Short grammar of Tiefo-N of Nyafogo (Gur, Burkina Faso) Jeffrey Heath (University of Michigan) Aminata Ouattara (Université d’Ouagadougou) Abbie Hantgan (School of African and Oriental Studies) Language Description Heritage Library (online) with backup copy at Deep Blue (University of Michigan) 2017 Heath contact: [email protected] color code: dark red regular transcriptions for Tiefo-N blue regular transcriptions for Tiefo-D, including < Winkelmann green not italic, in […] : phonetic transcriptions (IPA) not italic, in /…/ : pre-surface representations not italic, after * : reconstructions italic: regular transcriptions for other languages Contents 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Language background ................................................................................................... 1 1.1.1 Gur languages ......................................................................................................... 1 1.1.2 The Tiefo (cɛ̀fɔ̂ ) languages .................................................................................... 1 1.1.3 Tiefo villages .......................................................................................................... 2 1.1.4 Neighboring languages ........................................................................................... 4 1.2 Environment .................................................................................................................. 4 1.3 History ........................................................................................................................... 5 1.4 Previous scholarship on Tiefo ....................................................................................... 5 1.5 Our fieldwork on Tiefo-N ............................................................................................. 6 1.6 Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................... 7 2 Phonology ............................................................................................................... 8 2.1 Consonants .................................................................................................................... 8 2.2 Vowels ......................................................................................................................... 10 2.2.1 Vowel length and prolongation ............................................................................. 10 2.2.2 Oral vowels ........................................................................................................... 10 2.2.3 Nasal vowels ......................................................................................................... 11 2.2.4 Vowel sequences ................................................................................................... 11 2.2.5 Cya versus Ci(y)a etc. ........................................................................................... 11 2.3 Syllables ...................................................................................................................... 12 2.4 Correspondences between Tiefo-N and -D ................................................................. 12 2.5 Tones: Inventory and transcription .............................................................................. 12 2.6 Phonological processes ................................................................................................ 14 2.6.1 Affrication and palatalization ............................................................................... 14 2.6.2 Reduction of vowel to schwa ................................................................................ 14 2.6.3 Syncope ................................................................................................................. 14 2.6.4 Secondary formation of labial velars from /kw gw ŋw/ ....................................... 15 2.6.5 Intervocalic liquid-deletion ................................................................................... 15 2.6.6 r/l alternations ....................................................................................................... 16 2.6.7 g/ŋ and g/ɣ/ʕ alternations and g/ŋ-deletion ........................................................... 17 2.6.8 n/r alternations ...................................................................................................... 18 2.6.9 Denasalization ....................................................................................................... 18 2.7 Tonology ...................................................................................................................... 18 i 2.7.1 Tonal melodies of nouns ....................................................................................... 18 2.7.2 Tonal and segmental ablaut in verbs ..................................................................... 21 2.7.3 Tone sandhi processes ........................................................................................... 22 2.7.3.1 LH#H-to-LL#H and LH#L-to-LL#H ............................................................. 22 2.7.3.2 HM#(H)-to-HH#(ꜜH) ..................................................................................... 22 2.7.3.3 <LH>-to-H ..................................................................................................... 22 2.7.3.4 Tone-dropping after possessive dí .................................................................. 23 3 Nouns, pronouns, and nominal modifiers .......................................................... 24 3.1 Nouns ........................................................................................................................... 24 3.1.1 Noun classes .......................................................................................................... 24 3.1.1.1 O-class nouns ................................................................................................. 24 3.1.1.2 A-class nouns ................................................................................................. 25 3.1.1.3 E-class nouns .................................................................................................. 27 3.1.1.4 Class changes from singular to plural ............................................................ 28 3.1.1.5 ‘Person’ (à ɲɔ́ⁿ ) and suppletive plurals (ò ná-wò, ò dyó→) ......................... 29 3.1.2 Nominal plurals ..................................................................................................... 29 3.1.3 Deverbal agentives (-wì ) ...................................................................................... 31 3.1.4 Infinitive (ná ) ....................................................................................................... 32 3.2 Pronouns ...................................................................................................................... 33 3.2.1 Independent and proclitic pronouns ...................................................................... 33 3.2.2 Object enclitics ...................................................................................................... 34 3.3 Adjectives .................................................................................................................... 36 3.4 Numerals ...................................................................................................................... 40 3.4.1 ‘1’ .......................................................................................................................... 40 3.4.2 ‘2’ to ‘9’ ................................................................................................................ 40 3.4.3 ‘10’ to ‘100’ .......................................................................................................... 41 3.4.4 ‘Thousand’ and ‘million’ ...................................................................................... 41 3.4.5 Ordinals ................................................................................................................. 42 4 Nominal compounds ............................................................................................ 43 4.1 Ordinary compounds ................................................................................................... 43 4.2 Possessive-type compounds ........................................................................................ 45 4.2.1 ‘X’s Y’ .................................................................................................................. 45 4.2.2 ‘Owner of Y’ (-wí ) ............................................................................................... 45 4.2.3 Compound agentives (-wì ) ................................................................................... 45 4.3 Bahuvrihi compounds .................................................................................................. 46 4.4 Diminutives ................................................................................................................. 46 5 Noun phrase (NP) ................................................................................................. 48 5.1 Order of elements within an NP .................................................................................. 48 ii 5.2 Vocalic prefix before noun .........................................................................................