A Tima-English Dictionary

An Illustrated Lexicon of a Niger-Congo Language Spoken in the Nuba Mountains (Sudan)

Author: Gertrud Schneider-Blum.

Series: TIAS Topics in Interdisciplinary African Studies Volume 31

2013
12 pp. Roman, 389 pp.
4 colour maps, 199 colour photographs
Text language(s): English
E-book
€ 98.00

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Tima is one of three languages of the isolated Katla cluster, consisting of Tima and the neighboring closely related Katla and Julut. All three languages are spoken in the Nuba Mountains, Sudan. According to Greenberg (1963), the Katla group belongs to the subgroups forming the Kordofanian branch of Niger-Kordofanian (Niger-Congo). However, the genetic relationship of the Katla group as part of Kordofanian is not undisputed. The languages of this group may constitute a separate branch within Niger-Congo (cf. Dimmendaal 2009).

The Tima community has roughly 7,000 members, about 1,000 of them having moved to Khartoum and elsewhere in Sudan due to various reasons. Those living outside the homeland were the first to observe that their children do not speak the language properly anymore. However, also those Tima who still live in the Nuba Mountains noticed that Arabic is taking over as means of communication not only between the Tima and their neighbors from various language groups, but also within the community itself. To counterbalance this development, the Tima have formed a language committee who sought the help of linguists with the aim to be able to write their language and to collect as many words as possible in a dictionary in order to motivate their children using their ancestors’ language.

Whoever has been concerned with compiling a dictionary knows that it is impossible to ever really ‘complete’ the work on a dictionary, especially not within the short time span of a few years. Consequently, this dictionary is not all that the Tima language has to offer, it rather presents the result of six years’ work. 2,400 roots are the base for more than 1,000 nouns and 400 compounds, 400 verbal concepts with different derived realizations, 200 adjectives, and 150 adverbs, to mention only the main important word classes. Numerous example sentences convey an impression of the words’ usage.

The close affiliation to the territory the Tima inhabit gave reason to enter more than 400 proper names – mainly of places in the area – into the dictionary. Wherever it was possible, photos from these locations complement the entries. Cultural life in its various facets is equally illustrated as are the plants growing in the area to enable the outsider receiving an impression of the Tima peoples’ life in the Nuba Mountains.

Further analyses of the Tima language and culture have been published by us, as well as descriptions of neighbouring Kordofanian languages and other plant taxonomies / phytonyms, see the links below:

Accompanying material:

• Nayayirak tamaa dumurik – Speak Tima! (ISBN 978-3-89645-413-3)
• The Nominal and Verbal Morphology of Tima (ISBN 978-3-89645-559-8)
• The Tima of the Nuba Mountains (Sudan) (ISBN 978-3-89645-898-8)

Cross-reference:

• A Grammar of Kordofanian Julut (ISBN 978-3-89645-771-4)
• Expérience végétale bolia (C.35b, République Démocratique du Congo) (ISBN 978-3-89645-037-1)
• Nuba Mountain Language Studies (ISBN 978-3-89645-427-0)
• Nuba Mountain Language Studies – New Insights (ISBN 978-3-89645-767-7)
• Sprachhistorische Rekonstruktionen zu den Ursprüngen von Getreidenutzung und Gartenbau in Nordostafrika (ISBN 978-3-89645-097-5)
• Swahili Plants (ISBN 978-3-927620-89-6)
• The Akie Language of Tanzania (ISBN 978-3-89645-714-1)
• The Mukogodo Maasai (ISBN 978-3-927620-86-5)
• The Phonology of Koalib (ISBN 978-3-89645-552-9)
• Tira and Otoro (ISBN 978-3-89645-173-6)

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