2011 Beja Word Final Length.pdf - Klaus Wedekind

Beja word final length: Intonational, morphological, or both?
"Italian Meeting of Afroasiatic Linguistics", Turin, June 2011
Klaus Wedekind, Rottweil
1. The Language
Beja is a North Cushitic SOV language spoken in Egypt, the Sudan, and Eritrea. As from 1996, Beja
has been used in mother tongue education in Eritrea. Books and brochures in this language are being
produced in Eritrea and - more recently - also in the Sudan.
The spelling of word final vowel length is one of the recurrent issues where such books are being
produced: In some cases, intonational length in Beja will be indicated by spelling out vowel length, in
other cases, it will just be indicated by a comma.
This raises a general question about punctuation:
Can punctuation universally be expected to take care of intonation? Can commas or question marks be
expected to signalize suspense or question intonation in every written language? There are obvious
exceptions - such as tone languages with question affixes. But what about a non-tonal language like
Beja?
2. Transcription and Punctuation
In 1996 the Beja language in Eritrea was given a Latin orthography - it was the last of the Eritrean
languages to officially receive an orthography. The following phonemes had to be accommodated:
Plosives, voiceless: voiced: lateral: trill: nasals: fricatives:
affricate: semi-vowels: vowels, high: mid: low: Since this paper
largely employs the Eritrean orthography, the following items should be noted:
Pitch accent is not transcribed in the official orthography, although it is contrastive in one subset of
nominals. In this article, pitch accent will be transcribed as bold vowels. Long vowels and gemination
are spelled as double letters. The apostrophe stands for hamzah [], y stands for IPA [j], dh and th
stand for retroflex ] and [], sh stands for the palatal fricative [ A "silent e" is used to
disambiguate digraphs; thus the palatal fricative is transcribed as sh, but the cluster s+h is transcribed
as seh, with the "silent e". Beja does not have a phoneme short [e].
Punctuation has not been in focus, and in Eritrea it is not being taught as different for different
languages. Apparently it is assumed that commas and question marks will have the same effect
universally, implying that punctuation is the same for every language.
3. Contrastive Vowel Length
In Beja, vowel length is contrastive. Almkvist (1881-1885) and Reinisch (1895) list many examples in
their dictionaries. See examples #1 and #2:
(#1) (#2)
Short:
kam
"camels"
Long
kaam
"camel"
lif
"thousand"
liif
"tissue"
In most analyses (Roper 1928, Hudson 1976, Morin 1995), vowel length is considered contrastive
even in word final position, See examples #3 and #4.

(#3) (#4)
Short:
ab(i)kaa
"seized"
gaw -ii
"house -from"
Long:
abika gaw -i
"seize!"
"house -GEN"
4.1 Vowel Length Conditioned Morphologically
In some instances, however, vowel length is not contrastive but conditioned. One such condition was
first noted by Roper (1928:40, 57) and then referred to by Hudson (1976:121) as well as Appleyard
(2007: 472). See also Wedekind 2008:90, 103. In the verb morphology, strong verbs such as di(y)- "to
say" demand short imperative suffixes, while weak verbs such as dig- "to shake" demand long
imperative suffixes, see examples #5 and #6.
(#5) (#6)
Short:
diy -a diy -i
"say! -IMPV.M"
"say! -IMPV.F"
Long:
dig -aa
"shake! -IMPV.M"
dig -ii
"shake! -IMPV.F"
4.2 Vowel Length Conditioned Phonologically
One phonological condition had already been noticed by Almkvist: "Kurze Vokale in der Endsilbe
werden zuweilen gedehnt, wenn eine neue Silbe hinzutritt" (1881 vol. I: 48, See also Wedekind 2004:
85, 2006/2007:8, 2008:19). In other words: Word final vowels can be lengthened when followed by a
suffix. See examples #7 and #8.
(#7) (#8)
Short:
gaw -i gaw -a
"house -GEN"
"house -PL
Long:
gaw -ii -da gaw -aa -ba
"house -GEN -to"
"house -PL -are"
Almkvists's "lengthening" rule is also true for stems such as di(y)- "to say". See examples #9 and #10.
(#9)
Short:
ti- di
"she- said"
(#10)
Long:
ti- dii -t
"she- said -and ..."

