Senufo languages
The Senufo languages form a small sub-unit of the North Volta -Congo branch of the Niger - Congo languages .
The 15 closely related languages are spoken by about 2.7 million Senufo in the north of Ivory Coast, Mali, in the southeast and the southwest of Burkina Faso. The neighbors of the Senufo languages are the Mande languages in the west, the Kwa languages in the south and Gur languages in the north and east.
Main languages
The speaker richest Senufo language is the Cebaara with one million speakers, other major languages are Supyire, Mamara, Schempire, Tagwana, Dschimini and Schenara. Nafaanra ( 50,000 people ) is a spatially isolated Senufo language in the north- west Ghana.
Position of the Senufo languages within the Niger - Congo
The Senufo languages are considered as a subunit of the Niger - Congo since Greenberg (1963). Through its position within this great African language family has been obtained no complete agreement.
Maurice Delafosse wrote in 1904 as the first linguist a treatise on the Senufo languages. He noted that the Senufo languages are often confused with the Mande languages , also because the latter are often used by the Senufo as a second language.
In the influential classifications of Westermann ( 1927), Greenberg (1963) and Bendor - Samuel (1971 ), the Senufo language appear as a sub-group of Gur languages. Manessy (1975 ), however, doubted this classification. 1989 saw John Naden in his overview of the Gur family that the Senufo languages with the Central Gur are not more closely related than other Volta -Congo groups, eg the Kwa languages. Therefore Williamson and Blench place ( in Heine Nurse 2000), the Senufo languages as a branch parallel to the Gur languages in the Volta -Congo node of the Niger - Congo.
Position of the Senufo in the Niger - Congo by William Blench 2000
- Niger - Congo Volta - Congo North Volta - Congo Kru
- Gur
- Senufo
- Adamawa - Ubangi
Internal classification
Early classifications of the Senufo languages (eg, Bendor - Samuel 1971) were primarily geographically motivated and divided them into northern, central and southern Senufo. In the following years, followed by several linguists this terminology ( Garber 1987, Carlson 1983, 1994). Mensah (1983) and Mills (1984 ) avoided the geographical names, but used the same classification. Ethnologue divides the Senufo languages into six groups, of which Supyire - Mamara, Tagwana - Djimini and Senari are the most important, while the remaining have only minor languages . When you combine the two classifications, we obtain the following result (there are all languages specified):
Classification of Senufo languages by William Blench 2000
- Senufo Northern Senufo or Supyire - Mamara Supyire (350 thousand speakers)
- Mamara ( Mianka ) (700 thousand)
- Schempire (100 thousand)
- Nanerige (50 thousand)
- Tagba ( Sucite, Sicite ) (35 thousand)
- Karaboro Kar (East Karaboro ) (40 thousand)
- Syer - Tenyer (West Karaboro ) (30 thousand)
- Cebaara ( 1 million)
- Schenara (140 thousand)
- Senara ( Senari, Syenere ) (50 thousand)
- Niarafolo (40 thousand)
- Kpalaga ( Palaka ) ( 8 thou)
- Tagwana - Djimini Tagwana (140 thousand)
- Dschimini (100 thousand)
- Nafaanra (45 thousand)
Linguistic characteristics
The Senufo languages have as many Niger - Congo languages , a system of noun classes, which are marked by suffixes. The aspect is an important category of the verb, it is an " imperfective " and " neutral " aspect distinction. The Senufo languages are tonal languages with three sound levels (high, medium, low ).
The Senufo was heavily influenced by the Mande languages, many words have been borrowed from the Mande languages Bambara and Jula. Carlson ( 1994:2 ) notes that " various grammatical constructions are likely calques from the Bambara ." The words of the Senufo languages is SOV, as opposed to the Gur and many other Niger - Congo languages , the SVO have ( Claudi 1993).