# Sungor language

Sungor (also Assangorior, Assangor, Assangori, Songor, Asongor) is an Eastern Sudanic language of eastern Chad and western Sudan and a member of the Taman branch. It is closely related to Tama with some researchers speaking of a Tama-Assangori continuum.
Sungor is spoken in an area located to the south of Biltine and to the north of Adré (Ouaddaï) in Chad, as well as in Darfur in Sudan. It is spoken by the Sungor people, of which a majority are Muslim. The number of speakers was estimated at 23,500 according to the 1993 census of Chad.

## Phonology

So far, Sungor phonology is not well attested in literature and research.

### Vowels

Sungor is most likely a tonal language with a high and low tone, e.g. 'worm' dút and 'big' dùt. It has seven vowels and height assimilations. Examples for height assimilation include plural suffixes -u,-uk, and -uɲ which trigger the root vowel /a/ to be raised to /ɔ/ as in 'raven' gárá changing into 'ravens' gɔrú . Another example are suffixes -i and -iŋ which trigger the root vowel /a/ to be raised to /ɛ/ as in 'house' wál changing into 'houses' wἐlί.

### Consonants

| | Labial | Alveolar | Post-alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal |
| Plosive | b | t, d | | | k, g | |
| Nasal | m | n | | | ŋ | |
| Trill/Tap | | r | | | | |
| Fricative | f | s | ʃ | | x, ɣ | h |
| Approximant | | l | | j | w | |
| Affricative | | ts | dʒ | | | |
* Final position plosives are neutralized.
* The voiced palatal nasal /ɲ/ may exist as well.
* /r/ may be articulated as a trill or tap.
* /f/ and /h/ are infrequent in native words. 80% of words with word-initial /f/ are of Arabic origin. Word final /h/ is rare.
* /ɣ/ seems to be adopted from Arabic.
* Sungor appears to show gemination, though this is still underresearched.

## Grammar

Source:

### Noun classes

Sungor, like Tama, follows a noun class system. Similarly to other Sudanese languages that also use noun classes, Sungor distinguishes meaning through the use of suffixes. However, there is little overlap between the suffixes used.

#### Plurals

Plurals are mostly formed by suffixion. Suffixes change depending on class and number. Lukas lists 31 different suffix pairs which do not necessarily constitute separate noun classes. There are six ways of forming plurals in Sungor:
* Most plurals are formed by changing the class suffix. Some examples are 'skin' gera | geriŋ (Singular -a, Plural -iŋ), 'love' tárī | tárā (Sg. -ī, Pl. -ā), 'name' iget | igā (Sg. -et, Pl. -ā), or arabic loan 'muslim person' miselem | muselmīn (Pl. -īn).
* Other plurals only take a suffix. Some arabic loanwords fall into this category. Examples include 'heart' ámel | ámelā (Pl. -ā), 'human' at | árē or árī (Pl. -ē or -ī), 'mouth' kul | kulō (Pl. -ō), 'head' ŋor | ŋūrū (Pl. -ū), 'lip' oróyik | oroyikiŋ (Pl. -iŋ).
* There are some broken plurals, most of which are arabic loanwords. Examples are 'scholar' fik | fókora, 'robber' afrīt | afārit, 'pet' zāmela | zwāmel, or non-arabic 'grandpa' anat | ónut.
* Lukas lists one example of pluralisation where the vocal length is changed 'cow' tḛ | tệ.
* A small number of words form the singular from a collective plural. Examples are 'witch' émet | émē (Sg. -t), 'horse' ferda | fērat (Sg. -da, Pl. -at), 'wild cat' lūlut | lǘlu.
* Some words are irregular in the way that they form a plural. Some examples are 'woman' ī | īrin, 'dog' wī | wḗā, 'blacksmith' mēat | mīnyak.

### Pronouns

| | | Subject | Oblique/Object | Possessive |
| 1st person | singular | wa / wo | waŋ | nar / na |
| 1st person | plural | wē / wui | wēŋ | oŋon / uŋun |
| 2nd person | singular | ī | īŋ | nor / nur |
| 2nd person | plural | ai | eiŋ | ō / ḗŋkun |
| 3rd person | singular | ési / ísē | ésiŋ | an(er) / un |
| 3rd person | plural | ésiŋ$^1$ | ésiŋkoŋ$^2$ | ōn / ūn |
$^{1.3rdpersonPluralalsoexistsasáiŋko}$
$^{2.fromésiŋkowhichcorrespondstoáiŋko}$
Possessive pronouns in Sungor stand in postposition, e.g. 'his brother' bet an. If a possessive follows a plural, it is pluralised by adding -uŋ, e.g. 'our hearts' omulu uŋunuŋ.

