Ŝon languages
| Ŝon | |
|---|---|
| Distribution: | |
| Ethnicity: | Ŝon peoples |
| Classification: | Proto-Ŝon
|
| Divisions: | Taav
Shón |
The Ŝon (English /ʃəʊ̯n/) family comprises two languages that are distantly related, those being Taav and Shón (The family name "Ŝon" is based on the languages' words for "to speak", /ˈʃũː/ and /ˈʃo/). The words "Taav" and "Shón" are English adaptations of the native words, /ˈtʌɑ̯ːv/ and /ˈʃɤɲ/, which happen to be cognates, from the Proto-Ŝon */ɹ̥ɑˈqɑmi/ (Late-Proto-Ŝon */ɬɑˈqɑmʲ/).
The Ŝon languages have a long history, having been written in their own script(s) (some scholars argue the two languages used distinct scripts that descended from the same ancestor), but these essentially died under the Arab Caliphates, especially the Abbasid Caliphate, during which many of the Ŝon peoples abandoned their native script, and language sometimes, and replaced it with Arabic, but the language(s) would hold steady till European colonialism, where they were heavily suppressed and replaced by French.
Starting around 1890, the Ŝon languages were believed dead, and there was significant evidence supporting such, including records indicating a roughly 87% decrease in speakers since 1820, having been largely replaced by French and/or Arabic, but in 1947 a small population of roughly 500 speakers of Taav was found in Algeria, the descriptions had many inconsistencies with early descriptions, seeming to be a conservative variety, these discrepancies have since been researched further and it'd seem the early descriptions focused on varieties heavily influenced by other languages, leading to the description of this as a more "pure" variety.
Shón was believed dead till the late 1980's, when a village of roughly 200 speakers was found in central Niger, this too seems to be a more conservative variety, though it is now considered the standard as the more divergent varieties of the past are dead, and poorly described at that. Modern descriptions of Shón have revealed it to be far more divergent from Taav than originally believed, and the varieties originally classed as Shón have since been reclassified as Taav or, by some scholars, a separate language called "Shaav".
Phonology
Proto-Ŝon
Being a proto language, Proto-Ŝon is reconstructed, but it may have looked like this:
Early Proto-Ŝon
Also simply called "Proto-Ŝon" by those who call Common Ŝon "Late Proto-Ŝon".
| Labial | Alveolar | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |||
| Plosive | Voiceless | p | t | k | q | ʔ |
| Voiced | b | d | g | |||
| Fricative | s | |||||
| Liquid | Voiceless | ɹ̥ | ||||
| Voiced | ɹ | |||||
The vowel inventory of Proto-Ŝon is reconstructed as similar to modern Taav, but not exactly the same.
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| High | i | u |
| Mid | e | o |
| Low | ɑ |
Common Ŝon
| Labial | Alveolar | Velar | Uvular | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | ||
| Plosive | Voiceless | p | t | k | q |
| Voiced | b | d | g | ||
| Fricative | s | ||||
| Lateral | Voiceless | ɬ | |||
| Voiced | l | ||||
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| High | i | u |
| Mid | e | o |
| Low | ɑ |
Taav
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | ||
| Plosive | Voiceless | p~f | t~s̺ | t͡ʃ | k~x |
| Voiced | b | d | d͡ʒ | g | |
| Fricative | Voiceless | s̻ | ʃ | ||
| Voiced | v | z | ʒ | ɣ | |
| Liquid | l | ʎ | |||
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unround | Round | |||
| High | i | y | ɨ | u |
| Mid-High | e | ø | o | |
| Mid-Low | ɛ | ɔ | ||
| Low | a | |||
Shón
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | |
| Plosive | Voiceless | p | t | t͡ʃ | k |
| Voiced | b | d | d͡ʒ | g | |
| Fricative | s | ʃ | |||
| Liquid | l, r | ʎ | |||
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unround | Round | |||
| High | i | u | ||
| Mid-High | e | ə | ɤ | o |
| Mid-Low | ɛ | ʌ | ɔ | |
| Low | ɑ | |||
Orthography
The Šon languages have a very long written history that spans nearly 2000 years, starting with its first script, an adaptation of Egyptian Demotic.
Proto-Šon is attested in a few very small and fragmentary pieces, but these have been fundamental in the reconstruction of the language. Much of what's attested is solely names, but these offer insight into the phontactics of the language, and reveal it was extremely restrictive, to a maximum of /CVɹC/, due to the allowance of /ɹ/ to cluster, we believe Proto-Šon may have treated it as a vowel.
Modern Taav is primarily written in the Neo-Tifinagh script, adapting it as necessary to native sounds. While modern Shón primarily uses the Latin script, and has been described as "odd" for some of its orthographic decisions.
Notable features of the Shón Latin alphabet are:
- Use of ":" to mark nasalization.
In 1995, an effort to revive the ancient demotic script of the Shón languages began, but gained little initial support. Since 2010 however, support has grown exponentially, and efforts to teach the script to native speakers began, as well as online resources for learning the script. This was, in part, to promote revitalization and literacy in the language, acting somewhat as a publicity stunt to pull attention to the language with the motto "Please help us make Taav the only modern language written with Egyptian hieroglyphs!", which was purposefully misleading, as it was demotic, not true hieroglyphs.
