Uduk

Abstract This chapter describes the grammar of Uduk, a Koman language spoken on the borders of Ethiopia and Sudan by approximately 20,000-25,000 speakers. Uduk is compromised of three main dialects: Chali, Bellila, and Yabus, and this chapter is based almost exclusively on the Chali dialect. The description is based on thirteen months of fieldwork by the author between 2011 and 2014, and examines the phonology, morphology, and syntax. Uduk has a rich phonology; the main dialect of Uduk has 55 contrastive consonant phonemes, three contrastive tone levels, and seven possible tonal melodies on a single TBU. A complex interaction between consonants and tone has also given rise to a depressor consonant effect. In terms of argument structure and morphosyntax, Uduk displays morphologically marked cases for both Accusative as well as Ergative, depending on the constituent order. Uduk nouns exhibit grammatical gender, the assignment of which has extremely limited semantic correlations, including animacy and biological sex. Uduk verbs show multifunctional grammatical suffixes which mark either the location of an action or its internal aspect, and spatial deixis and aspect are heavily intertwined. Spatial orientation and location thus form a fundamental part of basic verbal inflectional categories.