5. Vowel Length Controlling Vowel Quality
A striking proof for this phonological condition is provided by the fact that the Beja vowels oo and ee
have no short counterparts. (This was noted by Lepsius 1855 already, but was not noticed in
subsequent analyses). Thus, in word final position, not only length is affected, but even vowel quality:
-ee > -i /_#
-oo > -u /_#
This is true for stems as well as suffixes. So the allomorph of the stem ree -t "well" is ri, and the
allomorph of the suffix -oo "my" is -u., see examples #11 and #12.
(#11) (#12)
Short:
too- ri # baab -u #
"the- well"
"father -my"
Long:
ree -ti baab -oo -yu
"well -of" "father -my -is"
6.1 Vowel Length in Verbs
Some interesting issues arise with verbs in non-final position of a sentence, where final vowel length
is found to be of different categories: The vowel ee is permitted in closed syllables - such as shown in
examples #11 above and #13a below.
But the long vowel -ee is also permitted in subordinate verbs, as shown in example #13b. In both
instances (#13a and #13b), the suffix -ee "-ing (present participle)" gives the verb the status of a
subordinate verb.
(#13a)
Long (closed syllable):
hariw -ee -t
"seek -ing -OBJ"
(#13b)
Long (subordinate verb):
hariw -ee i- naw.
"seek -ing he- failed."
A different instance of verb final vowel length is presented in #14b. Both in #14a and in #14b, tidi
"she said" are independent verbs, and the only difference is that - after some hesitation - in #14b the
speaker adds another independent sentence.

(#14a)
Short (final intonation):
"M'aana! ti- di.
"Come! she- said."
(#14b)
Long (medial intonation):
M'aana! ti- dii, laakiin i- rib -na.
"Come! she- said, but they- refused -PL."
Morphologically, the final ii in (#14b) tidii "she said" is a short vowel. The sentence internal suspense
however causes intonational length, which is also indicated by the comma. The same kind of suspense
is found with questions, indicated by question marks. There are many examples such as the preceding
one (some of the displayed in the appendix), with the same morphological form spelled differently -
long in sentence medial position, but short in sentence final position.
See the generalization here below.
... ii , ... i .
... sentence medial verb ... sentence final verb
Linguists might argue that question marks or commas take care of intonation and length. In established
orthographies, it seems to be common practice - possibly universal - to indicate intonational suspense
by punctuation.
From Beja publications it is obvious, however, that this argument goes against the intuition of at least
three Beja writers. Three authors are actively involved in the production of books, and all three of
them - possibly independent of each other - do both: (1) they insert commas, and occasionally (2)
write long vowels. In Beja, there are different levels of consistency. The statistics of Table 6.1 is based
on the texts of the various books produced by Beja authors.
Table 6.1
Spelling of vowels and punctuation
Insertion of commas 100%
Short vowels in sentence final position 100%
Long vowels in sentence medial position 80%
Consistency
As far as the spelling of intonational length is concerned, writers are sometimes guided by the
phonetic surface (long vowels), but sometimes by the morpho-phonology (short vowels). While the
spelling of long vowels is not consistent, the insertion of commas is.
6.2 Vowel Length in Cliticization and Grammaticalization
Vowel length has been found in different kinds of morphological contexts: in Attributes followed by
Nouns, in NPs followed by Postpositions, and in Nouns followed by Suffixes.

Table 6.2
... Attribute Noun
... i(i) Noun
... NP Postposition
... i(i) Postposition
... Noun Suffix
... ii Suffix
The examples #15a and #15b illustrate how a Noun followed by a Postposition is grammaticalized into
a Noun with a Suffix #15b in some dialects. The different spelleing of the genitive suffix clearly
reflect the status of "Postposition" on the one hand, and "Suffix" on the other hand. Clearly the long -ii
of #15b is perceived as a word internal vowel.
(#15a)
Short:
gaw -i dehaay
"house -GEN to"
(#15b)
Long:
gaw -ii -da
"house -GEN -to"
(Noun + Postposition)
(Noun + Suffix)
In certain phrases, Attributes end in the long vowels ii or ee. This can be interpreted as a special
affinity between the Attribute and its Noun, an indication that the Phrase turns into a Noun - a process
of cliticization described by Heine and Reh (1984) for African languages, and by Anderson (2005) in
general.
For Beja illustrations of this process, see examples #15 to #18.
(#16)
Not short:
daayi(i) na (Attribute + Noun)
"good thing"
Long:
daayiinaayt
"goodness"
(N)
(#17)
Not short:
t'iit-ee na (Attribute + Noun)
"like thing"
Long:
t'iiteena
"likeness"
(N)
(#18)
Not short:
dan'i-yee na (Attribute + Noun)
"doing thing"
Long:
dan'iyeena
"action"
(N)

