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Nara language

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(Redirected from Barea language) Nilo-Saharan language spoken in Eritrea This article is about the language of Eritrea. For the language of Southern Africa, see Naro language. For the language of Papua New Guinea, see Lala language (Papua New Guinea).
Nara
Nara-Bana
Native toEritrea
RegionGash-Barka
EthnicityNara
Native speakers73,000 (2022)
Language familyNilo-Saharan?
Dialects
  • Higir
  • Koyta
  • Santora
  • Mogoreeb
Writing systemLatin
Official status
Recognised minority
language in
 Eritrea
Language codes
ISO 639-3nrb
Glottolognara1262
Linguistic map of Eritrea; Nara is spoken in the sea-blue region in the west

The Nara (Nera) or Barea (Barya) language is spoken by the Nara people in an area just to the north of Barentu in the Gash-Barka Region of western Eritrea. The language is often confused with Kunama, which is at best only distantly related.

The endangerment status of Nara is unclear. According to Glottolog it is not endangered, but according to Tsige Hailemichael, the "...Nara language is in danger of quickly disappearing."

Nara has been classified as Northern Eastern Sudanic by Rilly (2009:2), but Glottolog considers the evidence unpersuasive and classifies Nara as an isolate.

Dialects

There are four Nara dialects according to Rilly (2010:178):

Higir and Mogoreeb are the larger tribes, while Saantoorta and Koyta are smaller tribes (Rilly 2010:178).

Phonology

Consonants

Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
plain lab.
Stop voiceless t k
voiced b d g ɡʷ
prenasal ᵐb ⁿd ᵑɡ ᵑɡʷ
Fricative f s ʃ h
Nasal m n ŋ
Lateral l
Rhotic r
Approximant j w
  • Other sounds such as occur from Tigre and Arabic.

Vowels

Front Central Back
Close i u
Mid e o
Open a

References

  1. Nara at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024) Closed access icon
  2. "Ethnologue report for language code:nrb". Retrieved 2006-08-31.
  3. Hailemichael, Tsige (2005-11-05). "Once Upon a Time… in Nara Language". Retrieved 2006-08-31.
  4. Rilly, Claude. 2009. From the Yellow Nile to the Blue Nile: The quest for water and the diffusion of Northern East Sudanic languages from the fourth to the first millennia BCE. Paper presented at ECAS 2009 (3rd European Conference on African Studies, Panel 142: African waters – water in Africa, barriers, paths, and resources: their impact on language, literature and history of people) in Leipzig, 4 to 7 June 2009.
  5. "Glottolog 4.4 – Nara".
  6. Rilly, Claude. 2010. Le méroïtique et sa famille linguistique. Leuven: Peeters Publishers. ISBN 978-9042922372
  7. Thompson, David E. (1976). Nera. In Bender, M. Lionel (ed.), The Non-Semitic Languages of Ethiopia: Michigan State University. pp. 484–494.

External links

Languages of Eritrea
Working languages
National languages
Other languages
Main foreign languages
Eastern Sudanic languages
Part of the proposed Nilo-Saharan language family
Northern k languages
Nubian
Hill Nubian
Nara
Nyima
Taman
Southern n languages
Surmic
North
Southeast
Southwest
Eastern Jebel
Temein
Daju
Eastern
Western
NiloticLarge group listed below
Nilotic languages
Eastern
Bari
Teso–Turkana
Lotuko
Ongamo–Maa
Western
Dinka–Nuer
Luo
Northern
Southern
Burun
Southern
Kalenjin
Elgon
Nandi–Markweta
Okiek–Mosiro
Pökoot
Omotik–Datooga
Italics indicate extinct languages
Nilo-Saharan branches
Ethiopia-Sudan
border region
Sahel region
Central Sudanic
Eastern Sudanic
"Astaboran"

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