Supyire language
Encyclopedia
Supyire, or Suppire, is the name of a language centralized in the Sikasso Region
region of southeastern Mali
, in western Africa
. Supyire is spoken by an estimated 364,000 Supyire people, according to Ethnologue. The language belongs to the larger language group of Senufo
, a member of the Gur subgroup of Niger–Congo languages. In their native language, the noun sùpyìré literally translates into both “the people” and “the language spoken by the people”.
and then broke off into small groups that had little connection, it would be expected that the languages would develop different characteristics over time. Recently, close contact with other tribes has resulted in a dictionary full of loan words that have been assimilated into everyday language. Education has had an impact on any cultural language in this area. Although few are literate, many children attend primary school where a mixture of languages can be presented. There is ongoing controversy over the use of “mother tongues” in schools. Current law states that primary schools educate in the mother tongue whereas secondary schools emphasize the use of a common language.
The language group of Senufo
can be divided in to northern, central, and southern branches, with Supyire being classified as the southernmost northern Senufo
language. The Senufo language group, with approximately 2. 2 million speakers, extends from the southwest corner of Mali
and covers a significant portion of the northern Ivory Coast. There are also isolated pockets of this language group in Burkina Faso
and Ghana
. As a group, the Senufo
people are considered to be one of the oldest ethnic groups of the Ivory Coast, having settled there in the early 17th century. It is hypothesized that the Senufo
descended from the Kenedugu people, who ruled over Mali
and Burkina Faso
during the 17th century. It was this culture that established the village of Sikasso
, which now stands as the cultural center for the Supyire people. Sikasso
was the last city to fall into French control during their invasion of Mali in 1888. Mali existed under French Colonial rule as the nation of French Sudan
. In 1958, French Sudan claimed autonomy and was renamed the Sudanese Republic. In 1960 the Sudanese Republic became the independent country of Mali.
As a group of people, the Supyire survive by cultivating the landscape. Individuals make a living off of the land, primarily by cultivating yams
, millet
, and sorghum
, a tradition that has perpetuated through their ancestral history. With the integration of agricultural processes from neighboring cultures, bananas and manioc have also been successfully cultivated. Care of livestock, including chickens, sheep, goats, and guinea fowl, provides a significant source of nutrition. In this culture, wealth is correlated to the number and quality of livestock as opposed to money. Both hunting and fishing are also important, although to a much smaller degree. Although the Supyire have risen above the level of hunter-gatherer
, their traditional mode of organization has not risen above the village level. In Supyire culture it is rare that any single person holds excessive power and there are only two traditional classes- the laborers and the farmers.
As a culture, the Supyire, and most Senufo
groups, are most known for their artwork. Artisans in these communities are regarded to the highest degree. Most artwork consists of sculptures used to bring deities to life. Animal figures such as zebras, crocodiles, and giraffes are very common. Storytelling also plays a significant role in this culture and one of the first written documents of the Supyire was a story entitled “Warthog’s Laughter Teeth”. The Senufo practice of female circumcision has made this culture recognizable on a worldwide level. The practice of female circumcision, done for cultural or religious reasons, is meant to mark a right of passage as girls become women. In these cultures, men are also expected to go through various rights of passage. The predominant religion of the region is Muslim, although most “bushmen” tend to instead place their faith in human-like gods. Worshipping of deceased ancestors is also common.
Supyire has a voicing distinction and contains a glottal stop
, a common characteristic in African languages. However, it does not have labio-velar consonants.
Voiceless stops have particular limitations and are only used in three environments: word initial, such as tàcwɔ̀ (“fiancée”) medially in a stressed syllable, as in nupéé or following a nasal, such as in kàntugo (“behind”). Also, almost every /ɡ/-initial word is a borrowed word from either French or Bambara.
Although both voiceless and voiced fricatives are found, voiceless fricatives such as /f/ and /s/ are much more common than the voiced fricatives /v/, /z/, and /ʒ/.
There is no labial approximant.
