Blin language

Encyclopedia : B : BL : BLI : Blin language

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Note: Blin is the English spelling which is preferred by native speakers, but Bilin and Bilen are also commonly used.

The Blin language (ብሊና) has approximately 70,000 speakers in and around the city of Keren in Eritrea. It is the only Central Cushitic language which is spoken in Eritrea, all the others being spoken in neighbouring Ethiopia.

Phonology

Consonants

Note: /tʃ/ is found in loans and the status of /ʔ/ as a phoneme is uncertain.

/r/ is typically realised as a tap when it is medial and a trill when it is in final position.

Consonant phonemes

	Bilabial		Labio- dental		Alveolar		Post- alveolar (Palato- alveolar)		Palatal		Velar		Pharyn- geal		Glottal		Labia- lized velar
Plosive		b			t	d					k	ɡ			(ʔ)		kʷ	ɡʷ
Nasal		m				n						ŋ						ŋʷ
Fricative			f		s	z	ʃ				x		ħ	ʕ	h		xʷ
Affricate							(tʃ)	dʒ
Trill						r
Approximant										j								w
Lateral approximant						l
Ejective plosive					tʼ						kʼ						kʷʼ
Ejective affricate							tʃʼ

Vowels

Vowel phonemes

	Front	Central	Back
High
Mid
Low

Writing system

Ge'ez abugida

See also: Ge'ez alphabet#Modifications for other languages

A writing system for Blin was first developed by missionaries who used the Ge'ez abugida and the first text was published in 1882. Although the Ge'ez script is usually used for Semitic languages, the phonemes of Blin are very similar. (7 vowels, labiovelar and ejective consonants.) The script therefore only requires a slight modification (the addition of consonants for ŋ and ŋʷ) to make it suitable for Blin. Some of the additional symbols required to write Blin with this script are in the "Ethiopic Extended" Unicode range rather than the "Ethiopic" range.

The basic signs, in order, are as follows. Note that there are some differences between the list order in Blin and the standard Ge'ez list order. (Note: the exact contents of these table are subject to verification.)

Sound
Ge'ez	ሀ	ለ	ሐ	መ	ሰ	ሸ	ረ	ቀ	ቐ	በ	ተ	ነ	አ	ከ	ኸ	ወ	ዐ

Sound
Ge'ez	የ	ደ	ጀ	ገ	ጘ	ጠ	ጨ	ፈ	ዘ	ዠ	ቸ	ኘ	ጰ	ጸ	ፐ	ቨ

Blin also needs 5 labiovelar variants:

Sound
Ge'ez	ቈ	ኰ	ዀ	ጐ	⶞

Latin alphabet

In 1985 the Eritrean People's Liberation Front decided to use the Latin alphabet for Blin and all other minority languages in Eritrea. This was largely a political decision: the Ge'ez script is associated with Christianity because of its liturgical use, and with Ethiopia because of its use for Amharic. The Latin alphabet is seen as being more neutral. In 1993 the government set up a committee to standardize the Blin language and the Latin-based orthography.

See also

• Blin people

External links

• [Ethnologue]
• [Online Blin language tutorial]

References

• [Consonant Mutation and Reduplication in Blin Singulars and Plurals]
• [Language, Education, and Public Policy in Eritrea]

 

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