Dciriku language

{{Short description|Bantu language spoken in southern Africa}} {{Infobox language | name = Dciriku | altname = Gciriku | nativename = ''Rumanyo'' | region = [[Kavango East]] | ethnicity = [[Gciriku|Vagciriku]], Vamanyo, Vashambyu | speakers = {{sigfig|81,700|2}} | date = 2004–2018 | ref = e25 | familycolor = Niger-Congo | fam2 = [[Atlantic–Congo]] | fam3 = [[Benue–Congo]] | fam4 = [[Southern Bantoid]] | fam5 = [[Bantu languages|Bantu]] | fam6 = [[Kavango–Southwest]] | fam7 = [[Kavango languages|Kavango]] | iso3 = diu | glotto = diri1252 | glottorefname = Diriku-Shambyu | dia1 = Gciriku | dia2 = Shambyu | dia3 = Mbogedu {{extinct}} | map = Diriku taalkaartje NL.png | mapcaption = | notice = IPA | guthrie = K.331,334 (K.332) }}

'''Dciriku''', or '''Gciriku''' (Diriku, Dirico, Manyo or Rumanyo), is a [[Bantu language]] spoken by 305,000 people along the [[Kavango River]] in [[Namibia]], [[Botswana]] and [[Angola]]. 24,000 people speak Dciriku in [[Angola]], according to [[Ethnologue]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ethnologue.com/country/AO/languages|title=Angola|website=Ethnologue|language=en|access-date=2019-07-19}}</ref> It was first known in the west via the [[Gciriku|Vagciriku]], who had migrated from the main Vamanyo area and spoke Rugciriku, a dialect of Dciriku. The name ''Gciriku'' (Dciriku, Diriku) remains common in the literature, but within Namibia the name ''Rumanyo'' has been revived.<ref>''Nordic journal of African studies'', Volume 12, 2003</ref> The Mbogedu dialect is extinct; Maho (2009) lists it as a distinct language, and notes that the names 'Manyo' and 'Rumanyo' are inappropriate for it.

== Phonology == === Vowels === {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" ! ![[Front vowel|Front]] ![[Central vowel|Central]] ![[Back vowel|Back]] |- ![[Close vowel|Close]] |{{IPAlink|i}} | |{{IPAlink|u}} |- ![[Mid vowel|Mid]] |{{IPAlink|ɛ}} | |{{IPAlink|ɔ}} |- ![[Open vowel|Open]] | |{{IPAlink|ɑ}} | |}