7. Conclusion
Two different categories of word final length need to be distinguished: (1) length by grammaticalization,
and (2) length by intonation. The conclusion 1 therefore is as follows:
7.1 Length by Grammaticalization: A Categorical Difference
There is a categorical difference between a phrase and a word. Cliticization and grammaticalization
may develop in stages, and different dialects may be at different stages of this process, as has been
illustrated with instances of cliticization like #15 to #18. (See also Wedekind and Mahmud 2008).
But where cliticization is completed, vowel length becomes word internal length - licensed by the
word medial status of the Beja morpho-phonology.
7.2 Length by Intonation: No Categorical Difference
There is no categorical difference between finite verbs in sentence medial position and finite verbs in
sentence final position - both are fully independent verbs and have the same morphological and
syntactic analysis. Their morpho-phonological status is the same - licenced by the same word final
status of the Beja morpho-phonology.
Punctuation takes care of pitch and pause and vowel length: Commas or question marks signalize the
intonational suspense which results in vowel length. In languages where punctuation is established as
part of the writing system, intonational length will not be indicated twice (both by comma and double
vowels). Since Beja is in the first phase of becoming a written language, irregular spellings must be
anticipated. Consistent spelling is, however, important in school books: School books are there to give
unequivocal guidance to pupils.
The initial question remains: Can punctuation universally be expected to take care of intonation? Can
commas or question marks be expected to signalize suspense or question intonation in every written
language? There are obvious exceptions - such as tone languages with question affixes. But what
about a non-tonal language like Beja? And what about the intuition of writers?
1 Several conference participants in Turin made comments to this effect.

References
Abuzeinab Musa, 2006-2007, see Wedekind and Abuzeinab Musa.
Abuzeinab Musa, 2008, see Wedekind and Abuzeinab Musa.
Almkvist, Herman N., Die Bischari-Sprache, vol. 1-2, Uppsala, 1881-1885.
Anderson, Stephen R., Aspects of the Theory of Clitics, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Appleyard, David L, "Beja Morphology", In Morphologies of Asia and Africa, edited by Alan S.
Kaye, vol. 1, ch. 20, 447-479, Winona Lake, 2007.
Feki Mohammed, see Ministry of Education 2005.
Heine, Bernd, and Mechthild Reh, Grammaticalization and Reanalysis in African Languages,
Hamburg: Buske, 1984.
Hudson, Richard A., "Beja" In The Non-semitic Languages of Ethiopia, edited by M. L. Bender, 97-
132, Carbondale: 1976.
Lepsius, Richard, Standard Alphabet for reducing unwritten languages and foreign graphic systems to
a uniform orthography in European letters, London and Berlin, 1855 (1863 2nd edition).
Mahmud Mohammed Ahmed (compiler and editor), Baakwidhayt Alaama [Reader 5 of 5], Asmara:
IRC, 2004.
Ministry of Education, Asmara, Bidhaawyeeti bhali 2 [Primer, 2nd grade], Asmara: The Ministry of
Education, 2005.
Mohammed Talib 2010: see Red Sea University 2010.
Morin, Didier, Des paroles douces comma la soie: Introduction aux contes dans l'aire couchitique,
Paris: Peeters, 1995.
Red Sea University, Nakash Mitaal Bidhaawyeetiib [Bidhaawyeet Short Stories], Port Sudan: Beja
Cultural Studies Centre, 2010.
Reinisch, Leo, Die Beauye-Sprache in Nordost Afrika, Wien: Hoelder, 1893.
Roper, E. M., Tu Beawi: An Elementary Handbook for the Use of Sudan Government Officials,
Hertford: Stephen Austin, 1928.
Wedekind, Klaus, "Beja Phonology: An Update", Folia Orientalia, vol. 40 (2004), Cracow, 71-91.
Wedekind, Klaus and Charlotte, and Abuzeinab Musa, A Learner's Grammar of Beja (Sudan):
Grammar, Texts and Vocabulary, Afrikawissenschaftliche Lehrbuecher vol. 17 [with audio
CD] Cologne: Koeppe, 2008.
Wedekind, Klaus, and Abuzeinab Musa, "Beja (Bidhaawyeet): The Verb System", Afrika und
Uebersee vol. 89 (2006-2007), 1-108.
Wedekind, Klaus, and Mahmud Mohammed, "A Beja saga in four dialects: Lexical and other
differences" In Semito-Hamitic Festschrift for A. B. Dolgopolsky and H. Jungraithmayr,
edited by Gábor Takács, 366-378, Berlin: Reimer, 2008.

Appendix
Short passages have been taken from various books and brochures to illustrate how vowel length has
been written differently in sentence medial and sentence final position. It should be noted, however,
that these examples do not reflect a consistent application of orthography rules.
Feki
Mohammed,
Asmara 2001
Abuzeinab Musa,
Cologne 2008
Mahmud M.
Ahmed,
Asmara 2004
Mohammed Talib,
Port Sudan 2010