Shemya (tàar ʃàmɲà) is the language of the
Sinyar people. It is a
Central Sudanic language spoken in Chad and formerly in
Darfur, Sudan. It is variously spelled Shamya, Shamyan, Shemya, Sinya, and known as Symiarta, Taar Shamyan, Zimirra.
The language is spoken in
Goz Beïda, Chad and Foro Boranga, Sudan. There are two level tones and downstepped low tones. Word order is SVO.[2][3]
Doornbos records 18 Sinyar clans. The Kijaar clan, located close to the
Kujargé, likely intermarried with the Kujargé.[5]
Lexicon
Sinyar appears to have a Bongo–Bagirmi
superstratum and a non-Bongo–Bagirmi
substratum. Some lexical items in Sinyar have cognates in
Bongo–Bagirmi languages (particularly the neighboring
Yulu-
Gula group), while others do not.[6]
Sinyar lexical items without Bongo-Bagirmi cognates
^Boyeldieu, Pascal. 2013. Case alignment(s) in Sinyar. Paper presented at the Nilo-Saharan Linguistics Colloquium, 22-24 May, 2013.
^Boyeldieu, Pascal. 2015. Case alignment(s) in Sinyar. In Angelika Mietzner and Anne Storch (eds.), Nilo-Saharan: Models and Descriptions, 21-36. Cologne: Köppe.
^
abBoyeldieu, Pascal. 2013. Sinyar and SBB (Central Sudanic): genetic relationship or contact? Paper presented at Linguistique diachronique et reconstruction : méthodes, acquis, avancées récentes. Labex EFL. 1-6 July 2013.