View source for Social:Mimi of Decorse

{{Short description|Extinct language of Chad}}
{{Infobox language
| name             = Mimi of Decorse
| altname          = Mimi-D
| nativename       = Mimi of Gaudefroy-Demombynes
| states           = Chad
| ethnicity        = 
| extinct          = (attested ca. 1900)
| familycolor      = Nilo-Saharan
| fam2             = [[Social:Central Sudanic languages|Central Sudanic]]?
| iso3             = none
| glotto           = mimi1240
| glottorefname    = Mimi-Gaudefroy
}}

'''Mimi of Decorse''', also known as '''Mimi of Gaudefroy-Demombynes''' and '''Mimi-D''', is a language of Chad that is attested only in a word list labelled "Mimi" that was collected ca. 1900 by G. J. Decorse and published by Maurice Gaudefroy-Demombynes.<ref>Gaudefroy-Demombynes, Maurice. 1907. Document sur les Langues de l'Oubangui-Chari. In ''Actes du XVIe Congrès International des Orientalistes, Alger, 1905'', Part II, 172-330. Paris: Ernest Leroux.</ref> Joseph Greenberg (1960) classified it as a Maban language, like the rather remote Maban relative [[Social:Mimi of Nachtigal|Mimi of Nachtigal]]. However, George Starostin (2011) rejects this classification, arguing that similarities to Maban are due to contact with locally dominant Maba (the similarities are with that language specifically, not with the entire Maban family), and provisionally regards it as a language isolate, though it is suggestive of Central Sudanic.<ref>Starostin, George. [https://rggu.academia.edu/GeorgeStarostin/Papers/983014/On_Mimi On Mimi], Journal of Language Relationship, v. 6, 2011, pp. 115-140.</ref>

==Basic vocabulary==
The more stable of Mimi-D and Mimi-N's attested vocabulary is as follows:

{|class="IPA wikitable"
!gloss||Mimi-D||Mimi-N
|-
|two||mel||søn
|-
|eye||dyo||kal
|-
|fire||sou||
|-
|stone||muguru||
|-
|hand||sil||rai
|-
|what||ɲeta||
|-
|die||dafaya||
|-
|drink||andʒi||ab
|-
|dog|| ||ɲuk
|-
|moon||aɾ||
|-
|claw/nail||fer||
|-
|blood|| ||ari
|-
|one||deg||ul-un
|-
|tooth||ɲain||ziːk
|-
|eat||ɲyam||
|-
|hair||suf (Arabic?)||fuːl
|-
|water||engi||sun (Fur?)
|-
|nose||fir||hur
|-
|mouth||ɲyo||mil
|-
|ear||feɾ||kuyi
|-
|bird|| ||kabal-a
|-
|bone|| ||kadʒi
|-
|sun||sey||
|-
|tree||su||
|-
|kill||kuduma||
|-
|foot||rep||zaŋ
|-
|horn||kamin||
|-
|meat||ɲyu||neŋ
|-
|egg||dʒulut||
|-
|black||liwuk||
|-
|head||bo||kidʒ-i
|-
|night||lem||
|-
|fish||gonas||
|-
|see||yakoe||
|}

==See also==
*[[Social:Mimi of Nachtigal|Mimi of Nachtigal]]
*Mimi of Decorse word list (Wiktionary)

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Extinct languages of Africa]]

{{Sourceattribution|Mimi of Decorse}}