dei Lincei XXII (7-10): 397–463.
- Diehl, Achim and Hans-Georg Will. (2007). "Meˀen language." In Siegbert Uhlig (ed.), Encyclopaedia Aethiopica 3, 907–909. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.
- Eba Teresa Garoma and Amanuel Raga Yadate. 2015. Sketch [of] Morphology and Syntax of Meʼenit. International Journal Advances in Social Science and Humanities Vol.3, Issue 7, pp. 30–50.
- Will, Hans-Georg. 1989. "Sketch of Meʼen grammar." In M. Lionel Bender (ed.), Topics in Nilo-Saharan linguistics 129–50. Nilo-Saharan, 3. Hamburg: Helmut Buske.
- Will, Hans-Georg. 1998. "The Meʼen verb system: Does Meʼen have tenses?." In Gerrit J. Dimmendaal and Marco Last (eds.), Surmic languages and cultures, 437–58. Nilo-Saharan, 13. Cologne: R. Köppe
External links
- Meʼen basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database
- World Atlas of Language Structures information on Meʼen
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