#### Demonstrative

Sungor Demonstratives are quite underresearched. Examples are 'this' translating to iŋ, plural iŋkō and 'that translating to ệŋ, plural ệŋgo.

#### Interrogative

Interrogatives lack research as well. 'Who' translates to nấrē, 'which' to nấnē, and 'what' to nímmōrī or nim as an alternative expression.

#### Indefinite

The word for 'human' at is used to express 'someone'. The plural is árī. To differentiate whether 'someone' refers to a man or woman, the respective terms follow. 'Man' is at ma, 'woman' is at ī. Following this same pattern, 'everyone' translates to at kíro, literally 'every human' with kíro being the term for 'every'. Other indefinite pronouns are 'some' kōra, 'everything' híniŋ, or 'nobody' lō. Plurals can be formed by adding the suffix -guŋ.

### Numbers

| 1 | kor | 11 | mer konterek | 100 | mía | 1000 | elf |
| 2 | wárē | 12 | mer warterek | 101 | mía o kor | 2000 | ta elf wárē |
| 3 | íca | 13 | mer icerek | 102 | mía o wárē | 3000 | ta elf íca |
| 4 | kus | 14 | mer kúserek | 110 | mía o mer | 5000 | elf másī |
| 5 | másī | 15 | mer masterek | 120 | mía o tíli war | 100000 | míat elf |
| 6 | tor | 16 | mer tórterek | 150 | mía o tíli másī | | |
| 7 | kal | 17 | mer kalterek | 200 | míat wárē | | |
| 8 | kibs | 18 | mer kibesterek | 300 | míat íca | | |
| 9 | úku | 19 | mer ukṹterek | 400 | míat kus | | |
| 10 | mer | 20 | tíli wárē | | | | |
| | | 30 | tíli íca | | | | |
| | | 40 | tíli kus | | | | |
| | | 45 | tíli kus ge másī | | | | |

#### Ordinal Numbers

Ordinals are derived from the cardinal numbers by adding suffixes -na or -no.
Ordinal Numbers :
| first$^1$ | korna / korena |
| second | wórna / wórēna |
| third | ícana / ícenaí |
| fourth | kúsono |
| fifth | másena |
| sixth | tṓrena |
| seventh | kálena |
| eighth | kíbiseno |
| ninth | úkuno |
| tenth | mérena |
$^{1."Thefirst"(male)alsohasthespecialformkémerik}$
To indicate how often something happens/has happened, Sungor uses mar and the corresponding ordinal number, e.g. 'the first time' mar korena.

### Adverbs

Sungor has locative adverbs, temporal adverbs, and adverbs of manner. Adverbs in Sungor are not well attested for. Some examples of locative adverbs are 'here' índi, 'there' ḗŋdē, 'between' rēnik, 'above' óroyē. Temporal adverbs are, for example, 'daily' abad hḯnik, 'today' dấdo, 'always' dīman, 'yesterday' ệrē, 'now' hása, 'tomorrow' súsekē. Examples for adverbs of manner are 'maybe' tấsei, 'impossible' tấsoto. 'Maybe' tấsei might not be an adjective in itself since it can be divided into tấ-sei 'it will be'.

#### Adverbial numbers

Numbers become adverbial when they follow the arabic loanword mar, e.g. 'once' mar kor.

### Adjectives

In Sungor, adjectives follow and agree with the noun, for example 'white clay' ōsu aek and 'red clay' ōsu arak. Adjectives form plurals by adding a suffix, e.g. 'small, young' elit | eliŋa (Sg. -t, Pl. -ŋa), 'ripe, mature' naχed | naχedo (Pl. -o), 'older brother' jō dud | jṓā dútū.

### Verbs

Verbs inflect by addition of affixes to a word root. For example, 'I birth' nḗne has the root ēn. Verb roots are usually monosyllabic or disyllabic. Prefixes mark the person, whereas suffixes mark time and mood.
The verbs can be put into three groups depending on the plural-affix they take. While verbs in Group I & II follow a regular patter, group III consists of irregular affixation.

