| Awngi | |
| Pronunciation: | pronounced as /[ˈawŋi]/ |
| Nativename: | አውጚ (Awŋi) |
| States: | Ethiopia |
| Region: | Agew Awi Zone, Amhara Region |
| Ethnicity: | Awi |
| Date: | 2007 census |
| Ref: | e27 |
| Familycolor: | Afro-Asiatic |
| Fam2: | Cushitic |
| Fam3: | Central |
| Fam4: | Southern |
| Dia1: | Dega |
| Dia2: | Kwolla |
| Dia3: | Northern Awngi |
| Script: | Geʽez script |
| Iso3: | awn |
| Glotto: | awng1244 |
| Glottorefname: | Awngi |
| Notice: | IPA |
The Awngi language, in older publications also called Awiya (an inappropriate ethnonym), is a endangered indigenous Central Cushitic language spoken by the Awi people, traditionally living in Central Gojjam in northwestern Ethiopia.
Most speakers of the language live in the Agew Awi Zone of the Amhara Region, but there are also communities speaking the language in various areas of Metekel Zone of the Benishangul-Gumuz Region. Until recently, Kunfäl, another Southern Agaw language spoken in the area west of Lake Tana, has been suspected to be a separate language. It has now been shown to be linguistically close to Awngi, and it should be classified as a dialect of that language.
| Close | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ |
| Labial | Alveolar | Palato-velar | Uvular | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | labialized | plain | labzd | |||||
| Plosive | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Affricate | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| Fricative | plain | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| post-stopped | pronounced as /s͡t/ | pronounced as /ʃ͡t/ | ||||||
| pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| Flap | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
Palmer and Hetzron both identified three distinctive tone levels in Awngi: high, mid and low. The low tone, however, only appears in word-final position on the vowel pronounced as /a/. A falling tone (high-mid) appears on word-final syllables only. Joswig reanalyzes the system as having only two distinctive tone levels, with the low tone being a phonetic variant of the mid tone.
The Awngi syllable in most cases fits the maximum syllable template CVC (C standing for a consonant, V for a vowel). This means there is only one (if any) consonant each in the syllable onset and the rhyme. Exceptions to this happen at word boundaries, where extrametrical consonants may appear.
In positions other than word-initial, Awngi contrasts geminate and non-geminate consonants. The consonants pronounced as //ɢ, ɢʷ, t͡s, t͡ʃ, j, w, ʒ//, however, have no contrast in gemination.
Whenever a suffix containing the [+high] vowel pronounced as /i/ is added to a stem, a productive vowel harmony process is triggered. Hetzron calls this process regressive vowel height assimilation. The vowel harmony only takes place if the underlying vowel of the last stem syllable is pronounced as /e/. This vowel and all preceding instances of pronounced as /e/ and pronounced as /o/ will take over the feature [+high], until a different vowel is encountered. Then the vowel harmony is blocked. Hetzron provides the following example: pronounced as //moleqés-á// ‘nun’ vs. pronounced as //muliqís-í// ‘monk’.
Awngi is used as Medium of Instruction from Grade 1 to 6 in primary schools of Awi Zone. It is written with an orthography based on the Ethiopian Script. Extra fidels used for Awngi are for the sound pronounced as /link/ and for the sound pronounced as /link/. The fidel is used for pronounced as /link/, the fidel for the sound pronounced as /link/. Various aspects of the Awngi orthography are yet to be finally decided.
The noun is marked for number and gender (masculine, feminine or plural) as well as case. The nominative is unmarked for one class of nouns, or marked by -i for masculine nouns and -a for feminine nouns. Other cases are accusative, dative, genitive, locative, directional, ablative, comitative, comparative, invocative and translative. Hetzron also mentions adverbial as a case of Awngi, but an interpretation as a derivational marker seems to be more appropriate. Number, gender, and case are marked through suffixes to the noun stems.
The Awngi verbal morphology has a wealth of inflectional forms. The four main tenses are imperfective past, imperfective non-past, perfective past and perfective non-past. There are various other coordinate and subordinate forms which are all marked through suffixes to the verb stems. The following distinctions are maintained for person:,,,,,, and .Hetzron demonstrated that the Awngi verbal morphology is most economically described when it is assumed that for every verb there are four distinct stems, marked A, B, C, and D in the following table. The first stem (A) is for,, and . The second stem (B) is for only, the third stem (C) for and, and the fourth stem for only. These four stems need to be noted for every verb in the lexicon and serve as the basis for all other verbal morphology. The stems remain the same throughout all verbal paradigms, and it is possible to predict the surface form of each paradigm member with these stems and the simple tense suffixes.
The main verb of a sentence is always at the end. The basic word order is therefore SOV. Subordination and coordination is achieved exclusively through verbal affixation.