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The Laal language is spoken by about 300 people in three villages in the Moyen-Chari prefecture of Chad on opposite banks of the Chari River, called Gori (lá), Damtar (ɓual), and Mailao. 1977; it was replaced by the dialect of Gori after two Gori families fled there at the end of the 19th century to escape a war. The language's speakers are mainly river fishermen and farmers; they also sell salt extracted from the ashes of doum palms and Vossia cuspidata. Like their neighbors the Niellim, they were formerly cattle herders, but lost their herds around the turn of the 19th century.
Laal remains unclassified, although extensive Adamawa-Ubangi (particularly Bua) and to a lesser extent Chadic influence is found. It is sometimes grouped with one of those two language families, and sometimes seen as a language isolate. Boyeldieu (1982) summarizes his view as "Its classification remains problematic; while it shows certain lexical, and no doubt morphological, traits with the Bua languages (Adamawa-13, Niger-Congo family of Joseph H. Greenberg), it differs from them radically in many ways of which some, a priori, make one think of geographically nearby Chadic languages." Roger Blench (2003), similarly, considers that "its vocabulary and morphology seem to be partly drawn from Chadic (i.e. Afro-Asiatic), partly from Adamawa (i.e. Niger-Congo) and partly from an unknown source, perhaps its original phylum, a now-vanished grouping from Central Africa."
It contains many loanwords from Baguirmi, since the region was for several centuries part of the Baguirmi Empire; the local capital was Korbol. In addition, they almost all speak Niellim as a second language, and "at least 20%-30%" of their attested vocabulary (Boyeldieu 1977) shows similarities to that language. Their immediate neighbors speak Bua, Niellim, and Ndam. Like the Baguirmi, they are Muslims; partly because of this, some Arabic loanwords are also found.
This language first came to the attention of academic linguists in 1977, through Pascal Boyeldieu's fieldwork in 1975 and 1978. His fieldwork was based for the most part on a single speaker, M. Djouam Kadi of Damtar.
| Laal (yəw láà:l) | |
|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Chad |
| Region: | Gori, Damtar, Mailao villages in Moyen-Chari prefecture |
| Total speakers: | ~300 |
| Ranking: | Not in top 100 |
| Genetic classification: | Unclassified Laal |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | mis |
| SIL | GDM |
| Location | |
The consonants are:
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosives | p b | t d | c j | k g | ʔ | |
| Implosives | ɓ | ɗ | ʄ | |||
| Prenasalised plosives | mb | nd | nj | ng | ||
| Fricatives | s | h | ||||
| Continuants | w | l | y | |||
| Nasals | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||
| Trills | r |
Implosives and prenasalised stops, as well as h, are found only word-initially. Voiceless stops, as well as s, cannot occur at the end of a syllable. ŋ occurs only intervocalically and word-finally. s appears exclusively in loanwords and certain numbers. The prenasalized stops, as well as ʄ, are extremely rare.
The vowel system for non-initial syllables is: i, ɨ, u, e, ə, o, a, ua, with no length distinction. For initial syllables, however, it is much more complicated, allowing length distinctions and distinguishing the following additional vowels: ia, üo, üa (though the latter two appear only as morphologically conditioned forms of e and ia, and are perhaps better seen as allophonic.) In addition, ü may occur very occasionally; Boyeldieu quotes the example of mǜlùg "red (pl.)".
There are three level tones: high (á), middle (a), low (à). Combinations of these may occur on a single vowel, resulting in phonetic rising and falling tones; these are phonemically sequences of level tones.
Suffixes may force any of four kinds of ablaut on the vowels of preceding words: raising (takes ia, a, ua to e, ə, o), lowering (takes e, ə, o to ia, a, ua), low rounding (takes i and ɨ to u; e and ia to üo; ə, a, and ua to o), and high rounding (takes i and ɨ to u; e and ia to üa; ə, a, and o to ua). They are transcribed in the suffix section as ↑, ↓, ↗, ↘ respectively. In some verbs, a/ə is "raised" to e rather than, as expected, ə.
In suffixes, ə and o undergo vowel harmony: they become ɨ and u respectively if the preceding vowel is one of {i, ɨ, u}. Likewise, r undergoes consonant harmony, becoming l after words containing l. Suffixes with neutral tone copy the final tone of the word they are suffixed to.
The typical word order can be summarized as subject - (verbal particle) - verb - object - adverb; preposition - noun; possessed - possessor; noun - adjective.
Nouns have plural and singular forms (the latter are perhaps better viewed as ablaut (in the first case), or prepositional forms with "at", and optionally the connector as well, are used (in the second case): na:ra já ɗe: "my man" ("man CONN. at-me"), mùlù "her eye" ("eye-her", from mɨla "eye").
A noun indicating someone who does, is, or has something can be formed with the prefix màr, meaning roughly "he/she/it who/of": màr yùgòr "landowner", màr ce "farmer" (ce = cultivate), màr pál "fisherman" (pál = to fish), màr pàlà ta: "a fisher of fish".
Some nouns (eg páw- "friend") occur only with bound pronouns, and have no independent form.
Note the distinction between inclusive and exclusive "we", found in many other languages but not English, and the gender differentiation of "I" in certain forms.
