DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49263#0032
xxviii
Nubian Phonology
occur in the spoken language, particularly in the Mahass dialect, and also in the
phonetically written Christian manuscripts. An initial letter is, however, rarely
influenced by the terminal letter of a preceding and separate word.
Vowels do not influence consonants, and generally leave one another unaltered,
though a terminal short vowel, such as the i of the KD. objective suffix, is apt to be
elided before an initial vowel as kulu-g' inj cast tots, or be lost between two similar
consonants as guse-gc kbb-u open the bin. A long a may coalesce with a following
short a to form the diphthong ai as aiwiran for a-awiran. Also a final u generally
becomes w before an initial vowel as in waiyi-burw-a; while a long i or b may
add a y before an initial vowel as siy-atti, serey-an. These modifications and
assimilations are for the most part, omitted from the texts which follow, but they are
recorded here as tending to throw light on some of the dialectical interchanges, and
as exhibiting the difference between the spoken and the grammatical forms.
Tabulated alphabetically, these assimilations are:
1. b-g becomes b-k, which occasionally in Mahass suffers a further metamorphosis
to p-p—thus dib-ga becomes dib-ka, dip-ka and finally dip-pa. Cf. also
fap-pbn, aradep-palag.
b-1 becomes 1-1 as sibal-la.
b-m becomes m-m as kam-minnan in M., but remains unaltered in KD.
2. b-n becomes n-n or h as in jan-nal, janal K. for jab-nal.
d-b becomes m-b as kudum-bul K.
d-g becomes d-t or t-t as nugud-ti, net-ti KD.; nebit-ta, tot-tbn M. Frequently
the d is elided after a long vowel as tb-ki, tb-ka for tbd-gi, tbd-ga. Very
rarely one hears in KD. g-g for d-g as belleg-gi for belled-gi.
d-j becomes j-j as ejju.
d-1 becomes 1-1 as zul-logo ; mallb for madlb.
d-s becomes s-s as dor-es-sum, kal-es-si.
d-t becomes t-t as kudut-ter-rb for ku.du.d-ter-wb.
3. f-g becomes f-k as elif-ki.
4. g-g becomes k-k as ik-ka, nok-kir.
g-s becomes k-s in KD. as nok-sum, but sometimes s-s in M.
g is elided before t in -lotbn, -dotbn for -log-ton, -dog-tbn; and assimilated to
it in watti for wagti.
5. j-g becomes c-c in M. as kac-ca, but s-k in KD. as kas-ki, telis-ki.
Nubian Phonology
occur in the spoken language, particularly in the Mahass dialect, and also in the
phonetically written Christian manuscripts. An initial letter is, however, rarely
influenced by the terminal letter of a preceding and separate word.
Vowels do not influence consonants, and generally leave one another unaltered,
though a terminal short vowel, such as the i of the KD. objective suffix, is apt to be
elided before an initial vowel as kulu-g' inj cast tots, or be lost between two similar
consonants as guse-gc kbb-u open the bin. A long a may coalesce with a following
short a to form the diphthong ai as aiwiran for a-awiran. Also a final u generally
becomes w before an initial vowel as in waiyi-burw-a; while a long i or b may
add a y before an initial vowel as siy-atti, serey-an. These modifications and
assimilations are for the most part, omitted from the texts which follow, but they are
recorded here as tending to throw light on some of the dialectical interchanges, and
as exhibiting the difference between the spoken and the grammatical forms.
Tabulated alphabetically, these assimilations are:
1. b-g becomes b-k, which occasionally in Mahass suffers a further metamorphosis
to p-p—thus dib-ga becomes dib-ka, dip-ka and finally dip-pa. Cf. also
fap-pbn, aradep-palag.
b-1 becomes 1-1 as sibal-la.
b-m becomes m-m as kam-minnan in M., but remains unaltered in KD.
2. b-n becomes n-n or h as in jan-nal, janal K. for jab-nal.
d-b becomes m-b as kudum-bul K.
d-g becomes d-t or t-t as nugud-ti, net-ti KD.; nebit-ta, tot-tbn M. Frequently
the d is elided after a long vowel as tb-ki, tb-ka for tbd-gi, tbd-ga. Very
rarely one hears in KD. g-g for d-g as belleg-gi for belled-gi.
d-j becomes j-j as ejju.
d-1 becomes 1-1 as zul-logo ; mallb for madlb.
d-s becomes s-s as dor-es-sum, kal-es-si.
d-t becomes t-t as kudut-ter-rb for ku.du.d-ter-wb.
3. f-g becomes f-k as elif-ki.
4. g-g becomes k-k as ik-ka, nok-kir.
g-s becomes k-s in KD. as nok-sum, but sometimes s-s in M.
g is elided before t in -lotbn, -dotbn for -log-ton, -dog-tbn; and assimilated to
it in watti for wagti.
5. j-g becomes c-c in M. as kac-ca, but s-k in KD. as kas-ki, telis-ki.