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Afar language

Afar () is a Lowland East Cushitic language spoken in Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti. It is believed to have 1.5 million speakers, the Afar. The basic word order in Afar, like in other East Cushitic languages, is subject object verb. Its speakers have a literacy rate of between one and three per cent. Its closest relative is the Saho language.^[1]

In Eritrea, Afar is recognized as one of nine national languages which formally enjoy equal status (though Tigrinya and Arabic are by far of greatest significance in official usage). There are daily broadcasts in the national radio and a translated version of the Eritrean constitution. In education, however, Afar speakers prefer Arabic which many of them speak as a second language as the language of instruction.^[2] In the Afar Region of Ethiopia, Afar is partially used in some of the few schools,^[3] while Amharic is the region's working language.^[4]

Phonology

Consonants
Vowels and stress

Phonotactics
Writing system

Latin alphabet

See also
Notes
Bibliography
External links

Phonology

Consonants

The consonants of the Afar language in the standard orthography are listed below (with IPA notation in brackets):

		Labial	Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Pharyngeal	Glottal
Stops	voiceless		t [t]			k [k]
Stops	voiced	b [b]	d [d]	x [ ]		g [ ]
Fricatives	voiceless	f [f]	s [s]				c [ ]	h [h]
Fricatives	voiced						q [ ]
Nasals		m [m]	n [n]
Approximants		w [w]	l [l]		y [j]
Tap			r [r]

Consonants which close syllables are released, e.g., .

Vowels and stress

short

long

- aa

- ee

- ii

- oo

- uu

Sentence final vowels of affirmative verbs are aspirated (and stressed), e.g. = 'He did.' Sentence final vowels of negative verbs are not aspirated (nor stressed), e.g. = 'He did not do.' Sentence final vowels of interrogative verbs are lengthened (and stressed), e.g. = 'Did he do?' Otherwise, stress in word-final.

Phonotactics

Syllables are of the form (C)V(V)(C). One exception is the three-consonant cluster -str-.

Writing system

Afar may be written either with the Latin script or Ge'ez.

Linguists of the Institut des Langues de Djibouti, the Eritrean Ministry of Education and the Ethiopian Afar Language Studies & Enrichment Center are working to develop a standardized written version of Afar in order to facilitate alphabetization of its speakers.^[5]

Latin alphabet

A, B, T, S, E, C, K, X, I, D, Q, R, F, G, O, L, M, N, U, W, H, Y

a, ba, ta, sa, e, ca, ka, xa, i, da, qa, ra, fa, ga, o, la, ma, na, u, wa, ha, ya^[6]

Notes

Bibliography

Loren F. Bliese. 1976. "Afar", The Non-Semitic Languages of Ethiopia. Ed. Lionel M. Bender. Ann Arbor, Michigan: African Studies Center, Michigan State University. Pages 133 164.
Loren F. Bliese. 1981. A generative grammar of Afar. Summer Institute of Linguistics publications in linguistics vol. 65. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics & The University of Texas at Arlington. ISBN 0-88312-083-6.
J.G. Colby. 1970. "Notes on the northern dialect of the Afar language", Journal of Ethiopian Studies 8:1 8.
R.J. Hayward and Enid M. Parker. 1985. Afar-English-French dictionary with Grammatical Notes in English. London: School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
Richard J. Hayward. 1998. "Qafar (West Cushitic)", Handbook of Morphology. Ed. A. Spencer & A. Zwicky. Oxford: Blackwell. Pages 624-647.
Didier Morin. 1997. Po sie traditionnelle des Afars. Langues et cultures africaines, 21 / SELAF vol. 363. Paris/Louvain: Peeters.
Enid M. Parker. 2006. English Afar Dictionary. Washington DC: Dunwoody Press.
Rainer M. Voigt. 1975. "Bibliographie des Saho Afar", Africana Marburgensia 8:53 63.