The object paradigm for verbs is quite complex; only two of its several sets of allomorphs are given.
| Simple | Emphatic | Benefactive | At | Possessive | Object (n-type) | Object (r-type) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I (masc.) | já | já | ni | ɗe: | -↑ər | -↑ə́n | -↑ə́r |
| I (fem.) | jí | jí | ni | ɗe: | -↑ər | -↑ə́n | -↑ə́r |
| you | ʔò | ʔùáy | na | ɗa: | -↓a | -↘(u)án | -↘á |
| he | ʔà | ʔàáy | nar | ɗa:r | -↓ar | -↓án | -↓ár |
| she | ʔɨ̀n | ʔɨ̀ní | nùg | ɗò:g | -↑o(g), -↗o(g) | -↗òn | -↑ò |
| it | ʔàn | ʔàní | nàná | ɗà:ná | -↓an | -↓àn | -↓àr, -↓àn |
| we (excl.) | ʔùrú | ʔùrú | nùrú | ɗò:ró | -↑rú | -↗(ˋ)nùrú, -↑(ˋ)nùrú | -↗(ˋ)rùú, -↑(ˋ)rùú |
| we (incl.) | ʔàáŋ | ʔàáŋ | nàáŋ | ɗàáŋ | -↑ráŋ | -↑(ˋ)nàáŋ | -↑(ˋ)ràáŋ |
| you (pl.) | ʔùn | ʔùnúŋ | nùúŋ | ɗòóŋ | -↑rúŋ | -↗(ˋ)nùúŋ, -↑(ˋ)nùúŋ | -↗(ˋ)rùúŋ, -↑(ˋ)rùúŋ |
| they (anim.) | ʔì | ʔìrí | nìrí | ɗè:ri | -↑rí | -↑(ˋ)nìrí | -↑(ˋ)rìí |
| they (inan.) | ʔuàn | ʔuàní | nuàná | ɗuà:ná | -↘an, -↑uan | -↘àn | -↘àr, -↘àn |
The inanimate plural has in general been dropped in favor of the animate plural.
| Male sg. | Female sg. | Inanimate sg. | Animate pl. | Inanimate pl. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| who/of | já | jí | má | yí | yá |
| some ... | jàn | jìn | màn | yìn | yìn |
| such a ... | juàŋá | jùŋú | muàŋá | yùŋú | yùŋú |
yé "what?", jè "who?", ɗé "where?", sɨ̀g "how much?".
Prepositions preced their objects: gɨ̀ pə:l "in(to) the village", kɨ́ yà:ná "to his body" (="to near him".)
The verb does not vary according to the person or gender of the subject, but some verbs (about a quarter of the verbs attested) vary according to its number: no kaw "the person eats", mùáŋ kɨw "the people eat". The plural form of the verb is hard to predict, but is often formed by ablaut (typically raising the vowel height) with or without a suffix -i(ɲ) or -ɨɲ and tonal change.
The verb does, however, change according to the direct object. It takes personal suffixes to indicate a pronominal direct object, and commonly changes when a non-pronominal direct object is added to a transitive form with final low tone (formed similarly to the "centripetal", for which see below); eg ʔà ná ká "he will do"; ʔà ná kàrà mɨ́ná "he will do something"; ʔà kú na:ra "he sees the man"; ʔà kúù:rùúŋ "he sees you (pl.)".
The verb has three basic forms: simple, "centripetal", and "participative" (to calque Boyeldieu's terminology.) The simple form is used in the simple present tense or the imperative, eg ʔà duàg yə́w gə̀m "he goes down the riverbank" (lit. "he descend mouth riverbank.") The "centripetal" indicates action "hither", either spatially - motion towards the speaker - or temporally - action up to the present moment; it is formed mainly by suffixing a vowel (often, but not always, identical to the last vowel in the word), eg ʔà duàgà yə́w gə̀m "he comes down the riverbank (towards me)". The "participative" generally indicates an omitted object or instrument, eg ʔà sá ɗa:g ʔà sɨ̀rɨ́ su "he takes a calabash and drinks water with it" (lit. "he take calabash he drink-participative water".)
Immediately before the verb, a particle may be placed to indicate forms other than a simple present tense; such particles include ná (pl. ní) marking future tense, taá:/teé: (pl. tií:) marking continuous action, wáa: (pl. wíi:) marking motion, náa: (pl. níi:) being apparently a combination of ná and wáa:, mà (pl. mì) meaning "must", mɨ́ marking reported speech (apparently an evidential), mɨ́nà (pl. mínì) expressing intention, kò marking habitual action, ɓə́l or ga (pl. gi) marking incomplete action, and wó (always accompanied by ʔàle after the verb) meaning "maybe".
Mediopassives (see passive voice, middle voice) can be formed from transitive verbs by adding a suffix -↑ɨ́ɲ: eg no siár sà:b "someone ripped the cloth" > sà:b sérɨ́ɲ "the cloth ripped". For the inverse operation - forming transitive verbs from intransitives - tonal changes, or changes to the plural, sometimes occur.
Verbal nouns can sometimes be formed, mainly from intransitives, by the addition of a suffix -(vowel)l, sometimes with ablaut and tone change; eg wal "fall" > wàlál "a fall", sùbá "lie" > sɨ́blál (pl. súbɨ̀r) "a lie". The l here becomes n near a nasal, and r near r: man "taste good", manan "a good taste".
Adjectives do not seem to constitute an independent category in Laal; to all intents and purposes, they behave just like verbs. Eg gò: ʔì:r "the goat is black". Attributively, they are typically linked as a interrogative, wá main clause - conjunction - subordinate clause}: mɨ́ "(say) that", ɓə "because"
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