Shatt language
The Shatt language is a Daju language of the Eastern Daju family spoken by the Shatt people in the Shatt Hills southwest of Kaduqli in South Kordofan province in southern Sudan.
Villages are Shatt Daman, Shatt Safia, and Shatt Tebeldia.
Names
The designation "Shatt" is an Arabic word meaning "dispersed" and is applied to several distinct groups in the Nuba Mountains. "Caning" is their own name for themselves, linguistically referred to as endonym, whereas "Shatt" is considered an exonym due to its external ascription. Speakers refer to their language as ikä caning.Phonology
Consonants
- /x/ may vary between velar or uvular fricative sounds.
- A glottal stop may also occur, only in intervocalic positions.
Vowels
- /ə/ is phonetically raised as .
- Sounds /e, o/ may also be heard as .
Alphabet
The alphabet consists of 27 letters, which are shown in the table below with the corresponding letter from the International Phonetic Alphabet chart.| IPA | Close-mid central unrounded vowel| | Voiced bilabial implosive| | Voiced alveolar implosive| | Open-mid front unrounded vowel| | Voiced palatal implosive| | Voiced velar nasal| | Voiced palatal nasal| | Open-mid back rounded vowel| | |||||||||||||||||||
| Upper Case | A | Ä | B | C | D | ꞌD | E | F | G | I | J | K | L | M | N | Ng | Ny | O | P | R | S | T | U | W | X | Y | Z |
| Lower Case | a | ä | b | c | d | ꞌd | e | f | g | i | j | k | l | m | n | ng | ny | o | p | r | s | t | u | w | x | y | z |
Grammar
The grammar in this section is primarily based on the Caning Grammar Book.Nouns
A noun in Caning "can be a person, animal, place, thing, or idea."Singular and Plural
Plurals in Caning are built in three different ways:- By adding a suffix to the singular.
- By adding a suffix to the plural.
- By adding a suffix to both, the singular and the plural form.
| Suffix S/P | Root | Singular | Plural | Translation |
| -ic / - | ux | uxic | ux | worm |
| - / -iny | ax | ax | axiny | hut |
| -ic / -iny | win- | winic | wininy | vulture |
When adding a singular suffix only as described in form one, the plural form remains unchanged.
| Suffix | Singular | Plural | Translation |
| -c / | bebec | bebe | gourd |
| -dic, -tic/ | gäldic | gäl | egg |
| -wec / | ngaluwec | ngalu | bell |
| -wic / | kadasuwic | kadasu | foundation |
For the second for, when adding the plural suffix only, the singular form remains unchanged.
| Suffix | Singular | Plural | Translation |
| / -u | ux | uxu | women |
| / -da, -ta | oxay | oxayda | animals |
| / -di, -ti | bul | buldi | drums |
| / -de, -te | jen | jende | years |
Certain patterns occur in pairs for the respective singular and plural forms, as described in form three.
| Pair | Singular | Plural | Translation |
| -ic / -iny | winic | wininy | vulture |
| -ic / -u | banyic | banyu | light |
| -wan/-wan | penäwan | penggäwan | son |
| -x/-ny | osox | osony | lion |
| -d/ -nu | 'dawud | 'dawunu | type of fish |
Plural-only nouns
There are exceptions to the rule, e.g. words that change form, having a shorter plural than singular form or no singular or plural form at all.Some nouns only occur as plurals, e.g. noncountable nouns that refer to masses or liquids:
Pronouns
It is noteworthy that Caning has two forms of the pronoun "we" that could be distinguished by calling them inclusive and exclusive versions. One being -was and the other one being -kog .This difference is also made with the possessor and possessive pronouns us/our.
Possessor Pronouns
Possessor pronouns can replace the possessor in the sentence below."Kig kasax axä apang. Person refused hut of man.
Kig kasax axang. Person refused my hut."
| Possessor | Caning | Singular | Plural | Translation |
| my | -ang | axang | axinygang | my hut |
| your | -ägi | axägi | axinygägi | your hut |
| his | -äma | axäma | axinygäma | his hut |
| her | -äce | axäce | axinygäce | her hut |
| its | -änya | axgänya | axinygänya | its hut |
| our ' | -äsko | axäsko | axinygäsko | our hut |
| our ' | -og | axog | axinygog | our hut |
| your | -ägo | axägo | axinygägo | your hut |
| their | -äsa | axäsa | axinygäsa | their hut |
Possessive Pronouns
Possessive Pronouns can also replace nouns.By using the same example, the difference between possessor and possessive pronouns become more clear.
"Kig kasax axä apang. Person refused hut of man.
Kig kasax nämanggo. Person refused his."
All of the possessive pronouns below can therefore take the place of nämanggo in the above sentence.
| Caning | Pronoun |
| nanggä | mine |
| nänggi | yours |
| nämanggo | his |
| näcengga | hers |
| nänyanggo | its |
| näskonga | ours |
| nänokanga | ours |
| nänggonga | yours |
| näsanga | theirs |
Numbers
Cardinal numbers
Intermediate numbers, e.g. 785 are built similar to English, from front to end: udiny mädäginy paxtänding ' wang ' udiny tesped ' wang ' mädäg .Ordinal numbers
The following table shows how ordinal numbers are built.| Caning | Translation | Caning | Translation |
| xongi näs nuxuzeneng | first day | xongondi näs paxtändingzeneng | seventh day |
| xongondi näs pätaxeneng | second day | xongondi näs tespetespedeneng | eighth day |
| xongondi näs kodoseneng | third day | xongondi näs paye nuxuzeneng | ninth day |
| xongondi näs tespedeneng | fourth day | xongondi näs asinygeneng | tenth day |
| xongondi näs mädägkeneng | fifth day | xongondi näs asiny wang nuxuzeneng | eleventh day |
| xongondi näs arandeneng | sixth day | xongondi näs asiny wang pätaxeneng | twelfth day |
Numbers usually come after the noun with a modifier suffix, in this case -eneng.
| Caning | English |
| Edekeny sawuno sasog täsa mänang tä sängga kodos, na xongondi näs kodoseneng cäläpede ta atänäce ka, | For the next three days, they came and did the same, and on the third day she said to her grandchild, |