In speech, /w/ does not come after a short stressed syllable.
Although Supyire contains nasal consonants, there is considerable debate over their phonemic status. According to a well-formulated hypothesis, the predecessor of Supyire had no nasal consonants but nasalized vowels did exist. Some linguists thus categorize nasal consonants as simple variants of the approximants that occur before nasal vowels.
Supyire is reported to have the rare uvular flap
as an allophone of /ɡ/ in unstressed syllables. This parallels /d/ surfacing as [ɾ] in the same environment.
Supyire has 12 vowels in total, with seven oral vowels and five nasal vowels. Two oral vowels, /ɛ/ and /ɔ/ are not as well-established as the other five because the difference between /ɛ/ and /a/ is neutralized and, when speaking quickly, it is very difficult to distinguish between /ɑ/, a variant of /ɔ/, and /a/. It does appear that some speakers preferentially choose one pronunciation over the other, although some do use both pronunciations and some use a variant somewhere in the middle.
Vowel harmony
is also important in the Supyire culture. This is done by harmonizing unstressed vowels with the initial stressed vowel if they both belong to the same root or have the same suffix.
The language has four basic tones: high, low, strong mid, and weak mid. While the high and low tones are unremarkable, the two mid tones are only differentiated by differences in their behavior when referencing tone rules, and not by their pitch. These unusual mid tones are found in all northern Senufo languages but not in central Senufo languages, which only have three tones.
Most vowels in the Supyire language contain a single tone although vowels may have two, or in extremely rare cases three, tones. Further, nasals that come before stops can only have one tone. Basic noun gender suffixes, imperfective verb suffixes, the causative verb suffix –g followed by a vowel, and the intransitive verb prefix N- are considered toneless.
It was noted that boys who spent their days herding cows communicated with each other strictly through whistled language
, which only elaborated vowel length and pitch. These small pieces of information were enough to have conversations of considerable detail.
The gender system of Supyire does differ slightly from the gender systems of other similar languages. Bantu
, also a subgroup of Niger–Congo languages, places different forms of the same word into varying gender classes. For example, the Swahili
word for friend is rafiki and it is a class 9 noun. However, the plural form marafiki belongs to noun class 6 (Wikipedia). This confusion over noun class distinction does not occur in any Senufo
language, Supyire included.
In Supyire, gender 1 is categorized as the “human” gender. It is interesting to note that instead of classifying loan words by their definition, those who speak Supyire tend to classify loan words by their suffixes and thus most loan words, regardless of meaning, are placed into gender 1. More than half of the dictionary of gender one nouns is loan words. Nouns found in this category range from general human terms such as ceewe (“woman”) and pyà (“child”) to terms that describe relationships such as nafentu (“wife’s father”). Also found in this category are terms that describe people such as ̀ŋaŋa (“twin”) or cevoo (“friend”). Gender 1 also contains class terms and occupational terms such as ciiwe (“leather-worker”), tunntun (“blacksmith”) and sòròlashí (“soldier”). Interestingly enough, supernatural entities are also categorized into the human gender. The word for god, kile, is categorized as a gender 1 noun. This gender also contains some “higher” animals and mass nouns such as dust and sand.
Gender 2 is typically described as the category that contains nouns that are “big things” while gender 3 contains nouns of “small things”. Thus, gender 2 includes, for example, trees and tree parts such as cige (“tree”), logo (“shea tree”), and weŋe (“leaf”). Also included in gender 2 are large, immovable objects such as baga (“house, building”), caanga (“market”) and kacige (“bridge”) and most large animals. Interestingly, gender 2 contains nouns that describe desires such as katege (“hunger”) and byaga (“thirst”). Gender 3 contains small animals such as lùpààn (“mosquito”). Gender 4 is known as the “collectives” category and contains mass nouns and abstract nouns. Some examples of mass nouns are pworo (“adobe”) and kyara (“meat”). Abstracts are used to convey emotional states and include words such as sícyere (“insanity”) and wyere (“cold”). The final category of noun gender 5 contains nouns for liquids. For example, this is the gender of sìnmε (“beer”) and jirimε (“milk”).
