| Zande | |
| Nativename: | Pazande |
| States: | Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, South Sudan |
| Ethnicity: | Zande |
| Speakers: | L1 million |
| Date: | 1996–2017 |
| Ref: | e27 |
| Speakers2: | L2 (2013) |
| Speakers Label: | speakers |
| Familycolor: | Niger-Congo |
| Fam2: | Atlantic-Congo |
| Fam3: | Volta-Congo |
| Fam4: | Savannas? |
| Fam5: | Ubangian |
| Fam6: | Zande languages |
| Fam7: | Zande–Nzakara |
| Dia1: | Dio |
| Dia2: | Makaraka |
| Script: | Latin |
| Iso3: | zne |
| Glotto: | zand1248 |
| Glottorefname: | Zande |
Zande is the largest of the Zande languages. It is spoken by the Azande, primarily in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and western South Sudan, but also in the eastern part of the Central African Republic. It is called Pazande in the Zande language and Kizande in Lingala.
Estimates about the number of speakers vary; in 2001 Koen Impens cited studies that put the number between 700,000 and one million.[1]
| Labial | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Labio- velar | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||||
| Plosive | voiceless | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||
| prenasal | ᵐb | ⁿd | ᵑɡ | ᵑɡ͡b | ||||
| voiced | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||
| Fricative | voiceless | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||||
| prenasal | ᶬv | ⁿz | ||||||
| voiced | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||||
| Rhotic | pronounced as /ink/ ~ pronounced as /ink/ | |||||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||||
| Front | Back | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| unrounded | rounded | ||||||
| Close | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||
| Near-close | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||
| Close-mid | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||
| Open-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/ | |||||
Zande spelling rules were established at the 1928 Rejaf Language Conference following the principles of the International African Institute.
| b | d | e | f | g | i | k | m | n | o | ö | p | s | t | u | v | w | y | z |
In 1959, Archibald Norman Tucker published a Zande alphabet proposed during the Bangenzi Conference of 1941.
| a | ä | b | d | e | f | g | h | i | i̧ | k | m | n | o | p | r | s | t | u | u̧ | v | w | y | z | ’ |
SIL International published a Zande alphabet in 2014.
| ə | b | d | e | f | g | gb | h | i | ɨ | k | kp | l | m | mb | n | nd | ngb | nv | ny | nz | o | p | s | t | u | ʉ | v | w | y | z |
Avunguagudee, oni nangarasa rukutu awironi na gu sosono yo i mangi agu asunge dunduko na ngbarago i afuhe fuyo i mangihe, singia si tii Bambu Kindo yo, watadu ba bakere adunguratise yo?
Translation
Parents, do you encourage your children and teenagers to work cheerfully at any assignment that they are given to do, whether at the Kingdom Hall, at an assembly, or at a convention site?
1) Personal Pronouns
| I/me | mi | re | |
| you/thou/thee (singular) | mo | ro | |
| he/him | ko | ko | |
| she/her | ro | ri | |
| he/she (indef. gender)/him/her | ni | ni | |
| we/us | ani | rani | |
| you (plural)/you | oni | roni | |
| they/them | i/yo | yo |
| it | u | ru | |
| they/them | ru | ra |
The Objective forms of these pronouns are regularly used as suffixes denoting the first or intimate form of the Genitive. Those nouns which end in se drop this syllable before the suffixed pronoun.[3] For instance,
boro -> ‘person’, borore -> ‘my body’
ngbaduse -> ‘chest’, ngbadure -> ‘my chest’
kpu -> ‘home’, kpuro -> ‘thou home’
3) Possessive pronouns
| mine | gimi | |
| thine/yours | gamo | |
| his | gako | |
| hers | gari | |
| his/hers (indef. gender) | gani |
| its(animal) | gau | |
| its (neuter) | gaa | |
| ours | gaani | |
| yours | gaoni | |
| theirs | gayo | |
| theirs (animal) | gaami |
Mi ye ti gimi -> ‘I have come myself.’
A ndu ti gani -> ‘Let us go ourselves.’
