Aushi
Ikyaushi
Native toZambia, Democratic Republic of the Congo
RegionLuapula Province, (Haut-)Katanga Province
Native speakers
100,000 in Zambia (2010 census)[1]
widespread as L2 in DR Congo[2]
Latin
Official status
Recognised minority
language in
Language codes
ISO 639-3auh
Glottologaush1241
M.402[3]

Aushi, known by native speakers as Ikyaushi, is a Bantu language primarily spoken in the Lwapula Province of Zambia and the (Haut-)Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Although many scholars argue that it is a dialect of the closely related Bemba, native speakers insist that it is a distinct language. Nonetheless, speakers of both linguistic varieties enjoy extensive mutual intelligibility, particularly in the Lwapula Province.[4]

Phonology

Aushi distinguishes consonants according to five manners and four places of articulation.[4] Although nasal consonants are individually phonemic, prenasalized consonants also arise in conjunction with the voiced and voiceless counterparts of the plosives, affricates, and fricatives.[4]

Consonants[4]
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Plosive/
Affricate 		plain p t t͡ʃ k
prenasal voiceless ᵐp ⁿt ⁿt͡ʃ ᵑk
voiced ᵐb ⁿd ⁿd͡ʒ ᵑɡ
Fricative plain voiceless f s
voiced β
prenasal ᶬf ⁿs
Lateral l
Approximant j w

Aushi has five canonical vowels that are distinguished segmentally according to vowel height and backness and suprasegmentally according to length (short/long) and tone (low/high).[4] The front and central vowels are unrounded, while the back vowels are rounded. In environments where vowels arise before a nasal consonant, the vowels may adopt nasality, but this is not a distinctive feature, i.e. it is phonetic, not phonemic.[4]

Vowels[4]
Front Central Back
short long short long short long
High i iː u uː
Mid e eː o oː
Low a aː

Grammar

Nominal Classes[4][5][6]
Class Proto-Bantu Augment Prefix Example Gloss
1a *mo- u- mu- umuntu "person"
1b *∅- ∅- ∅- mayo "mother"
2 *βɔ-, *βa- a- ba- abantu "people"
3 *mo- u- mu- umuti "tree"
4 *me- i- mi- imiti "trees"
5a *le- i- shi- ishina "name"
5b *le- i- ∅- isabi "fish"
6 *ma- a- ma- amana "names"
7 *ke- i- ki- ikitabu "book"
8 *βi-, *li- i- fi- ifitabu "books"
9 *ne- i- N- imfinsi "darkness/night"
10 *li-ne i- N- insiku "days"
11 *lʊ- u- lu- ulutambi "proverb"
12 *ka- a- ka- akalulu "rabbit"
13 *to- u- tu- utunwa "mouths"
14 *βo- u- bu- ubwaato "canoe"
15a *ko- u- ku- ukuya "to go"
15b *ko- u- ku- ukuboko "arm"
16 *pa- ∅- pa- pa ng'anda "in (the/a) house"
17 *ko- ∅- ku- ku mushi "to (the/a) market"
18 *mo- ∅- mu- mu sukulu "in/inside (the/a) school"

References

  1. ^ Aushi at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ "Aushi". Ethnologue.
  3. ^ Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Spier, Troy E. (2020). A Descriptive Grammar of Ikyaushi. Tulane University, New Orleans, LA: Ph.D. dissertation.
  5. ^ Spier, Troy (2016). "A Survey of the IcAushi Language and Nominal Class System". Proceedings of the 43rd Annual Conference of the Linguistic Association of Canada and the United States.
  6. ^ Spier, Troy E. (2022). "Nominal Phrase Structure in Ikyaushi (M.402)". Studies in African Languages and Cultures.

Further reading

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