In Supyire, gender is marked by suffixes. Basic gender suffixes in Supyire most often have the form –CV, seen in six of the eight classes. Suffixes in this instance are toneless. The first three gender systems include both singular and plural forms while gender 4 and 5 do not. For example, singular gender 1 nouns employ the use of the suffix –wV, singular gender 2 nouns use –gV normally, singular gender 3 nouns employ the use of –lV, gender 4 nouns use the basic suffix –rV, and gender 5 uses –mV as a suffix. Plural gender 1 nouns do not adhere so strictly to the rules and can vary in consonant usage. However, all end in –ii or –íí.
a. Voiceless stop—prefix appears
Pi màha m-pa náhá.
They HAB IP-come here.
“They come here.”
b. Fricative—no prefix
Pi màha shya aní
c. Mìì ná m̀pà ta.
I PAST sheep get
“I got a sheep.”
d. Mpà mìì ná ń-tá.
sheep I PAST IP-get.
“It was a sheep that I got.”
Alternatively, the future prefix is used with verbs that apply a future time reference. In conjunction with certain verb prefixes, the auxiliaries sí and cáá are also used. It also differs from the first prefix in that it uses a distinct tone and it appears on all verbs, not just those beginning with voiceless stops. Just as with the intransitive prefix, the future prefix uses a nasal attached to a verb that is not preceded by a direct object. As an example:
a.Mìì sí m̀-pà.
I FUT FP-come.
“I will come.”
a. Root: -fu- ("hot")
b. kafee-fu-go (“hot wind”)
a. Kà u ú ŋ́́-káré sà a ci-ré pààn-nì. “He went to chop the trees”
DS G1S NARR IP-go go PROG tree-DEF.G4 chop-IMPV
b. Lùpà-àn sì ǹ-tὲὲn ù nà. “A mosquito sat on him”
A mosquito-G3S NARR IP-sit G1S on
is associated with the teens, twenties, thirties, and so on (see Table 4). The word for 80, ŋ`kùù, is formally and etymologically identical to the word for 'chicken'. This identity is inexplicable to speakers; Carlson (1994) supposes it to relate to a historical price of a chicken.
Because of obvious confusion with this number system and close contact with neighboring Bambara people, the Supyire have been slowly disregarding this system. Like other languages in this region, numerals that refer to money (in this instance, the franc
) are counted in groups of five.
Grammaticalization, 2, 201-223.
Retrieved December 1, 2008, from University of Illinois Web site:
Sikasso Region
Sikasso is the southern-most region of Mali. The capital city of the same name is the 3rd-largest city and is growing rapidly due to people fleeing the violence in Côte d'Ivoire to the south. Major ethnic groups include the Senoufo, known for masks and reverence for animals, the Samago, known for...
region of southeastern Mali
Mali
Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...
, in western Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
. Supyire is spoken by an estimated 364,000 Supyire people, according to Ethnologue. The language belongs to the larger language group of Senufo
Senufo
The Senufo are an ethnolinguistic group composed of diverse subgroups of Gur-speaking people living in an area spanning from southern Mali and the extreme western corner of Burkina Faso to Katiola in Côte d'Ivoire. One group, the Nafana, is found in north-western Ghana...
, a member of the Gur subgroup of Niger–Congo languages. In their native language, the noun sùpyìré literally translates into both “the people” and “the language spoken by the people”.
Background
The early existence of Supyire is unclear. During the time period in which the language developed, it has been hypothesized that there was little conflict in the region which resulted in a significant amount of separation between the ancestors of the Supyire and other cultures of the area. If individuals speaking a single language migrated to the region of present-day MaliMali
Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...
and then broke off into small groups that had little connection, it would be expected that the languages would develop different characteristics over time. Recently, close contact with other tribes has resulted in a dictionary full of loan words that have been assimilated into everyday language. Education has had an impact on any cultural language in this area. Although few are literate, many children attend primary school where a mixture of languages can be presented. There is ongoing controversy over the use of “mother tongues” in schools. Current law states that primary schools educate in the mother tongue whereas secondary schools emphasize the use of a common language.
