Alagwa (Alaagwa’isa) is a Cushitic language spoken in Tanzania in the Dodoma region. Some Alagwa have shifted to other languages such as Sandawe.

Phonology

Consonants

Vowels

Alagwa has five vowels /a, e, i, o, u/. The five vowels have contrastive long counterparts.

Tone

There are two tone levels in Alagwa: low and high tone e.g., darimbáa "grass". Tone has grammatical function and limited lexical function. However, it cannot be described as a tone language because some words have only one tone (despite the number of the syllables) and the majority have none. Mainly, there are two intonation types: concluding intonation and non-concluding.

Grammar

Word order

Alagwa sentences have a generalized order [Subject X Auxiliary Y Verb Z], and elements of the sentence other than the subject appear in the positions labelled X, Y, and Z, depending on their information status in the clause. New material tends to appear in the post-verbal position, Z, while old information appears in the pre-auxiliary position, X. The following example (Kiessling 2007:138) shows the noun yaawáa 'dowry' introduced as new information after the verb in the first sentence and repeated as old information before the auxiliary ningi in the second sentence. makimoo-w-ód, ning-aa xay-ee’ ningi bu’-i-yee’ yaawáa guy-M-D SEQ:S3-ABL come:3-PF.PL SEQ:S3 pay-3-PF.PL dowry 'that guy, they [i.e. the lions] came and paid the dowry.' maa dende’ee-w-ós yaawáa ningi bu’-i-yee’ so folks-N-3SG.POSS dowry SEQ:O3PL pay-3-PF.PL 'His folks paid the dowry.'