Ngeté-Herdé language explained

Ngeté-Herdé
Nativename:	Zime
Also Known As:	Lame
States:	Chad
Speakers:	50,000
Date:	1991–1999
Ref:	e18
Familycolor:	Afro-Asiatic
Fam2:	Chadic
Fam3:	Masa
Fam4:	South
Fam5:	Peve–Kaɗo
Dia1:	Dzəpaw
Dia2:	Ngeté
Dia3:	He’dé
Lc1:	nnn
Ld1:	Ngete
Lc2:	hed
Ld2:	Herdé
Glotto:	nget1241
Glottoname:	Ngete
Glotto2:	herd1236
Glottoname2:	Herde

Ngeté-Herdé, also known as Lamé, is an Afro-Asiatic dialect cluster of Chad. Varieties are:

• Dzəpaw, or Lamé
• Ngeté (Nguetté), or Sorga-Ngeté
• Herdé (He’dé), or Heɗe-Rong^[1]

Zime is a generic name.

Phonology

The following is the He’dé dialect:

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar		Post-alv./ Palatal		Velar	Glottal
Nasal		pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/		pronounced as /ink/		pronounced as /ink/
Stop/ Affricate	voiceless	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/		pronounced as /ink/		pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/
	voiced	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/		pronounced as /ink/		pronounced as /ink/
	prenasal	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/		pronounced as /ink/		pronounced as /ink/
	implosive	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/
Fricative	voiceless	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/				pronounced as /ink/
	voiced	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/				pronounced as /ink/
Tap/Trill		pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/
Approximant				pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/

/w/ may occasionally be heard as a labio-palatal [ɥ] when before front vowels.

Sounds /t͡ʃ, d͡ʒ, ⁿd͡ʒ/ are realized as affricates [t͡s, d͡z, ⁿd͡z] among other dialects.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/		pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/
Mid	pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/
Open		pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/

Sounds /e, ẽ/ and /o, õ/ may also be realized as more open [ɛ, ɛ̃] and [ɔ, ɔ̃], when in syllable-final positions.^[2]

External links

Lexique Zimé-Français

Notes and References

1. Blench, 2006. The Afro-Asiatic Languages: Classification and Reference List (ms)
2. Book: Sachnine, Michka . Le Lamé vùn-dzə̀pàò: Un parler zimé du Nord-Cameroun (langue tchadique) . Paris: SELAF . 1982.