For the secret language of South Asia, see Koti Farsi.
The Koti language, or Ekoti (pronounced [ekot̪i]), is a Bantu language spoken in Mozambique by about 64,200 people[1]. Koti is spoken on Koti Island and is also the major language of Angoche, the capital of the district with the same name in the province of Nampula.
In terms of genetic classification, Koti is generally considered to belong to the Makhuwa group (P.30 in Guthrie's classification). A large portion of its vocabulary however derives from a past variety of Swahili, today the lingua franca of much of East Africa's coast. This Swahili influence is usually attributed to traders from Kilwa or elsewhere on the Zanzibar Coast, who in the fifteenth century settled at Angoche.[2] Arends et al. suggest it might turn out to be a Makhua–Swahili mixed language.[3]
The place name Koti refers primarily to the island. An older form is [ŋɡoji];[dubious – discuss] this form with the class 2 nominal prefix a for 'people' gave rise to the Portuguese name Angoche. The much older local African name of Angoche, still in use, is Parápaátho. Angoche was probably established in the fifteenth century by dissidents from Kilwa.[3] In the centuries that followed, it flourished as a part of the Indian Ocean trading network.
About nine Koti villages are found in the coastal areas of Koti island; these are usually accessed by boat. Much of the coastline is covered by mangrove woods (khava). On the mainland, there are about five other Koti villages, all in the vicinity of Angoche. The main economic activity of men in the villages is fishing; the catch is sold on the markets of Angoche. People keep chickens and some goats.
In Makhuwa, the dominant regional language of much of northern Mozambique, the Koti are called Maka, just like other coastal Muslim communities that were part of the Indian Ocean trading network. Most Koti have at least some knowledge of Makhuwa or one of its neighbouring dialects; this extensive bilinguality has had considerable influence on the Koti language in recent years.
Sounds
Vowels
Koti has five vowels. The open vowels ɛ and ɔ are normally written e and o. The high vowels i and u do not occur word-initially. There is a restricted form of vowel harmony in verbal bases which causes /u/ in verbal extensions to be rendered as [o] after another /o/; thus, the separative extensions -ul- and -uw- appear as -ol- and -ow- after the vowel o. Furthermore, a distributional analysis shows that /o/ tends to occur mainly after another /o/, and only rarely after the other vowels.[4]
Vowel length is contrastive in Koti, except in word-final position. Long vowels are best treated as two tone-bearing units. Several vowel coalescence processes do take place, within words as well as across morpheme boundaries: mathápá mawíxí apa → mathápá mawíx'áapa 'these green leaves' (the apostrophe shows the location of coalescence). In case of word-final 'i' it is sometimes accompanied with glide formation: olíli áka → olíly'aáka 'my bed'.[5]
Consonants
The table below shows the consonant inventory of Koti.[6] The two glides w and y are only phonemically contrastive in certain contexts; in some other contexts, they can be derived from vowels. Consonants in parentheses are extremely rare, with the only example of dh in S&M's corpus, adhuhuri 'second prayer in the morning', being in variation with aduhuri; the fricative zh occurs only in some recent loans from Portuguese. Voiced stops are rather infrequent overall, and they tend to occur after a homorganic, tone-bearing nasal. Additionally, voiced stops often vary with their voiceless unaspirated counterparts.
labial
dental
alveolar
retroflex
palatal
velar
glottal
Stop
p b
t d
tt [ʈ] dd [ɖ]
c j [ɟ]
k g
Aspirated stop
ph [pʰ]
th [t̪ʰ]
tth [ʈʰ]
ch [cʰ]
kh [kʰ]
fricative
f v
(dh [ð])
s z
x [ʃ] (zh [ʒ])
h
Nasal
m
n
ny [ɲ]
trill
r
Approximant
l
y [j]
w
Words in Koti show incompatibility of aspirated consonants; this phenomenon is dubbed Katupha's Law in Schadeberg (1999), and is found in related Makhuwa languages as well. If two aspirated consonants are brought together in one stem, the first such consonant loses its aspiration. The effect is particularly clear in reduplicated words: kopikophi 'eyelash'; piriphiri 'pepper' (cf. Swahili 'piripiri'); okukuttha 'to wipe'. Another incompatibility concerns dental and retroflex consonants, which never occur together within a stem, and usually assimilate when brought together. Consider the class 1 demonstrative for example: o-tthu-o-tu becomes othuutu under influence of the dentral-retroflex incompatibility.