The language group of Senufo
Senufo
The Senufo are an ethnolinguistic group composed of diverse subgroups of Gur-speaking people living in an area spanning from southern Mali and the extreme western corner of Burkina Faso to Katiola in Côte d'Ivoire. One group, the Nafana, is found in north-western Ghana...
can be divided in to northern, central, and southern branches, with Supyire being classified as the southernmost northern Senufo
Senufo
The Senufo are an ethnolinguistic group composed of diverse subgroups of Gur-speaking people living in an area spanning from southern Mali and the extreme western corner of Burkina Faso to Katiola in Côte d'Ivoire. One group, the Nafana, is found in north-western Ghana...
language. The Senufo language group, with approximately 2. 2 million speakers, extends from the southwest corner of Mali
Mali
Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...
and covers a significant portion of the northern Ivory Coast. There are also isolated pockets of this language group in Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso – also known by its short-form name Burkina – is a landlocked country in west Africa. It is surrounded by six countries: Mali to the north, Niger to the east, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Côte d'Ivoire to the southwest.Its size is with an estimated...
and Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
. As a group, the Senufo
Senufo
The Senufo are an ethnolinguistic group composed of diverse subgroups of Gur-speaking people living in an area spanning from southern Mali and the extreme western corner of Burkina Faso to Katiola in Côte d'Ivoire. One group, the Nafana, is found in north-western Ghana...
people are considered to be one of the oldest ethnic groups of the Ivory Coast, having settled there in the early 17th century. It is hypothesized that the Senufo
Senufo
The Senufo are an ethnolinguistic group composed of diverse subgroups of Gur-speaking people living in an area spanning from southern Mali and the extreme western corner of Burkina Faso to Katiola in Côte d'Ivoire. One group, the Nafana, is found in north-western Ghana...
descended from the Kenedugu people, who ruled over Mali
Mali
Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...
and Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso – also known by its short-form name Burkina – is a landlocked country in west Africa. It is surrounded by six countries: Mali to the north, Niger to the east, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Côte d'Ivoire to the southwest.Its size is with an estimated...
during the 17th century. It was this culture that established the village of Sikasso
Sikasso
Sikasso is a city in the south of Mali and the capital of the Sikasso Region. With 130,700 residents, Sikasso recently passed Ségou to become Mali's second-largest city.-Geography:...
, which now stands as the cultural center for the Supyire people. Sikasso
Sikasso
Sikasso is a city in the south of Mali and the capital of the Sikasso Region. With 130,700 residents, Sikasso recently passed Ségou to become Mali's second-largest city.-Geography:...
was the last city to fall into French control during their invasion of Mali in 1888. Mali existed under French Colonial rule as the nation of French Sudan
French Sudan
French Sudan was a colony in French West Africa that had two separate periods of existence, first from 1890 to 1899, then from 1920 to 1960, when the territory became the independent nation of Mali.-Colonial establishment:...
. In 1958, French Sudan claimed autonomy and was renamed the Sudanese Republic. In 1960 the Sudanese Republic became the independent country of Mali.
As a group of people, the Supyire survive by cultivating the landscape. Individuals make a living off of the land, primarily by cultivating yams
Yam (vegetable)
Yam is the common name for some species in the genus Dioscorea . These are perennial herbaceous vines cultivated for the consumption of their starchy tubers in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Oceania...
, millet
Millet
The millets are a group of small-seeded species of cereal crops or grains, widely grown around the world for food and fodder. They do not form a taxonomic group, but rather a functional or agronomic one. Their essential similarities are that they are small-seeded grasses grown in difficult...
, and sorghum
Sorghum
Sorghum is a genus of numerous species of grasses, one of which is raised for grain and many of which are used as fodder plants either cultivated or as part of pasture. The plants are cultivated in warmer climates worldwide. Species are native to tropical and subtropical regions of all continents...