=== Consonants === {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" ! colspan="2" | ![[Bilabial consonant|Bilabial]] ![[Labiodental consonant|Labio- dental]] ![[Dental consonant|Dental]] ![[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]] ![[Postalveolar consonant|Postalveolar]]/ [[Palatal consonant|Palatal]] ![[Velar consonant|Velar]] ![[Glottal consonant|Glottal]] |- ! rowspan="5" |[[Click consonant|Click]] ![[Voicelessness|voiceless]] | | |{{IPA link|ᵏǀ}} | | | | |- ![[Voice (phonetics)|voiced]] | | |{{IPA link|ᶢǀ}} | | | | |- ![[Prenasalized consonant|prenasal]] [[Voiceless|vl.]] | | |{{IPA link|ᵑǀᵏ}} | | | | |- ![[Prenasalized consonant|prenasal]] [[Voiced|vd.]] | | |{{IPA link|ᵑǀᶢ}} | | | | |- ![[Prenasalized consonant|prenasal]] [[Aspirated consonant|asp.]] | | |{{IPA link|ᵑǀʰ}} | | | | |- ! colspan="2" |[[Nasal consonant|Nasal]] |{{IPAlink|m}} | | |{{IPAlink|n}} |{{IPAlink|ɲ}} |{{IPA link|ŋ}} | |- ! rowspan="4" |[[Stop consonant|Stop]]/ [[Affricate consonant|Affricate]] ![[Voicelessness|voiceless]] |{{IPAlink|p}} | |{{IPAlink|t̪}} |{{IPA link|t}} |{{IPAlink|t͡ʃ}} |{{IPAlink|k}} | |- ![[Voice (phonetics)|voiced]] |{{IPAlink|b}} | | |{{IPA link|d}} |{{IPAlink|d͡ʒ}} |{{IPAlink|g}} | |- ![[Prenasalized consonant|prenasal]] [[Voiceless|vl.]] |{{IPA link|ᵐpʰ}} | |{{IPA link|ⁿt̪}} |{{IPA link|ⁿtʰ}} |{{IPA link|ᶮt͡ʃ}} |{{IPA link|ᵑkʰ}} | |- ![[Prenasalized consonant|prenasal]] [[Voiced|vd.]] |{{IPA link|ᵐb}} | | |{{IPA link|ⁿd}} |{{IPA link|ᶮd͡ʒ}} |{{IPA link|ᵑɡ}} | |- ! rowspan="4" |[[Fricative consonant|Fricative]] ![[Voicelessness|voiceless]] | |{{IPA link|f}} | |{{IPAlink|s}} |{{IPAlink|ʃ}} | |{{IPAlink|h}} |- ![[Voice (phonetics)|voiced]] |{{IPA link|β}} |{{IPA link|v}} | |{{IPAlink|z}} | |{{IPA link|ɣ}} | |- ![[Prenasalized consonant|prenasal]] [[Voiceless|vl.]] | |{{IPA link|ᶬf}} | | | | | |- ![[Prenasalized consonant|prenasal]] [[Voiced|vd.]] | |{{IPA link|ᶬv}} | | | | | |- ! colspan="2" |[[Trill consonant|Trill]] | | | |{{IPA link|r}} | | | |- ! colspan="2" |[[Approximant consonant|Approximant]] | | | |{{IPAlink|l}} |{{IPAlink|j}} |{{IPAlink|w}} | |}

* Clicks are mainly dental [ǀ], but may also have various articulation points as [ǁ], [ǃ]. * Most consonants are also palatalized [ʲ] or labialized [ʷ] when before glides /j, w/. * /ɡ/ is realized as a fricative [χ] in Afrikaans loanwords.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Möhlig |first=Wilhelm Johann Georg |title=A Grammatical Sketch of Rugciriku (Rumanyo) |publisher=Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag |year=2005}}</ref>

==== Clicks ==== It is one of several Bantu languages of the Okavango which have [[click consonant]]s, as in {{IPA|diu|ǀɛ́ǀˀà|}} 'bed', {{IPA|diu|mùǀûkò|}} 'flower', and {{IPA|diu|kàǀûrù|}} 'tortoise'. These clicks, of which there are half a dozen (c, gc, ch, and prenasalized nc and nch), are generally all pronounced with a [[dental click|dental]] articulation, but there is broad variation between speakers. They are especially common in place names and in words for features of the landscape, reflecting their sources in [[Khwe]] and [[Ju languages|Ju]], two so-called [[Khoisan language|''Khoisan'']] languages. Many of the words with clicks in Gciriku, including those in native Bantu vocabulary, are shared with [[Kwangali language|Kwangali]], [[Mbukushu language|Mbukushu]], and [[Fwe language|Fwe]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gunnink |first1=Hilde |last2=Sands |first2=Bonny |last3=Pakendorf |first3=Brigitte |author-link3=Brigitte Pakendorf|last4=Bostoen |first4=Koen |title=Prehistoric language contact in the Kavango-Zambezi transfrontier area: Khoisan influence on southwestern Bantu languages |journal=Journal of African Languages and Linguistics |date=1 December 2015 |volume=36 |issue=2 |pages=193–232|doi=10.1515/jall-2015-0009 |hdl=1854/LU-7005944 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}} ==External links== * [https://web.archive.org/web/20081014004307/http://language.psy.auckland.ac.nz/bantu/language.php?id=7 Gciriku vocabulary]

{{Authority control}} [[Category:Kavango languages]] [[Category:Languages of Angola]] [[Category:Languages of Botswana]] [[Category:Languages of Namibia]] [[Category:Click languages]]