Acheron language

Acheron
Asheron
Native to	Sudan
Region	Nuba Hills
Native speakers	20,000 (2006)[1] 9,800 in home area (2006)[1]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Kordofanian Talodi–Heiban Talodi Tocho languages Acheron
Dialects	Gathuk Gandok Garong
Language codes
ISO 639-3	acz
Glottolog	ache1245
ELP	Acheron
Acheron is classified as Severely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Acheron (Asheron) is a Niger–Congo language in the Talodi family spoken in South Kordofan, Sudan.

Acheron derives from the Arabic word aɟɟur-uun [sic] which means "innocent people",[2] it was later "indigenised as /acʊrʊn/"[3] and turned into /aʃərɔn/. The autoethonym in Acheron is /wɑ-rəmɛ/ for the people and /ɡə-rəmɛ/ for the language.[2]

The number of active speakers is estimated to be 9,800.[2] This number includes the community members and "diaspora speakers" in other Sudanese towns and abroad.[2]

Phonology

Consonants

Consonants[4]

		Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar		Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Plosive	voiceless	pː	t̪ː			t		k	kː
	voiced	b	d̪			d	ɟ	g	gw
Fricative	voiceless			s	sː
	voiced		ð	z
Nasal	short	m				n	ɲ	ŋ
	long	mː				nː	ɲː	ŋː
Trill				r	rː
Tap						ɽ
Approximant	short					l	j	w
	long					lː		wː

Norton (2000) calls /s/ and /k/ "stiff cord" segments, saying they are always voiceless, with other short plosives and fricatives varying in voicing.[4]

Vowels

Vowels[5]

		Front	Central	Back
Close	[+ATR]	i		u
	[-ATR]	ɪ		ʊ
Mid		ɛ	ə	ɔ
Open			a

Norton (1995) posited 10 vowels: 5 [-ATR] /ɪ, ɛ, a, ɔ ʊ/ and 5 [+ATR] /i, e, ɜ, o, u/.[6] However, Norton (2013) has 8 vowels: [-ATR] /ɪ, ɛ, ə, ɑ, ɔ, ʊ/ and [+ATR] /i u/.[2]

Notes

1. Acheron at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. Norton 2013, p. 195.
3. Stevenson 1956, p. 102, quoted in Norton 2013, p. 195
4. Norton 2000, p. 24.
5. Norton 2013, pp. 208.
6. Norton 1995, quoted in Norton 2013, p. 195

References

• Norton, Russell (1995). Variation and change in the phonology of Asheron (MA thesis). University of Essex.
• Norton, Russell (2000). "The noun classes of Asheron". Occasional Papers in the Study of Sudanese Languages. 8: 23–55.
• Norton, Russell (2013). "The Acheron vowel system: a participatory approach". In Blench, Roger; Schadeberg, Thilo (eds.). Nuba Mountain Language Studies. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe. pp. 195–217. ISBN 978-3-89645-427-0.
• Stevenson, Roland C. (1956). "A survey of the phonetics and grammatical structure of the Nuba Mountain languages, with particular reference to Otoro, Katcha and Nyimang". Afrika und Übersee. 40: 73–84, 93–115.

Further reading

• Stirtz, Timothy M. (1 January 2015). "Schadeberg, Thilo C. and Roger M. Blench: Nuba Mountain Language Studies". Journal of African Languages and Linguistics. 36 (1). doi:10.1515/jall-2015-0006. ISSN 0167-6164. S2CID 151944262.

External links

• Listen to a sample of Acheron from Global Recordings Network