Beja language

Beja (also called Bedawi, Bedauye, To Bedawie, Ta Bedawie, Hadareb, or by dialect names; Beja: Bidhaawyeet, Tu-Bdhaawi) is an Afroasiatic language spoken in the western coast of the Red Sea by the Beja people. They number around two million people, and inhabit parts of Egypt, Sudan and Eritrea.

Classification

It is usually seen as Cushitic, but several scholars, notably Robert Hetzron (1980), have regarded it as an independent branch of Afroasiatic.

Phonology

Nasals other than /m/ and /n/ are positional variants of /n/. The consonants /χ/ and /ɣ/ only appear in Arabic loanwords in some speakers' speech; in others', they are replaced by /k/ or /h/ and /g/.

Beja has the five vowels /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, and /u/. /e/ and /o/ only appear long, while /a/, /i/, and /u/ have long and short variants.

Beja has pitch accent.

Orthography

Most academic researchers have devised their own independent systems for transcribing Beja. Only two systems have broader usage on-line: One based on Roman script, the other on Arabic. The Arabic system may largely be defunct, but it is still in use on the Beja Language Website.