Turku Arabic

Turku Arabic
Turku Arabic
Native to	Chad
Language family	Arabic-based creole Turku Arabic;
Early form	Bimbashi Arabic
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	turk1244

Turku Arabic or simply just Turku is an extinct variant of Bimbashi Arabic that served as a lingua franca in Chad.^[1] It's the ancestor to Bongor Arabic^[2] and potentially other Arabic pidgins spoken in Chad today, but since they have not been described, it is unclear whether they are direct descendants of Turku.^[3]

History

Turku emerged as a regional variant of Bimbashi Arabic when Bimbashi-speaking enslaved soldiers were forced to relocate from Sudan to Chad after the abolition of slavery in Anglo-Egyptian Sudan in 1979.^[2] The primary lexifier of Turku is Sudanese Arabic, and it's also heavily influenced by Sango and Sara-Bagirmi languages, from which most of its loanwords originate.^[2] Although not much is known about Turku, a dictionary and a phrasebook were published in 1926.^[4]

Grammar

Turku had at least 2 tense/aspect markers: gahed (a continuous aspect particle) and bi- (a future tense particle). Similar particles are also found in Juba Arabic and Nubi.^[5]

Vocabulary

Turku^[2]	Origin^[2]	English
adinbang	From Bagirmi ádim mbàŋ	eunuch
gao	From Sar gáw	hunter
ngari	From Mbay ngàrì	manioc
kay	From Sango kâî	paddle
itenan	From French lieutenant	lieutenant
pfil	From Arabic فيل‎ fīl	elephant

References

^ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Turku". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Manfredi, Stefano; Lucas, Christopher (2019). Arabic and Contact-induced Change. Language Science Press. pp. 323–325. ISBN 9783961102518.
^ Thomason, Sarah Grey (January 1997). Contact Languages: A Wider Perspective. John Benjamins. ISBN 9027252394.
^ Ansado, Umberto; Meyerhoff, Miriam (2021). The Routledge Handbook of Pidgin and Creole Languages. Routledge. p. 37. ISBN 9781000221480.
^ Sartori, Nanuel; Giolfo, Manuela E.B.; Cassuto, Phelippe (2016). Approaches to the History and Dialectology of Arabic in Honor of Pierre Larcher. Brill. p. 453. ISBN 9789004325883.

[1] Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Turku". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.

[Manfredi-2] Manfredi, Stefano; Lucas, Christopher (2019). Arabic and Contact-induced Change. Language Science Press. pp. 323–325. ISBN 9783961102518.

[3] Thomason, Sarah Grey (January 1997). Contact Languages: A Wider Perspective. John Benjamins. ISBN 9027252394.

[4] Ansado, Umberto; Meyerhoff, Miriam (2021). The Routledge Handbook of Pidgin and Creole Languages. Routledge. p. 37. ISBN 9781000221480.

[5] Sartori, Nanuel; Giolfo, Manuela E.B.; Cassuto, Phelippe (2016). Approaches to the History and Dialectology of Arabic in Honor of Pierre Larcher. Brill. p. 453. ISBN 9789004325883.

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