Zande language

Zande is the largest of the Zande languages. It is spoken by the Azande, primarily in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and western South Sudan, but also in the eastern part of the Central African Republic. It is called Pazande in the Zande language and Kizande in Lingala.

Zande
Pazande
Native toDemocratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, South Sudan
EthnicityZande people
Native speakers
(undated figure of 730,000 in Congo)[1]
1,000,000 in South Sudan (2017), 62,000 in CAR (1996)[2]
Dialects
  • Dio
  • Makaraka
Language codes
ISO 639-3zne
Glottologzand1248

Estimates about the number of speakers vary; in 2001 Koen Impens cited studies that put the number between 700,000 and one million.[3]

Phonology

Consonants
Labial Alveolar Retroflex Palatal Velar Labio-
velar
Nasal m n ɲ
Plosive voiceless p t k k͡p
prenasal ᵐb ⁿd ᵑɡ ᵑɡ͡b
voiced b d ɡ ɡ͡b
Fricative voiceless f s
prenasal ᶬv ⁿz
voiced v z
Rhotic r ~ ɽ
Approximant j w
  • Alveolar sounds /d, z, ⁿz, s, t, ⁿd/ have allophones as palato-alveolar sounds [d͡ʒ, ʒ, ⁿʒ, ʃ, t͡ʃ, ⁿd͡ʒ] when preceding /i/.
  • The retroflex tap /ɽ/ can be heard as an alveolar trill [r] in free variation.[4]

Vowels
Oral and Nasal vowels
Front Back
unrounded rounded
Close i ĩ u ũ
Near-close ɪ ɪ̃ ʊ ʊ̃
Close-mid e ẽ o õ
Open-mid ɛ ɛ̃ ʌ ʌ̃ ɔ ɔ̃
Open a ã

Writing system


Zande spelling rules were established at the 1928 Rejaf Language Conference[5] following the principles of the International African Institute.[6]

Zande alphabet of Gore 1931[7]
abdef gikmn oöpst uvwyz

Nasalized vowels are indicated using the tilde : ⟨ã ẽ ĩ õ ũ⟩. Consonants with double articulation are represented by digraphs: ⟨gb kp mv nv ny⟩.

In 1959, Archibald Norman Tucker published a Zande alphabet proposed during the Bangenzi Conference of 1941.[8]

Zande alphabet of Tucker 1959
aäbde fghii̧ kmnop rstuu̧ vwyz’

Nasalized vowels are indicated using the tilde : ã ẽ ĩ ĩ̧ õ ũ ũ̧ r̃. Consonants with double articulation are represented by digraphs or trigraphs : kp gb ny mb nv nd nz ng ngb mgb

SIL International published a Zande alphabet in 2014.[9]

Zande alphabet (SIL)
aəbde fggbhi ɨkkplm mbnndngbnv nynzops tuʉvw yz

Sample text in Zande (Jehovah's Wittnesses)

Avunguagudee, oni nangarasa rukutu awironi na gu sosono yo i mangi agu asunge dunduko na ngbarago i afuhe fuyo i mangihe, singia si tii Bambu Kindo yo, watadu ba bakere adunguratise yo?

Translation

Parents, do you encourage your children and teenagers to work cheerfully at any assignment that they are given to do, whether at the Kingdom Hall, at an assembly, or at a convention site?

References
  1. Zande at Ethnologue (10th ed., 1984). Note: Data may come from the 9th edition (1978).
  2. Zande language at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) closed access
  3. Impens, Koen (2001). "Essai de bibliographie des Azande". Annales Aequatoria. 22: 449–514.
  4. Landi, Germain (2019). Phonologie et morphophonologie de la langue Zandé. Universität zu Köln.
  5. Impens 2001.
  6. Gore 1931, p. 1.
  7. Gore 1931.
  8. Tucker 1959, p. 94.
  9. SIL International 2014.

Bibliography
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