4). The Reflexive Pronoun
| myself | tire | |
| thyself (singular) | tiro | |
| himself | tiko | |
| herself | tiri | |
| itself (animal) | tiru | |
| itself (neuter) | tie |
| ourselves | tirani | |
| yourselves | tironi | |
| themselves | tiyo | |
| themselves | tira |
Pluralisation: Pluralising a noun in Zande language is often done by adding "a" before a singular noun.[5]
For example:
boro 'a person' -> aboro 'people'
nya 'a beast' -> anya 'beasts'
e 'a thing' -> ae 'things'
Verbs often change tense by adding the corresponding tense marker.[6] For instance:
Besides, the verb doesn't change with their subject noun/pronoun.[7] For instance
Verbal negation is expressed by placing nga after the verb and then ending the negative statement with the particle te or ya at the end of the sentence.
Negative auxiliaries are separated to enclose subordinate clauses contained in the main negative statement, so affirmative verbs can usually be surrounded by them.
Verb + nga…te/ya (te/ya is put at the end of the whole sentence)
The indicative '
The Imperative '
For instance,
a). Mi a manga a -> 'I do it'
Mi a manga nga a te -> 'I do not do it.'
Ka mo ni mangi nga a ya -> 'Do not do it.'
The Zande have a more limited method of counting, never exceeding the numbers 20 and 40. Usually Zande people count by counting fingers and toes. Therefore when a number over twenty is counted another person must count the number beyond twenty and so on. So all the numbers over twenty or over ten are not separate numbers but are described in a sentence.[9]
1). The system of 1-5
sa 'one', ue 'two', biata 'three', biama 'four', bisue 'five'
2). When the number exceeds five, it must be transferred to the other hand to continue counting, so that 6-9 are based on five and are obtained by constantly adding 1-4.
3). When the counting goes to 10 it becomes a simple numeral again
4). 11-14
So that the 11 and 12 in Zande are:
5). When the counting goes to 15 it is a simple numeral
6). 16-19 is an additive operation that builds on 15
7). A person's hands and feet add up to 20 digits, so the expression for 20 is "a person stands it."
8). Above 20
9). 30
boro re e zi be boro yo bawe -> 30 (lit., a person stands it, take from the person there 10)
10). 40 (20+20)
boro ru e ue -> 40 (lit., person stands it 2)
11). Larger Numbers
kama -> 100, kama na ue bawe -> 120 (na -> and)
ue kama -> 200
kuti -> 1,000
ue kuti -> 2,000
mirioni -> 1,000,000
S + V + O
Mi nga gude -> 'I am a boy'
mi -> 'I', nga -> 'am', (to be), gude -> 'boy'
bami -> 'my father'
(ba -> 'father', mi -> 'my')
possessed noun needs to add a suffix (objective pronoun form) to express what it is belonged to whom.[10]
kporo -> 'a village' (abbr. Kpu)
kpure -> 'my home', kpuro -> 'thy home', kpuko -> 'his home'
before a noun is becomes KU
ku kuma ->'a man’s home' (kuma -> 'man', ku -> 'home')
ku Gangura -> 'Gangura’s home'
Demonstrative Adjectives
gere -> 'this', gi…re agi…re -> 'these' (plural)
gure -> 'that', gu…re. agu…re -> 'those' (plural)
Mo fu gere fe re -> 'give me this'
Mo di gure -> 'take this'
When they are used with noun pronouns, the syllables need to be separated so that they surround the noun pronoun and sometimes include the entire clause that modifies the noun pronoun.[11]
gi boro re -> 'this person'
gi ko re -> 'this man'
agi aboro re -> 'these people'
agi yo re -> 'these people' (lit. these they)
agu bambu re -> 'those house' (bambu -> 'house')
the number add always behind the noun and the noun usually uses its singular form
For instance,
sape bisue -> 'five knives'
Eg1. Yesu ki bi yo i ni pe ko -> 'Jesus saw them following him.'
(bi -> 'saw', yo -> 'them', i ni pe -> 'following', ko -> 'him')
Eg2. Mi a ndu ki bo ko -> 'I went and saw him.'
Eg3. Ko a ndu ki mangi e ki yega -> 'He went and did it and came home.'
wa -> 'like' it is usually put before the adjective
ti -> 'than' it is usually put after the adjective
susa (i) -> to surpass