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Zialo |
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Zialo (self-identification Ziolo) is a language spoken by the Zialo people in Guinea. The language of Zialo which belongs
to the Southwestern group of the Mande branch of the Niger–Congo language family is spoken by approximately 25,000 people
residing in the province of Macenta in the southeast of Guinea. The Zialo area covers over 50 villages (including two centers
of subprefectures). Nearly a third of all Zialo live now in the nearby towns of Macenta and Gekedou, as well as in the city
of Conakry. The Zialo language does not have its own writing system; people use French in all official paperwork. Zialo was
recognized as a distinct language and studied by the Moscow-based linguist Kirill Babaev, member of the Russian Linguistic
Expedition to Guinea, in January–February 2010. Before that, Zialo was considered a remote dialect of the language of Loma,
however, significant differences were discovered between the two. The tonology and phonetics of Zialo do resemble Loma, but
the lexicon and the morphological systems of Zialo are closer to those of Bandi and Mende. Zialo is characterized by the extensive
use of nasal vowels and consonants, the wide system of initial consonant alternations, a great number of analytic verbal constructions
of time and aspect, and over 15 sets of personal pronouns. Zialo speakers name five major dialects of the language: Bayawa,
Wolo-Ziolo, Woyjawa, Kelighigo and Lawolozu, of which the last one seems the most specific. The Zialo probably came to their
present location from the south, the present-day territory of Liberia, as indicated by their legends. Nowadays, the majority
of Zialo are Christians; there are also groups of Muslims and animists. |
Names (more)[de] Zialo[en] Zialo language [fr] Zialo [hr] Zialo jezik [ru] Зиало |
Language type : Living
Technical notes
This page is providing structured data for the language Zialo. |
ISO 639 CodesISO 639-3 : zilLinked Data URIshttp://lexvo.org/id/iso639-3/zilhttp://dbpedia.org/resource/ISO_639:zil More URIs at sameas.org SourcesAuthority documentation for ISO 639 identifier: zilFreebase ISO 639-3 : zil GeoNames.org Country Information Publications Office of the European Union Metadata Registry : Countries and Languages |