Dida language
| Dida | |
|---|---|
| Region | Ivory Coast |
|
Native speakers
|
200,000 (1993) |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Either: gud – Yocoboué Dida dic – Lakota Dida |
| Glottolog | dida1245 |
Dida is a dialect cluster of the Kru family spoken in Ivory Coast.
Ethnologue divides Dida into two groups, Yocoboué Dida (101,600 speakers in 1993) and Lakota Dida (93,800 speakers in 1993), which are only marginally mutually intelligible and best considered separate languages. Each is dialectically diverse: Yocoboué (Yokubwe) consists of the Lozoua (Lozwa) and Divo dialects (7,100 and 94,500 speakers), and Lakota the Lakota (Lákota), Abou (Abu), and Vata dialects. The prestige dialect is the Lozoua speech of the town of Guitry.
Yocoboué is also known as Guitry, Yocoboue, Yokouboué, Gakpa, Goudou (Gudu), and Kagoué (Kagwe). Lakota is also known as Dieko, Gabo, Satro, Guébie (Gebye), Brabori, and Ziki.
The Dida lects have consonant and vowel inventories typical of the Eastern Kru languages. However, tone varies significantly between dialects, or at least between their descriptions. The following phonology is that of Abu Dida, from Miller (2005).
Dida has a ten-vowel system: nine vowels distinguished by "tenseness", likely either pharyngealization or supra-glottal phonation (contraction of the larynx) of the type described as retracted tongue root, plus an uncommon mid-central vowel /ə/.
The non-contracted vowels are /i e a o u/, and the contracted vowels /eˤ ɛˤ ɔˤ oˤ/. (These could be analyzed as /iˤ eˤ oˤ uˤ/, but here are transcribed with lower vowels to reflect their phonetic realization. There is no tense contrast with the low vowel.) The formants of the tense vowels show them to be lower than their non-tense counterparts: the formants of the highest tense vowels overlap the formants of the non-tense mid vowels, but there is visible tension in the lips and throat when these are enunciated carefully.
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