Social:Kwʼadza language

Short description: East Rift language spoken in Tanzania

Kwʼadza
Ngomvia
Native to	Tanzania
Region	Mbulu District
Extinct	1980se25
Language family	Afro-Asiatic? Cushitic? Rift? East Rift Kwʼadza
Language codes
ISO 639-3	wka
Glottolog	kwad1248

Kwʼadza (Qwadza), or Ngomvia, is an extinct Afroasiatic language formerly spoken in Tanzania in the Mbulu District. The last speaker died sometime between 1976 and 1999.

Classification

Kwʼadza is poorly attested, and apart from perhaps being close to Aasax, its classification is not certain. Although it has a large number of identifiably Cushitic roots, the non-Cushitic numerals itame 'one' and beʼa ~ mbɛa 'two' suggest a connection with Hadza, while haka 'four' suggests a connection with Sandawe. It is possible that Kwʼadza borrowed e.g. 'four' from Sandawe, but also that it was a non-Cushitic language whose speakers were undergoing language shift to Cushitic when it was recorded.

Phonology

The phonology is not certain, but the following has been suggested (Ehret 1980):

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar		Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar		Glottal
							plain	labial
Nasal		m	n			ɲ	ŋ
Plosive	voiceless	p	t				k	kʷ	ʔ
	voiced	b	d				ɡ	ɡʷ
Affricate			dz
Ejective			tsʼ	tɬʼ	tʃʼ		kʼ	kʼʷ
Fricative		f	s	ɬ			x	xʷ	h
Approximant		β̞		l		j

/ɡ/ and /l/ have the allophones [dʒ] and [ɽ] before front vowels. /tʃʼ/ is 'mildly' ejective. Ehret reports that /kʼ/ and /kʼʷ/ are voiced [ɡ, ɡʷ] if a preceding consonant is voiced.

Vowels

	Front	Back
Close	i	u
Close-mid	e	o
Open	a

References

• Christopher Ehret, 1980. "Kwʼadza vocabulary". ms.