| Sungor | |
| Also Known As: | Bognak-Asungorung |
| Nativename: | Assangori |
| States: | Chad, Sudan |
| Region: | Ouaddaï, Darfur |
| Ethnicity: | Sungor, Erenga |
| Date: | 2023 |
| Ref: | e27 |
| Dia1: | Sungor |
| Dia2: | Walad Dulla |
| Script: | Unwritten |
| Familycolor: | Nilo-Saharan |
| Fam2: | Eastern Sudanic |
| Fam3: | Northern Eastern |
| Fam4: | Taman |
| Fam5: | Tama–Sungor |
| Iso3: | sjg |
| Glotto: | assa1269 |
| Glottorefname: | Assangori |
| Lingua: | 05-DAA-ae |
| Map2: | Lang Status 80-VU.svg |
Sungor (also Assangorior, Assangor, Assangori, Songor, Asongor) is an Eastern Sudanic language of eastern Chad and western Sudan and a member of the Taman branch. It is closely related to Tama with some researchers speaking of a Tama-Assangori continuum.[1]
Sungor is spoken in an area located to the south of Biltine and to the north of Adré (Ouaddaï) in Chad, as well as in Darfur in Sudan.[2] [3] It is spoken by the Sungor people, of which a majority are Muslim.[4] The number of speakers was estimated at 23,500 according to the 1993 census of Chad.
So far, Sungor phonology is not well attested in literature and research.
Sungor is most likely a tonal language with a high and low tone, e.g. 'worm' dút and 'big' dùt.[5] It has seven vowels and height assimilations. Examples for height assimilation include plural suffixes -u,-uk, and -uɲ which trigger the root vowel /a/ to be raised to /ɔ/ as in 'raven' gárá changing into 'ravens' gɔrú . Another example are suffixes -i and -iŋ which trigger the root vowel /a/ to be raised to /ɛ/ as in 'house' wál changing into 'houses' wἐlί. [6]
| Plosive | b | t, d | k, g | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | ||||
| Trill/Tap | r | ||||||
| Fricative | f | s | ʃ | x, ɣ | h | ||
| Approximant | l | j | w | ||||
| Affricative | ts | dʒ |
Source:
Apart from some examples listed in the phonology tab, all words are spelled according to Lukas/Nachtigal with some limitations caused by a lack of certain characters on Wikipedia. Due to historical reasons, spelling roughly follows German spelling rules.
Sungor, like Tama, follows a noun class system. Similarly to other Sudanese languages that also use noun classes, Sungor distinguishes meaning through the use of suffixes. However, there is little overlap between the suffixes used.
Plurals are mostly formed by suffixion. Suffixes change depending on class and number. Lukas lists 31 different suffix pairs which do not necessarily constitute separate noun classes. There are six ways of forming plurals in Sungor:
| 1st person | singular | wa / wo | waŋ | nar / na |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| plural | wē / wui | wēŋ | oŋon / uŋun | |
| 2nd person | singular | ī | īŋ | nor / nur |
| plural | ai | eiŋ | ō / ḗŋkun | |
| 3rd person | singular | ési / ísē | ésiŋ | an(er) / un |
| plural | ésiŋ1 | ésiŋkoŋ2 | ōn / ūn |
2. from ésiŋko which corresponds to áiŋko
Possessive pronouns in Sungor stand in postposition, e.g. 'his brother' bet an. If a possessive follows a plural, it is pluralised by adding -uŋ, e.g. 'our hearts' omulu uŋunuŋ.
Sungor Demonstratives are quite underresearched. Examples are 'this' translating to iŋ, plural iŋkō and 'that translating to ệŋ, plural ệŋgo.
Interrogatives lack research as well. 'Who' translates to nấrē, 'which' to nấnē, and 'what' to nímmōrī or nim as an alternative expression.
The word for 'human' at is used to express 'someone'. The plural is árī. To differentiate whether 'someone' refers to a man or woman, the respective terms follow. 'Man' is at ma, 'woman' is at ī. Following this same pattern, 'everyone' translates to at kíro, literally 'every human' with kíro being the term for 'every'. Other indefinite pronouns are 'some' kōra, 'everything' híniŋ, or 'nobody' lō. Plurals can be formed by adding the suffix -guŋ.
| 1 | kor | 11 | mer konterek | 100 | mía | 1000 | elf | |
| 2 | wárē | 12 | mer warterek | 101 | mía o kor | 2000 | ta elf wárē | |
| 3 | íca | 13 | mer icerek | 102 | mía o wárē | 3000 | ta elf íca | |
| 4 | kus | 14 | mer kúserek | 110 | mía o mer | 5000 | elf másī | |
| 5 | másī | 15 | mer masterek | 120 | mía o tíli war | 100000 | míat elf | |
| 6 | tor | 16 | mer tórterek | 150 | mía o tíli másī | |||
| 7 | kal | 17 | mer kalterek | 200 | míat wárē | |||
| 8 | kibs | 18 | mer kibesterek | 300 | míat íca | |||
| 9 | úku | 19 | mer ukṹterek | 400 | míat kus | |||
| 10 | mer | 20 | tíli wárē | |||||
| 30 | tíli íca | |||||||
| 40 | tíli kus | |||||||
| 45 | tíli kus ge másī |
Ordinals are derived from the cardinal numbers by adding suffixes -na or -no.
| first1 | korna / korena | |
| second | wórna / wórēna | |
| third | ícana / ícenaí | |
| fourth | kúsono | |
| fifth | másena | |
| sixth | tṓrena | |
| seventh | kálena | |
| eighth | kíbiseno | |
| ninth | úkuno | |
| tenth | mérena |
To indicate how often something happens/has happened, Sungor uses mar and the corresponding ordinal number, e.g. 'the first time' mar korena.
