A Grammar of Tiefo Gur Language Family Gnanfongo Dialect Abbie E. Hantgan Dogon and Bangime Linguistics email: [email protected] draft dated January 17, 2014 ii A Grammar of Tiefo I am grateful to Dongui Ouattara and her two sons, Lamine and Jina, for their patience and fortitude. The people of Gnanfongo are former warriors and blacksmiths, and it is because of their courage that their language will not be lost without a fight. iii iv A Grammar of Tiefo Contents Author's Note ................................. ix 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Tiefo, Gur Language Family ......................... 1 1.2 Tiefo Language ................................ 4 1.2.1 Multilingualism ............................ 5 1.2.2 Endangerment ............................ 6 1.2.3 Dialectology ............................. 6 1.3 Environment ................................. 6 1.4 Previous and Contemporary Work ...................... 7 1.4.1 Previous Studies ........................... 7 1.4.2 Fieldwork and Methodology ..................... 7 1.4.3 Acknowledgements .......................... 7 2 Phonology 9 2.1 Phonological Structure ............................ 9 2.1.1 Syllables ............................... 9 2.1.2 Metrical Structure .......................... 10 2.2 Consonant Inventory ............................. 10 2.2.1 Representations of Glides w and y .................. 10 2.2.2 Sibilants ............................... 10 2.2.3 Nasalized Sonorants ......................... 10 2.2.4 Nasals ................................. 10 2.2.5 Voiceless Labials ........................... 11 2.2.6 Laryngeals .............................. 11 2.2.7 Voiced velar stop ........................... 11 2.3 Vowel Inventory ................................ 11 2.3.1 Contrastive Properties of Vowels ................... 14 2.3.2 Initial Vowels ............................. 14 2.4 Segmental Phonological Processes ...................... 14 2.4.1 Vowel Harmony ........................... 14 2.5 Tone ...................................... 14 v vi A Grammar of Tiefo 3 Morphology 17 3.1 Nominal .................................... 17 3.1.1 Derivational .............................. 17 3.1.2 Singular and Plural .......................... 17 3.2 Verbal ..................................... 19 3.2.1 Experiential Perfect `have ever' ................... 19 3.2.2 Inflectional .............................. 20 3.2.3 Pronominals ............................. 20 3.2.4 Verbal Inflection ........................... 21 3.3 Nominalized Verbs .............................. 23 3.4 Agentives ................................... 23 3.4.1 Derivational .............................. 23 4 Syntax 27 4.0.2 Comparatives ............................. 27 4.0.3 Question Particles .......................... 28 4.0.4 Conditionals ............................. 28 4.1 Quantifiers .................................. 28 4.2 Locatives ................................... 29 4.3 Case Marking ................................. 30 4.3.1 instrumentals ............................. 31 4.4 Coordination ................................. 32 4.5 Possessive Constructions ........................... 32 4.5.1 Genitives ............................... 35 4.6 Adjectives and Adverbs ............................ 36 4.6.1 Numerals ............................... 36 4.6.2 Verbal Adjectives ........................... 37 4.6.3 Predicate Adjectives ......................... 38 4.7 Calques .................................... 39 4.8 Relative Clauses ................................ 39 A Agentives 41 B Adjectives 43 C Verbal Modifiers 47 D Locatives 49 E Verb Paradigms 51 E.0.1 [sa] `go' ................................ 51 E.0.2 [ba] `come' .............................. 52 E.0.3 [dii] `eat' ............................... 53 F Relative Clauses 55 G Cardinal Numbers 57 CONTENTS vii H Text 63 I Questionnaire 69 I Greetings 83 viii A Grammar of Tiefo Author’s note Data are from my fieldwork conducted in Gnanfongo from August 15-December 31. Preliminary data collection was also done in 2012 during a period of one month in collaboration University of Ouagadougou linguistics master's student Aminata Ouattara. The dialect examined for this grammar is that which is spoken in Gnganfongo. There are only five Tiefo speakers in the village of Gnanfongo, all in their 70's and 80's. The village of Dramandougou speaks Tiefo, but the dialect differs, particularly in the lexicon. This is a draft, please use caution when citing. ix x A Grammar of Tiefo CHAPTER 1 Introduction 1.1 Tiefo, Gur Language Family While Tiefo is classified as being a Gur language, and as a whole resembles geographically neighboring Gur languages, it does not fit into any known branch of Gur. Neither Manessy (1982) nor Naden (1989) are able to pinpoint a precise classification of Tiefo within the Gur family. Lexical comparisons between Tiefo and other Gur languages show 28 out of 435 correspondence, 20 percent (Manessy, 1982). In 1.1 are shown some example comparisons between Tiefo and geographically neighboring languages. Note also the differences between the data I have gathered (from Gnanfongo) and Manessy's (1982) data (from Dramandougou). 