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]
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.[7]
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.