, a tradition that has perpetuated through their ancestral history. With the integration of agricultural processes from neighboring cultures, bananas and manioc have also been successfully cultivated. Care of livestock, including chickens, sheep, goats, and guinea fowl, provides a significant source of nutrition. In this culture, wealth is correlated to the number and quality of livestock as opposed to money. Both hunting and fishing are also important, although to a much smaller degree. Although the Supyire have risen above the level of hunter-gatherer
Hunter-gatherer
A hunter-gatherer or forage society is one in which most or all food is obtained from wild plants and animals, in contrast to agricultural societies which rely mainly on domesticated species. Hunting and gathering was the ancestral subsistence mode of Homo, and all modern humans were...
, their traditional mode of organization has not risen above the village level. In Supyire culture it is rare that any single person holds excessive power and there are only two traditional classes- the laborers and the farmers.
As a culture, the Supyire, and most Senufo
Senufo
The Senufo are an ethnolinguistic group composed of diverse subgroups of Gur-speaking people living in an area spanning from southern Mali and the extreme western corner of Burkina Faso to Katiola in Côte d'Ivoire. One group, the Nafana, is found in north-western Ghana...
groups, are most known for their artwork. Artisans in these communities are regarded to the highest degree. Most artwork consists of sculptures used to bring deities to life. Animal figures such as zebras, crocodiles, and giraffes are very common. Storytelling also plays a significant role in this culture and one of the first written documents of the Supyire was a story entitled “Warthog’s Laughter Teeth”. The Senufo practice of female circumcision has made this culture recognizable on a worldwide level. The practice of female circumcision, done for cultural or religious reasons, is meant to mark a right of passage as girls become women. In these cultures, men are also expected to go through various rights of passage. The predominant religion of the region is Muslim, although most “bushmen” tend to instead place their faith in human-like gods. Worshipping of deceased ancestors is also common.
Consonants
| Labial Labial consonant Labial consonants are consonants in which one or both lips are the active articulator. This precludes linguolabials, in which the tip of the tongue reaches for the posterior side of the upper lip and which are considered coronals... |
Alveolar Alveolar consonant Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth... |
Palatal Palatal consonant Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate... |
Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).... |
Glottal Glottal consonant Glottal consonants, also called laryngeal consonants, are consonants articulated with the glottis. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the so-called fricative, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have; in fact, some do not consider... |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive / Affricate | voiceless | p | t | c [t͡ʃ] | k | h [ʔ] |
| voiced | b | d | d͡ʒ | ɡ | ||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | sh [ʃ] | ||
| voiced | v | z | zh [ʒ] | |||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||
| Approximant | l | j | w | |||
Supyire has a voicing distinction and contains a glottal stop
Glottal stop
The glottal stop, or more fully, the voiceless glottal plosive, is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. In English, the feature is represented, for example, by the hyphen in uh-oh! and by the apostrophe or [[ʻokina]] in Hawaii among those using a preservative pronunciation of...
, a common characteristic in African languages. However, it does not have labio-velar consonants.
Voiceless stops have particular limitations and are only used in three environments: word initial, such as tàcwɔ̀ (“fiancée”) medially in a stressed syllable, as in nupéé or following a nasal, such as in kàntugo (“behind”). Also, almost every /ɡ/-initial word is a borrowed word from either French or Bambara.
Although both voiceless and voiced fricatives are found, voiceless fricatives such as /f/ and /s/ are much more common than the voiced fricatives /v/, /z/, and /ʒ/.
There is no labial approximant.
In speech, /w/ does not come after a short stressed syllable.
Although Supyire contains nasal consonants, there is considerable debate over their phonemic status. According to a well-formulated hypothesis, the predecessor of Supyire had no nasal consonants but nasalized vowels did exist. Some linguists thus categorize nasal consonants as simple variants of the approximants that occur before nasal vowels.