Tone
Koti, like most Bantu languages, is a register tone language with two tones: High and Low. Tone is not lexically distinctive for verbs, but it is very important in verbal inflection and in some other parts of grammar. Contour tones (falling and rising tones) do occur, but only on long vowels, therefore they are analysed as sequences of the H and L level tones. There is a process of High Doubling which spreads any H tone to the following tone bearing unit, and a process of Final Lowering which deletes any utterance-final High tone. Both can be seen in effect in the following example (Low tone is unmarked): kaláwa 'boat', kaláwá khuúlu 'the biggest boat'. In kaláwa, High doubling is canceled because Final Lowering applies, so the last syllable has a Low tone. In the second example, the first H tone in kaláwá has spread to the next syllable (High Doubling) and Final Lowering again causes the last syllable of the utterance to be Low in tone.
Morphosyntax
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (June 2008)
Koti has a typical Bantu noun class system, in which every noun belongs to a nominal class which class markers throughout the sentence are in agreement with. Classes pair up in 'genders' for the derivation of plurals. Verbal words consist of a stem to which various morphemes and clitics can be affixed.
Notes
^ Mucanheia 1997 as cited in Schadeberg & Mucanheia (henceforth S&M) 2000:4.
^ S&M, p. 7 cite Newitt 1995 as saying that these traders, probably from Kilwa, established Angoche; however, they do not exclude the possibility of a much earlier Swahili settlement in Angoche.
^ Adapted from S&M, 10. Symbols are given according to the orthography used in S&M; IPA transcriptions are provided where the symbols differ from their IPA value. Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents the voiced consonant.
References
References
^Koti at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^Arends, Muysken, & Smith (1995), Pidgins and Creoles: An Introduction
Schadeberg, Thilo C. (1999) 'Katupha's Law in Makhuwa', in Bantu historical linguistics: Theoretical and empirical perspectives, ed. by J.-M. Hombert and L.M. Hyman. Stanford: CSLI, pp. 379–394.
Schadeberg, Thilo C. & Mucanheia, Francisco Ussene (2000) Ekoti: The Maka or Swahili language of Angoche. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe.
External links
Alphabet and pronunciation
January 20, 2023
koti, language, secret, language, south, asia, koti, farsi, ekoti, pronounced, ekot, bantu, language, spoken, mozambique, about, people, koti, spoken, koti, island, also, major, language, angoche, capital, district, with, same, name, province, nampula, kotieko. For the secret language of South Asia see Koti Farsi The Koti language or Ekoti pronounced ekot i is a Bantu language spoken in Mozambique by about 64 200 people 1 Koti is spoken on Koti Island and is also the major language of Angoche the capital of the district with the same name in the province of Nampula KotiEkotiNative toMozambiqueRegionKoti Island and Angoche Nampula ProvinceNative speakers77 000 2006 1 Language familyNiger Congo Atlantic CongoBenue CongoBantoidBantuSouthern BantuMakuaKotiLanguage codesISO 639 3 a href https iso639 3 sil org code eko class extiw title iso639 3 eko eko a Glottologkoti1238Guthrie codeP 311 2 This article contains IPA phonetic symbols Without proper rendering support you may see question marks boxes or other symbols instead of Unicode characters For an introductory guide on IPA symbols see Help IPA In terms of genetic classification Koti is generally considered to belong to the Makhuwa group P 30 in Guthrie s classification A large portion of its vocabulary however derives from a past variety of Swahili today the lingua franca of much of East Africa s coast This Swahili influence is usually attributed to traders from Kilwa or elsewhere on the Zanzibar Coast who in the fifteenth century settled at Angoche 2 Arends et al suggest it might turn out to be a Makhua Swahili mixed language 3 Contents 1 Geography and demography 2 Sounds 2 1 Vowels 2 2 Consonants 2 3 Tone 3 Morphosyntax 4 Notes 5 References 6 References 7 External linksGeography and demography EditThe place name Koti refers primarily to the island An older form is ŋɡoji dubious discuss this form with the class 2 nominal prefix a for people gave rise to the Portuguese name Angoche The much older local African name of Angoche still in use is Parapaatho Angoche was probably established in the fifteenth century by dissidents from Kilwa 3 In the centuries that followed it flourished as a part of the Indian Ocean trading network About nine Koti villages are found in the coastal areas of Koti island these are usually accessed by boat Much of the coastline is covered by mangrove woods khava On the mainland there are about five other Koti villages all in the vicinity of Angoche The main economic activity of men in the villages is fishing the catch is sold on the markets of Angoche People keep chickens and some goats In Makhuwa the dominant regional language of much of northern Mozambique the Koti are called Maka just like other coastal Muslim communities that were part of the Indian Ocean trading network Most Koti