#### Present

In the following tables, 'R' marks the verb-root, 'V' signals a vowel, sounds in brackets '' only sometimes occur, sounds in squared brackets '' only rarely occur, and '/' signals different realizations according to the context of an utterance, '-' is used to signal affixes.
| | | Group I | Group II |
| 1st person | singular | n-(V)R-[n]e/i | n-(V)R-i/[e] |
| 1st person | plural | n-(V)R-[i]nye | n-(V)R-e/ge$^{1,2}$ |
| 2nd person | singular | (V)R-[n]e/i | (V)R-i/[e] |
| 2nd person | plural | (V)R-[i]nye | (V)R-e/ge |
| 3rd person | singular | R-[n]e/i | R-i/[e] |
| 3rd person | plural | R-(i)nye | R-e/ge |
$^{1.Alsooccursaseke/[inye]}$
$^{2.Nasalsarefollowedby-ge,plosivesor/s/arefollowedby-eke}$
In the present tense, verbs can be further divided up into those that have suffix -i (Group I) or -e (Group II).
Present tense conditionals take one of three suffixes: -(V)ŋne, -kne, or -(V)ne. The plural is formed by adding a conditional suffix to a plural suffix, e.g. 'if I count' noto̯yanē | 'if we count' noto̯nyane (from no·to̯y·ny·ane).
Negation happens by adding a suffix. A positive form with the suffix -e takes -ato if the verb root contains front vowels (a, e, i) or -oto if the verb root contains back vowels (o, u). If the positive form takes the suffix -i, the negative form takes the suffix -to or -(V)kto (sometimes -kāto) with some exceptions. In the plural form -kto becomes -kāto/-kōto, while -ato/-oto remains the same.

#### Past

| | | Preterite I | Preterite I | Preterite II | Preterite II |
| | | Group I | Group II | Group I | Group II |
| 1st person | singular | n-(V)R(V)(V)-ŋV | same as Group 1 | n-VR(V)(V)-ŋVŋV | not documented |
| 1st person | plural | n-(V)R(V)-nyVŋV$^1$ | n-(V)R-g/kaŋa | n-VR(V)-nyVŋV | not documented |
| 2nd person | singular | (V)R(V)(V)-ŋV | same as Group 1 | VR(V)(V)-ŋVŋV | not documented |
| 2nd person | plural | (V)R(V)-nyVŋV | (V)R-g/kaŋa | VR(V)-nyVŋV | not documented |
| 3rd person | singular | R(V)(V)-ŋV | same as Group 1 | R(V)(V)-ŋVŋV | not documented |
| 3rd person | plural | R(V)-nyVŋV | R-g/kaŋa | R(V)-nyVŋV | not documented |
$^{1.Alson-(V)RV-aŋa}$
Preterite tense suffixes can sometimes be added onto the present tense suffixes -i and -e.
Preterite conditionals are formed by replacing the -ne | -nē. These conditionals have a future meaning, e.g. 'I counted' notộyiŋa (preterite I) and 'if I will count' noto̯yiŋne, 'I requested' nisekḗŋiŋa and 'if I will request' nisekḗŋiŋne.
Both negatives of preterite I & II are derived from the positive by adding the suffix -to, e.g. 'I played' nagarnáŋa | 'I did not play' nagarnáŋto (preterite I) and nagarnáŋiŋa | nagarnáŋiŋto (preterite II).

#### Future

| | | Group I | Group II |
| 1st person | singular | n-(V)R(V)sai | n-(V)R(V)-sai |
| 1st person | plural | n-(V)R(V)sinye | n-(V)R(V)-saie$^1$ |
| 2nd person | singular | (V)R(V)-sai | (V)R(V)-sai |
| 2nd person | plural | (V)R(V)-sinye | (V)R(V)-saie |
| 3rd person | singular | R(V)-sai | (t)-(V)R(V)-sai |
| 3rd person | plural | R(V)-sinye | (t)-(V)R(V)-saie |
$^{1.GroupIIpluralmarkersaiecanalsobereplacedbyseke}$
Lukas suspects the future marker -sa to be an auxiliary verb in the present tens.
Future tense conditionals are formed by adding suffix -ŋnē, e.g. 'to know' njel and 'if I will know' ninjilisáiŋnē.

#### Imperative

Imperatives in Sungor differ based on the present tense verb group a word falls into. The positive singular imperative for verbs that end in -i is the verb root, although there are some exceptions. Verbs that end in -e take suffixes -a, -o, -e, and in some cases -i. For plurals, the prefix k-(V)- and suffixes -a or -o are needed. Negative imperatives are follow the either the schemata VR-aito or VR-ēto.

#### Auxiliaries

Some auxiliaries exist in Sungor. However, due to a lack in research, auxiliaries are not well documented.