Sungor has locative adverbs, temporal adverbs, and adverbs of manner. Adverbs in Sungor are not well attested for. Some examples of locative adverbs are 'here' índi, 'there' ḗŋdē, 'between' rēnik, 'above' óroyē. Temporal adverbs are, for example, 'daily' abad hḯnik, 'today' dấdo, 'always' dīman, 'yesterday' ệrē, 'now' hása, 'tomorrow' súsekē. Examples for adverbs of manner are 'maybe' tấsei, 'impossible' tấsoto. 'Maybe' tấsei might not be an adjective in itself since it can be divided into tấ-sei 'it will be'.
Numbers become adverbial when they follow the arabic loanword mar, e.g. 'once' mar kor.
In Sungor, adjectives follow and agree with the noun, for example 'white clay' ōsu aek and 'red clay' ōsu arak. Adjectives form plurals by adding a suffix, e.g. 'small, young' elit | eliŋa (Sg. -t, Pl. -ŋa), 'ripe, mature' naχed | naχedo (Pl. -o), 'older brother' jō dud | jṓā dútū.
Verbs inflect by addition of affixes to a word root. For example, 'I birth' nḗne has the root ēn. Verb roots are usually monosyllabic or disyllabic. Prefixes mark the person, whereas suffixes mark time and mood.
The verbs can be put into three groups depending on the plural-affix they take. While verbs in Group I & II follow a regular patter, group III consists of irregular affixation.
In the following tables, 'R' marks the verb-root, 'V' signals a vowel, sounds in brackets '' only sometimes occur, sounds in squared brackets '[]' only rarely occur, and '/' signals different realizations according to the context of an utterance, '-' is used to signal affixes.
| 1st person | singular | n-(V)R-[n]e/i | n-(V)R-i/[e] |
|---|---|---|---|
| plural | n-(V)R-[i]nye | n-(V)R-e/ge1,2 | |
| 2nd person | singular | (V)R-[n]e/i | (V)R-i/[e] |
| plural | (V)R-[i]nye | (V)R-e/ge | |
| 3rd person | singular | R-[n]e/i | R-i/[e] |
| plural | R-(i)nye | R-e/ge |
2. Nasals are followed by -ge, plosives or /s/ are followed by -eke
In the present tense, verbs can be further divided up into those that have suffix -i (Group I) or -e (Group II).
Present tense conditionals take one of three suffixes: -(V)ŋne, -kne, or -(V)ne. The plural is formed by adding a conditional suffix to a plural suffix, e.g. 'if I count' noto̯yanē | 'if we count' noto̯nyane (from no·to̯y·ny·ane).
Negation happens by adding a suffix. A positive form with the suffix -e takes -ato if the verb root contains front vowels (a, e, i) or -oto if the verb root contains back vowels (o, u). If the positive form takes the suffix -i, the negative form takes the suffix -to or -(V)kto (sometimes -kāto) with some exceptions. In the plural form -kto becomes -kāto/-kōto, while -ato/-oto remains the same.
| Preterite I | Preterite II | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Group I | Group II | Group I | Group II | ||
| 1st person | singular | n-(V)R(V)(V)-ŋV | same as Group 1 | n-VR(V)(V)-ŋVŋV | not documented |
| plural | n-(V)R(V)-nyVŋV1 | n-(V)R-g/kaŋa | n-VR(V)-nyVŋV | ||
| 2nd person | singular | (V)R(V)(V)-ŋV | same as Group 1 | VR(V)(V)-ŋVŋV | |
| plural | (V)R(V)-nyVŋV | (V)R-g/kaŋa | VR(V)-nyVŋV | ||
| 3rd person | singular | R(V)(V)-ŋV | same as Group 1 | R(V)(V)-ŋVŋV | |
| plural | R(V)-nyVŋV | R-g/kaŋa | R(V)-nyVŋV | ||
1. Also n-(V)RV-aŋa
Preterite tense suffixes can sometimes be added onto the present tense suffixes -i and -e.
Preterite conditionals are formed by replacing the -ne | -nē. These conditionals have a future meaning, e.g. 'I counted' notộyiŋa (preterite I) and 'if I will count' noto̯yiŋne, 'I requested' nisekḗŋiŋa and 'if I will request' nisekḗŋiŋne.
Both negatives of preterite I & II are derived from the positive by adding the suffix -to, e.g. 'I played' nagarnáŋa | 'I did not play' nagarnáŋto (preterite I) and nagarnáŋiŋa | nagarnáŋiŋto (preterite II).
| 1st person | singular | n-(V)R(V)sai | n-(V)R(V)-sai |
|---|---|---|---|
| plural | n-(V)R(V)sinye | n-(V)R(V)-saie1 | |
| 2nd person | singular | (V)R(V)-sai | (V)R(V)-sai |
| plural | (V)R(V)-sinye | (V)R(V)-saie | |
| 3rd person | singular | R(V)-sai | (t)-(V)R(V)-sai |
| plural | R(V)-sinye | (t)-(V)R(V)-saie |
Lukas suspects the future marker -sa to be an auxiliary verb in the present tens.
Future tense conditionals are formed by adding suffix -ŋnē, e.g. 'to know' njel and 'if I will know' ninjilisáiŋnē.
Imperatives in Sungor differ based on the present tense verb group a word falls into. The positive singular imperative for verbs that end in -i is the verb root, although there are some exceptions. Verbs that end in -e take suffixes -a, -o, -e, and in some cases -i. For plurals, the prefix k-(V)- and suffixes -a or -o are needed. Negative imperatives are follow the either the schemata VR-aito or VR-ēto.
Some auxiliaries exist in Sungor. However, due to a lack in research, auxiliaries are not well documented.