Laal language

Spoken in

Unclassified language

• Laal

-

Mis

Gdm

Laal is a still unclassified language spoken by 749 inhabitants (as of 2000) of three villages in the prefecture of Moyen- Chari is spoken in Chad. It's probably an isolated language and therefore would an isolated remnant of an extinct Central African language family represent. There is one ( with the exception of linguistic transcriptions ) unwritten, purely verbal -handoff language. According to David Faris, a member of SIL Chad, Laal is threatened with extinction, as more and more speakers operate at 25 of the more locally represented Baguirmi.

In the focus of linguistic considerations, the language moved in 1977 by Pascal Boyeldieus field work on a single speaker from Damtar 1975-1978.

Speaker and status

Most speakers are river fishermen and farmers who sell as Nebeneinkunft salt, which they gain from the ashes of burnt palm trees. Like their neighbors, the Niellim, they were originally cattle herders who lost their herds around the turn of the century. The majority belongs to Islam, although they practiced the religion of Niellim Yondo - up in the second half of the 20th century. The area is quite undeveloped; although there are Koranic schools in Gori and Damtar, the next state school, however, is 7 km away, and across the region, there is no pharmacy (as of 1995).

The village Damtar had formerly an independent dialect, Laabe ( la: bé ), which was established in 1977 only spoken by two or three villagers; he was replaced by the dialect of Gori after two families had fled towards the end of the 19th century before a war after Damtar. There are no known other dialects of Laal.

After Chadian legal system has Laal - like all languages ​​other than French and Chadian Arabic - the status of a national language. Although the 1996 Constitution stipulates that " the promotion and development conditions of all languages ​​must be protected by law ", there is no Chadian national language in education or for official purposes use; only some of the more widely spoken languages ​​have their own radio station.

Classification

Laal could not be classified so far, although strong influences of the Adamawa - Ubangi languages ​​( mainly Bua ) and are present in a lesser extent, the Chad languages. Therefore Laal is assigned sometimes one of these two language families, but far more often treated as an isolated language. Roger Blench (2003) assumes, " his vocabulary and his morphology originate partly from the Chadian, partly from the Adamawasprachen -. , And the rest from an unknown source, perhaps the extinct language family of Laal "

There are many loanwords from Laal Baguirmi, as the region formed part of the Baguirmireiches for several centuries; the local capital was Korbol. In addition, most residents of the area Niellim as a second language to speak, and at least 20 % -30 % of the vocabulary of the Laal has similarities with that of this language on. Moreover, with the spread of Islam came to some Arabic loanwords.

• Single language
• Not classified language