{{Short description|Bantu language spoken in Tanzania and Somalia}} {{Infobox language |name = Zigula |nativename={{lang|ziw|Chizigula}} |altname=Mushunguli |states=[[Tanzania]], [[Somalia]] |speakers={{sigfig|476,000|2}} |date=2009–2020 |ref=e27 |ethnicity=[[Zigua people|Zigua]], [[Somali Bantus|Mushungulu]] |script=[[Latin alphabet|Latin]] |familycolor=Niger-Congo |fam2=[[Atlantic–Congo languages|Atlantic–Congo]] |fam3=[[Volta-Congo]] |fam4=[[Benue–Congo languages|Benue–Congo]] |fam5=[[Bantoid languages|Bantoid]] |fam6=[[Southern Bantoid]] |fam7=[[Bantu languages|Bantu]] |fam8=[[Northeast Coast Bantu]] |fam9=Seuta |fam10=Zigula–[[Ngulu language|Ngulu]] |lc1=ziw|ld1=Zigula |lc2=xma|ld2=Mushungulu |dia1=Mushunguli |dia2=Zigula |glotto=zigu1244 |glottorefname=Zigula |guthrie=G.31,311 |ELP=5052 |ELPname=Mushungulu |notice=IPA }} {{Infobox ethnonym|person=|people=Wazigula|language=Chizigula }}
The '''Zigula''' or '''Zigua''' language, '''''Chizigua''''', is a [[Bantu language]] of Tanzania and Somalia, where the Mushunguli (or Mushungulu) dialect is spoken.<ref>Declich, Francesca. 1995. "Gendered Narratives," History, and Identity: Two Centuries along the Juba River among the Zigula and Shanbara. ''History in Africa'' 22: 93-122.</ref>
==Mushunguli== The Mushunguli or Mushungulu dialect is spoken by about 34,000 people from the [[Somali Bantus|Bantu]] ethnic minority of southern Somalia, in [[Jamaame]], [[Kismayo]], [[Mogadishu]], and the [[Juba River]] valley.<ref name="Ethnologue">[http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=xma Ethnologue – Mushungulu]</ref>
Mushunguli shows affinities with adjacent Bantu varieties. In particular, it shares strong lexical and grammatical similarities with the language of the [[Zigua people]] who inhabit [[Tanzania]], one of the areas in south-eastern Africa where many Bantu in Somalia are known to have been captured from as slaves during the 19th century.<ref name="Refugee Reports">[http://www.refugees.org/data/refugee_reports/archives/2002/nov.pdf Refugee Reports November 2002 Volume 23, Number 8] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091111104732/http://www.refugees.org/data/refugee_reports/archives/2002/nov.pdf |date=November 11, 2009 }}</ref> [[Ethnologue]] notes that the Mushunguli in Tanzania are the ''[[Zigula people|Wazegua]]''.<ref name="Ethnologue"/>
Many Mushunguli Bantu men also peak as working languages the [[Afro-Asiatic languages|Afro-Asiatic]] [[Maay language|Maay]] and [[Somali language|Somali]] languages of their [[Somali people|Somali]] neighbors.<ref name="Ethnologue"/>
==Phonology== There is no official or traditional [[orthography]] for Mushunguli. However, spelling practices from related Bantu languages can easily be adopted to render the language with minimal phonetic [[diacritic]]s.
===Vowels=== {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" ! ! [[Front vowel|Front]] ! [[Back vowel|Back]] |- ! [[High vowel|High]] | {{IPAlink|ɪ}} || {{IPAlink|ʊ}} |- ! [[Mid vowel|Mid]] | {{IPAlink|ɛ}} || {{IPAlink|ɔ}} |- ! [[Open vowel|Open]] | colspan="2" | {{IPAlink|a}} |}
=== Consonants === {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" ! colspan="2" | ! [[Labial consonant|Labial]] ! [[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]] ! [[Palatal consonant|Palatal]] ! [[Velar consonant|Velar]] |- ! colspan="2" | [[Nasal consonant|Nasal]] | {{IPAlink|m}} | {{IPAlink|n}} | {{IPAlink|ɲ}} | {{IPAlink|ŋ}} |- ! rowspan="2" | [[Plosive]] ! {{small|plain}} | {{IPAlink|p}} | {{IPAlink|t}} | {{IPAlink|t͡ʃ}} | {{IPAlink|k}} |- ! {{small|[[Implosive consonant|implosive]]}} | {{IPAlink|ɓ}} | {{IPAlink|ɗ}} | {{IPAlink|ʄ}} | {{IPAlink|ɠ}} |- ! rowspan="2" | [[Fricative]] ! {{small|[[Voicelessness|voiceless]]}} | {{IPAlink|f}} | {{IPAlink|θ}} ~ {{IPAlink|s}} | {{IPAlink|ʃ}} | |- ! {{small|[[Voice (phonetics)|voiced]]}} | {{IPAlink|v}} | {{IPAlink|ð}} ~ {{IPAlink|z}} | | rowspan="2" | {{IPAlink|ɦ}} |- ! colspan="2" | [[Approximant]] | {{IPAlink|w}} | {{IPAlink|l}} | {{IPAlink|j}} |- ! colspan="2" | [[Flap consonant|Flap]] | | {{IPAlink|ɾ}} | || |}
The [[fricatives]] {{IPA|[z]}} and {{IPA|[s]}} freely vary with {{IPA|[ð]}} and {{IPA|[θ]}}, respectively.
===Tone=== Vowel length is not distinctive, but phonetic length is especially associated with falling tones as in ''chîga'' 'leg'. The tone system is similar to that of Tanzanian Zigua.<ref>[[Michael Kenstowicz|Kenstowicz, Michael]]. 1989. Tone and accent in Kizigua – a Bantu language. in P.M. Bertinetto & M. Loporcaro (eds). ''Certamem phonologicum: papers from the 1987 Cortona Phonology Meeting'', pp. 177-188. Torino: Rosenberg and Sellier.</ref><ref>Kenstowicz, Michael. & Charles Kisseberth. 1990. Chizigula tonology: the word and beyond. In S. Inkelas & D. Zec(eds) ''The phonology-syntax connection'', pp. 163-194. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.</ref>
==Notes== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading==
*Hout, Katherine, and Eric Bakovic. "To fuse or not to fuse: Approaches to exceptionality in Mushunguli (Somali Chizigula)." (2014).
*MacSaveny, Erin, and Erin MacSaveny. [https://www.diu.edu/documents/OPAL/No-5-MacSaveny-Verbal-Tone-in-Chizigula.pdf "Verbal tone in Chizigula."] Occasional Papers in Applied Linguistics 5 (2009).
*[[Michal Temkin Martinez|Temkin Martinez, Michal]], and Haley K. Boone. "On the presence of voiceless nasalization in apparently effaced Somali Chizigula prenasalized stops." The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 139.4 (2016): 2218-2218.
==External links== *[https://www.webonary.org/somali-chizigula/ Zigula dictionary]
{{Narrow Bantu languages (Zones E–H)}} {{Authority control}} [[Category:Zigula| ]] [[Category:Northeast Coast Bantu languages]]