Native to Nuba Hills, Sudan Native speakers (13,000 cited 1982) | Ethnicity Tukam people ISO 639-3 tag | |
Language family Niger–Congo
Rashad
Tagoi Dialects Umali (Tumale)
Moreib
Goy (Tagoi)
Orig (Turjuk) | ||
The Tagoi language is a Kordofanian language, closely related to Tegali, spoken near the town of Rashad in southern Kordofan in Sudan, about 12 N, 31 E. Unlike Tegali, it has a complex noun class system, which appears to have been borrowed from more typical Niger–Congo languages. It has several dialects, including Umali (Tumale), Goy (Tagoi proper), Moreb, and Orig (ŋóóriɡ, Turjuk)
Contents
The following describes the Orig dialect.
Sounds
The consonants are:
Stops are automatically voiced between two non-obstruents (obstruents = stops or fricatives.)
Stops and sonorants may occur geminate. Some consonant clusters are allowed (almost invariably two-consonant), most involving sonorants; prenasalised ones are particularly common.
ʃ, h, z are found in some Arabic loanwords.
The vowel system is unclear; phonetically, it seems to be basically: a, e, i, o, u, ɛ, ɔ, ɪ, ʊ, ə.
There seem to be three phonemic tones: high, low, and occasionally falling.
Nouns
Each noun consists of a prefix plus a stem; the prefix identifies its noun class. It changes according to number.
The genders include:
In genitive (possessive) constructions, the head noun is followed by a linking element which agrees with it in class, followed by the possessor noun; e.g. ɲín ɲi-adam "children of Adam"; kʊs ki-gai "skull (ie bone of head)".
Adjectives
Adjectives follow the noun, and agree in noun class, i.e. in gender and number; e.g. kús kàlló "a thin bone" > sús sàlló "thin bones".
Demonstratives
Demonstratives too follow the noun, and agree in class. There are:
Numbers
The numbers one to four are normal adjectives; e.g. yʊ́r yùkók "two hands". Other numbers' behavior is unknown. When used without a head noun, they appear as follows, with the prefix w- for numbers 1-5:
- wàttá, ùttá
- wùkkók
- wìttá
- wàrʊ̀m
- wʊ̹̀ràm
- ɲérér
- ʊ̀mʊ̀rgʊ́
- tùppá
- kʊ́mnàsá(n)
- kʊ́mán
Pronouns
The pronouns are as follows:
Examples of verbal personal inflection: Musa àdúbìr "Musa beat me"; yàyá "I drink".
Interrogative pronouns include agn "what?", tá̹jí̹n "who?", nɛ́gán "where?", cínàcɛ̀n "which (boy)?"
Verbs
There appear to be at least four basic forms: present (e.g. y-ìlàm "I see"), past (e.g., y-ílàm "I saw"), imperative (e.g. k-ìlmɛ́ "see! (sg.)), and negative imperative (e.g., ánák w-èlm-ò "don't see! (sg.)). The difference between present and past is typically marked by tone: LH or occasionally LL in the present, HL in the past. Sometimes vowel changes are also observed. In the imperative, some verbs take a k- prefix, others do not; this may depend on whether or not the verb begins with a vowel.
The verb "to be" has different roots according to tense: -ɛ́n in the present tense, -ɪ́rɪ̀n in the past tense.
Negation of the verb is expressed by a prefix k-, followed by the verb "to be", inflected for person; negation of the verb "to be", by k-àrà in the present tense, k-ɪ̀rá in the past.
Verbal nouns include agent nouns in t- (e.g., t-ubi "beater"), gerunds in t- (e.g., t-àyá "drinkable"), and action nouns (e.g., ŋ-ìlàm "sight".)
Syntax
The basic word order is subject–object–verb, including in the imperative. Locative complements also precede the verb. Nominal sentences use the verb "to be". Modifiers consistently follow their head nouns.