| Day | |
| States: | southern Chad |
| Date: | 1993 census |
| Ref: | e18 |
| Familycolor: | Niger-Congo |
| Fam2: | Atlantic–Congo |
| Fam3: | Volta-Congo |
| Fam4: | Savannas |
| Fam5: | Mbum–Day |
| Iso3: | dai |
| Glotto: | dayy1236 |
| Glottorefname: | Day |
Day (also spelled Daye) is an Adamawa language of southern Chad, spoken by 50,000 or so people southeast of Sarh. Ethnologue reports that its dialects are mutually intelligible, but Blench (2004) lists Ndanga, Njira, Yani, Takawa as apparently separate languages.
Pierre Nougayrol's publications and field notes of Day from the 1970s constitute almost all of the available materials on the Day language.[1] [2] [3]
Güldemann (2018) notes that Day has few morphological and lexical features that are typical of Niger-Congo, and hence cannot be classified with certainty.[4]
| Plosive | pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Implosive | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Prenasalized | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Fricative | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ |
| High | pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mid-high | pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ | |
| Mid-low | pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Low | pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ |
There are three tones: high, low, and mid.
Some fish names in Day:[2]
| Day (Bouna) | Scientific name | |
|---|---|---|
| gàgà | Chrysichthys auratus | |
| jí yēē | Hepsetus odoe | |
| gūrú | Heterobranchus bidorsalis | |
| bɔ́gɔ̀ | Heterotis niloticus | |
| sɔ̄rɔ̄ŋ | Ophiocephalus obscurus | |
| jīɲ | Protopterus annectens | |
| kɔ̀tɔ̀kúnɔ̀ | Tetraodon fahaka |
Other animal names:
Plant names in Day: