Чадтағы Ниеллим тілі

Bua language spoken in Chad

The Niellim language (autonym lwaà) is a Bua language spoken by some 5,000 people (as of 1993) along the Chari River in southern Chad. It is mainly spoken in two areas: one around the city of Sarh (to which many perhaps most speakers have migrated) and one, its traditional home, further north, between about 9°30′ and 9°50′ N, corresponding to the former chiefdoms of Pra, Niellim, and Niou. Niellim borders on several languages of diverse families – in particular Sara, Ndam, and Laal – and is influenced by the local lingua franca, Baguirmi; it has itself strongly influenced Laal, but also apparently has been influenced by Laal, or a relative of Laal, since much of the common Laal–Niellim vocabulary is not Bua. It is notably homogeneous. As a small minority in Chad, its speakers usually have to learn other languages, mostly (as of 1974) Baguirmi, Sara, Arabic, and Bua.

The typical word order is subject–verb–object (though this can be affected by topic fronting); preposition prepositional object ( postposition); noun adjective; possessed possessor. However, possessive pronouns precede the noun.

The basic personal pronouns include: n "I", m "you", r "he, she, it" (with low tone as subjects, high tone as objects), í "you (pl. )", á "they". ("We" does not appear in sources so far examined by the editors.)

Noun plural formation is quite complex, and includes some apparent relics of a now absent noun class system; the commonest ways include combinations of internal vowel ablaut, the suffix gɨ, a change l/n > r, and/or replacing final a with i.

Each verb has two forms: indicative and optative ("injunctive" in Boyeldieu's terminology.) They are distinguished by tonal pattern. Verbs may be preceded by various particles to indicate tense, aspect, and mood: for instance wò continuous, ɓə future, ká obligation. Indirect quoted speech is preceded with the particle ɓə "that". Verbal nouns may be formed by changing the tone pattern and/or suffixing li or la (in which the l becomes n following a nasal) together with internal vowel ablaut. Verb derivational suffixes include n intensive (realized as nì or ɨ̀n, e. g. nun "bite" > nùnɨ̀n "gnaw", and sometimes causing internal ablaut), and gɨ̀ mediopassive (sometimes gi or gu, rarely causes internal ablaut).

Common prepositions include gɨ̀ "to (dative)", naà "with", ti "to".