have at least some knowledge of Makhuwa or one of its neighbouring dialects this extensive bilinguality has had considerable influence on the Koti language in recent years Sounds EditVowels Edit Koti has five vowels The open vowels ɛ and ɔ are normally written e and o The high vowels i and u do not occur word initially There is a restricted form of vowel harmony in verbal bases which causes u in verbal extensions to be rendered as o after another o thus the separative extensions ul and uw appear as ol and ow after the vowel o Furthermore a distributional analysis shows that o tends to occur mainly after another o and only rarely after the other vowels 4 Koti Front Central BackClose i uOpen mid ɛ ɔOpen a Vowel length is contrastive in Koti except in word final position Long vowels are best treated as two tone bearing units Several vowel coalescence processes do take place within words as well as across morpheme boundaries mathapa mawixi apa mathapa mawix aapa these green leaves the apostrophe shows the location of coalescence In case of word final i it is sometimes accompanied with glide formation olili aka olily aaka my bed 5 Consonants Edit The table below shows the consonant inventory of Koti 6 The two glides w and y are only phonemically contrastive in certain contexts in some other contexts they can be derived from vowels Consonants in parentheses are extremely rare with the only example of dh in S amp M s corpus adhuhuri second prayer in the morning being in variation with aduhuri the fricative zh occurs only in some recent loans from Portuguese Voiced stops are rather infrequent overall and they tend to occur after a homorganic tone bearing nasal Additionally voiced stops often vary with their voiceless unaspirated counterparts labial dental alveolar retroflex palatal velar glottalStop p b t d tt ʈ dd ɖ c j ɟ k g Aspirated stop ph pʰ th t ʰ tth ʈʰ ch cʰ kh kʰ fricative f v dh d s z x ʃ zh ʒ hNasal m n ny ɲ trill r Approximant l y j w Words in Koti show incompatibility of aspirated consonants this phenomenon is dubbed Katupha s Law in Schadeberg 1999 and is found in related Makhuwa languages as well If two aspirated consonants are brought together in one stem the first such consonant loses its aspiration The effect is particularly clear in reduplicated words kopikophi eyelash piriphiri pepper cf Swahili piripiri okukuttha to wipe Another incompatibility concerns dental and retroflex consonants which never occur together within a stem and usually assimilate when brought together Consider the class 1 demonstrative for example o tthu o tu becomes othuutu under influence of the dentral retroflex incompatibility Tone Edit Koti like most Bantu languages is a register tone language with two tones High and Low Tone is not lexically distinctive for verbs but it is very important in verbal inflection and in some other parts of grammar Contour tones falling and rising tones do occur but only on long vowels therefore they are analysed as sequences of the H and L level tones There is a process of High Doubling which spreads any H tone to the following tone bearing unit and a process of Final Lowering which deletes any utterance final High tone Both can be seen in effect in the following example Low tone is unmarked kalawa boat kalawa khuulu the biggest boat In kalawa High doubling is canceled because Final Lowering applies so the last syllable has a Low tone In the second example the first H tone in kalawa has spread to the next syllable High Doubling and Final Lowering again causes the last syllable of the utterance to be Low in tone Morphosyntax EditThis section needs expansion You can help by adding to it June 2008 Koti has a typical Bantu noun class system in which every noun belongs to a nominal class which class markers throughout the sentence are in agreement with Classes pair up in genders for the derivation of plurals Verbal words consist of a stem to which various morphemes and clitics can be affixed Notes Edit Mucanheia 1997 as cited in Schadeberg amp Mucanheia henceforth S amp M 2000 4 S amp M p 7 cite Newitt 1995 as saying that these traders probably from Kilwa established Angoche however they do not exclude the possibility of a much earlier Swahili settlement in Angoche See note 2 above S amp M 17 8 S amp M 19 Adapted from S amp M 10 Symbols are given according to the orthography used in S amp M IPA transcriptions are provided where the symbols differ from their IPA value Where symbols appear in pairs the one to the right represents the voiced consonant References EditReferences Edit Koti at Ethnologue 18th ed 2015 subscription required Jouni Filip Maho 2009 New Updated Guthrie List Online Arends Muysken amp Smith 1995 Pidgins and Creoles An Introduction Schadeberg Thilo C 1999 Katupha s Law in Makhuwa in Bantu historical linguistics Theoretical and empirical perspectives ed by J M Hombert and L M Hyman Stanford CSLI pp 379 394 Schadeberg Thilo C amp Mucanheia Francisco Ussene 2000 Ekoti The Maka or Swahili language of Angoche Koln Rudiger Koppe External links EditAlphabet and pronunciation Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Koti language amp oldid 1123605288, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