1 2 Tiefo (AH) Tiefo (GM) Viemo Doɣose Gan Lobi Dyan Kulango Loron Gloss pĩ́ĩ́ pini pinyɔ pĩ́ĩ́se pĩ́ĩ́ piniɡu, pininyu excrement kāʕà kaʔa kaasɔ kaase kasa meat sã́ã́ sãã saasi -sãã -sãã -sãã, -sãzi -sã three ɲēréē ɲinde ɲɛɲɛ ɲeɲa ɲeɲa ɲuɡo breast fērēʕé fereɡi ferɡe filiki moon nāfāʕɔ́ donu doni doŋko slave ɲã̄ ɲã ɲã give yāá ya yɛrɛ woman sāʕè sari siru sáákɔ̀ earth bēʕé bẽ bənə bẽ wilderness káʕá ɲīn kaane kannɔ tooth ɡ͡ bã̄ ã́ bɔ̃, baa baawɔ bana sheep Table 1.1: Lexical Correspondences between Tiefo and Gur Languages (Manessy, 1982, 146) A Grammar of Tiefo Introduction 3 To this end, Manessy gives three hypotheses for how these non-Gur roots are found in Tiefo and adjacent languages - they are actually a separate branch of Gur, they are borrowed from an unknown Gur language into the others, or the source of the borrowing is non-Gur, possibly Mande. The third hypothesis is appealing, however, according to comparisons between my data and Winkelmann's (1998) data, 87 out of 185 core lexical items do not bear any resemblance between the two dialects, nor to Jula (based on my knowledge of Jula). Comparisons are shown in 1.2. Tiefo Gnanfongo Tiefo Dramandougou Jula Gloss dúrú sú ɲinan mouse dúwī sɛ̀ɡɛ̀ dimi hurt dūwõ̀ sɔ́ʔɔ́, sɛ́ʔɛ́ cin sting fáʕláī sīɡlòʔó -ro suruku hyena fīyāá ɡ͡ bɛ bà lana take fíyāʕā pūʔō, poʔo kunɡo wilderness fīyáʕā dɛ̀, bɛ-tɔʕɔ foro field fíyɔ̀ diɛ̀ buɡu multiply fíʕī baʕa tɔmɔ pick up ɡānāʕà jūwɛ́ʔaɛ́ ɡalaji indigo kā kɔ́̃ sàk͡ pè fali donkey Table 1.2: Cross-Dialectal Lexical Non-Concordance not Due to Jula Influence Calques, however, are found from Jula into Tiefo, especially among compounds. Tiefo Gnanfongo Jula Gloss dɔ̄ ʕɔ́ yāʕā bɔɡɔ daɡa clay pot dɔ̄ ʕɔ́ dɔ̄ ʕɔ̄ dɔni dɔni slow(ly) bɔ́ʕɔ̄ bɔɡɔ clay dūrūɲáʕā dunuɲa world ɡānāʕà ɡalaji indigo ɡ͡ bātā ɡwa awning (hangar) káʕá ɲīn ɲi tiri teeth, gum kɔ̄ ̃lɔ́̃ kɔ̃lɔ̃ well kɔ́̃ʕɔ̄ ̃ kɔ̃ door lòŋòyì loŋɡo elbow bílóō bili cricket sp. dōsó donso hunter tȭõ̀ sȭ neɡe so bicycle wɔʕɔ wa or wɔ́ʕɔ́ waa thousand Table 1.3: Borrowings and Calques from Jula 4 A Grammar of Tiefo In addition to influence from Mande languages, the dialect of Tiefo spoken in Gnanfongo is nearly extinct. The following sections describe the language and its context in Burkina Faso. 1.2 Tiefo Language Although the Tiefo people are numerous, with estimates ranging from 12,000–15,000, according to 1985 Burkina census, speakers are sparse, numbered at 1000 by SIL in 1995. The area in which the Tiefo live in Burkina Faso is south of Bobo-Dioulasso in the provinces of Comoé and Houet, in five departments therein. There are approximately 20 small Tiefo villages, spanning about 1,500 km (Berthelette and Berthelette, 2001). Ethnically Tiefo villages include Dramandougou, Gnanfongo, Koumandara, Dégué-Dégué, Derege, Laranfiera, Mousoubadougou, Yegere, Dabokeri, Noumouso, Tanga, Yanga, Kiefandougou, Dandougou, Kadio, Farajan, Sourkoutomo, Me, Matourkou, Damogan, Tien, and Kodala (Win, 1996, 165) as shown in the map in 1.1. Figure 1.1: Location of the Tiefo People (Lewis, 2009) Among these 20 Tiefo villages, there are only three Tiefo-speaking villages, Dramandougou, Noumoudara, and Gnanfongo. Win (1996, 166) states that in Nyafogo and Noumoudara, there are some speaker found among the elders, but the only Tiefo speaking village is Dramandougou. Gur languages as a whole are spoken in a relatively geographically isolated part of the world. Naden (1989) notes, ``This region was cut off from direct contact with the early European traders by the forest belt and its peoples, was separated from the Saharan trade routes by the Fulani-Mali-Songhai states, and thus long remained comparatively unknown to the outside world. Even today main cities tend to be near the coast, with the exception of landlocked Burkina Faso the area where Gur languages are spoken is still somewhat of a backwater.'' Introduction 5 To reach the Tiefo area, there is a main, paved highway, National Route 1, which goes through Noumoudara and Péni. To the south of Toussiana is an escarpment. The map shown in 1.2 gives us an idea of where the escarpment is in relation to the Tiefo speaking villages. In 1956, Noumoudara had a population of 1220 Tiefo, and Niagafon only 95. Figure 1.2: from (Hebert, 1958, 379) Berthelette and Berthelette (2001) further explain, ``This escarpment, in serving to isolate the region, has probably been an important