Supyire is reported to have the rare uvular flap
Uvular flap
The uvular flap is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages.There is no dedicated symbol for this sound in the IPA. It can be transcribed by adding a 'short' diacritic to the letter for the uvular plosive or trill, or , but normally it is covered by the unmodified letter for the...
as an allophone of /ɡ/ in unstressed syllables. This parallels /d/ surfacing as [ɾ] in the same environment.
Vowels
| Front Front vowel A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also... |
Central Central vowel A central vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a central vowel is that the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel... |
Back Back vowel A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark... |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Close Close vowel A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.This term is prescribed by the... |
i ĩ | u ũ | |
| Close-mid Close-mid vowel A close-mid vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned two-thirds of the way from a close vowel to a mid vowel... |
e | o | |
| Open-mid Open-mid vowel An open-mid vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of an open-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned two-thirds of the way from an open vowel to a mid vowel... |
ɛ ɛ̃ | ɔ ɔ̃ | |
| Open Open vowel An open vowel is defined as a vowel sound in which the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth. Open vowels are sometimes also called low vowels in reference to the low position of the tongue... |
a ã |
Supyire has 12 vowels in total, with seven oral vowels and five nasal vowels. Two oral vowels, /ɛ/ and /ɔ/ are not as well-established as the other five because the difference between /ɛ/ and /a/ is neutralized and, when speaking quickly, it is very difficult to distinguish between /ɑ/, a variant of /ɔ/, and /a/. It does appear that some speakers preferentially choose one pronunciation over the other, although some do use both pronunciations and some use a variant somewhere in the middle.
Vowel harmony
Vowel harmony
Vowel harmony is a type of long-distance assimilatory phonological process involving vowels that occurs in some languages. In languages with vowel harmony, there are constraints on which vowels may be found near each other....
is also important in the Supyire culture. This is done by harmonizing unstressed vowels with the initial stressed vowel if they both belong to the same root or have the same suffix.
Syllables
Supyire has a noticeable syllable structure that includes no closed syllables. In Supyire, syllables are most often either CV or CVV although the pronouns u and uru both begin with a vowel syllable. Supyire words also tend to have only one stressed syllable in every root. Stress is most often placed on the initial syllable of a root although many roots exist with no stress on the first syllable. Affixes and other grammatical sounds, such as those that indicate pronouns, do not have stress.Tone
Supyire is tonal (common in African languages).The language has four basic tones: high, low, strong mid, and weak mid. While the high and low tones are unremarkable, the two mid tones are only differentiated by differences in their behavior when referencing tone rules, and not by their pitch. These unusual mid tones are found in all northern Senufo languages but not in central Senufo languages, which only have three tones.
Most vowels in the Supyire language contain a single tone although vowels may have two, or in extremely rare cases three, tones. Further, nasals that come before stops can only have one tone. Basic noun gender suffixes, imperfective verb suffixes, the causative verb suffix –g followed by a vowel, and the intransitive verb prefix N- are considered toneless.
It was noted that boys who spent their days herding cows communicated with each other strictly through whistled language
Whistled language
Whistled languages use whistling to emulate speech and facilitate communication. A whistled language is a system of whistled communication which allows fluent whistlers to transmit and comprehend a potentially unlimited number of messages over long distances...
, which only elaborated vowel length and pitch. These small pieces of information were enough to have conversations of considerable detail.
Class System
The noun class system of Supyire is similar to that of other languages in the Niger–Congo family. This system includes eight noun classes that are grouped into five noun genders. While there is noun class agreement between pronouns and their head nouns, there is no verb agreement. However, there is agreement between quantifiers (such as determiners and independent adjectives) and the head noun.The gender system of Supyire does differ slightly from the gender systems of other similar languages. Bantu
Bantu languages
The Bantu languages constitute a traditional sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages. There are about 250 Bantu languages by the criterion of mutual intelligibility, though the distinction between language and dialect is often unclear, and Ethnologue counts 535 languages...
, also a subgroup of Niger–Congo languages, places different forms of the same word into varying gender classes. For example, the Swahili
Swahili language
Swahili or Kiswahili is a Bantu language spoken by various ethnic groups that inhabit several large stretches of the Mozambique Channel coastline from northern Kenya to northern Mozambique, including the Comoro Islands. It is also spoken by ethnic minority groups in Somalia...
word for friend is rafiki and it is a class 9 noun. However, the plural form marafiki belongs to noun class 6 (Wikipedia). This confusion over noun class distinction does not occur in any Senufo
Senufo
The Senufo are an ethnolinguistic group composed of diverse subgroups of Gur-speaking people living in an area spanning from southern Mali and the extreme western corner of Burkina Faso to Katiola in Côte d'Ivoire. One group, the Nafana, is found in north-western Ghana...
language, Supyire included.
In Supyire, gender 1 is categorized as the “human” gender. It is interesting to note that instead of classifying loan words by their definition, those who speak Supyire tend to classify loan words by their suffixes and thus most loan words, regardless of meaning, are placed into gender 1. More than half of the dictionary of gender one nouns is loan words. Nouns found in this category range from general human terms such as ceewe (“woman”) and pyà (“child”) to terms that describe relationships such as nafentu (“wife’s father”). Also found in this category are terms that describe people such as ̀ŋaŋa (“twin”) or cevoo (“friend”). Gender 1 also contains class terms and occupational terms such as ciiwe (“leather-worker”), tunntun (“blacksmith”) and sòròlashí (“soldier”). Interestingly enough, supernatural entities are also categorized into the human gender. The word for god, kile, is categorized as a gender 1 noun. This gender also contains some “higher” animals and mass nouns such as dust and sand.
Gender 2 is typically described as the category that contains nouns that are “big things” while gender 3 contains nouns of “small things”. Thus, gender 2 includes, for example, trees and tree parts such as cige (“tree”), logo (“shea tree”), and weŋe (“leaf”). Also included in gender 2 are large, immovable objects such as baga (“house, building”), caanga (“market”) and kacige (“bridge”) and most large animals. Interestingly, gender 2 contains nouns that describe desires such as katege (“hunger”) and byaga (“thirst”). Gender 3 contains small animals such as lùpààn (“mosquito”). Gender 4 is known as the “collectives” category and contains mass nouns and abstract nouns. Some examples of mass nouns are pworo (“adobe”) and kyara (“meat”). Abstracts are used to convey emotional states and include words such as sícyere (“insanity”) and wyere (“cold”). The final category of noun gender 5 contains nouns for liquids. For example, this is the gender of sìnmε (“beer”) and jirimε (“milk”).
In Supyire, gender is marked by suffixes. Basic gender suffixes in Supyire most often have the form –CV, seen in six of the eight classes. Suffixes in this instance are toneless. The first three gender systems include both singular and plural forms while gender 4 and 5 do not. For example, singular gender 1 nouns employ the use of the suffix –wV, singular gender 2 nouns use –gV normally, singular gender 3 nouns employ the use of –lV, gender 4 nouns use the basic suffix –rV, and gender 5 uses –mV as a suffix. Plural gender 1 nouns do not adhere so strictly to the rules and can vary in consonant usage. However, all end in –ii or –íí.
Verb Morphology
Although Niger–Congo languages tend to have complicated verb morphology systems, Supyire does not follow this trend. There are only four types of affixes seen in the Supyire language- verb prefixes, imperfective aspect suffixes, the causative suffix, and the plural or intensive suffix. The language of Supyire also uses verb compounding, although the system is very basic. Supyire is both a prefixing and suffixing language. There are two verb prefixes used in Supyire- an intransitive prefix and a future prefix. The perfect and recent past do not have prefixes. The intransitive prefix is marked only by a toneless nasal. It is interesting to note that the intransitive prefix exists only with verbs that begin with voiceless the prefix depends on the location of the direct object in a sentence (see below, examples C and D). This is exemplified by the following:a. Voiceless stop—prefix appears
Pi màha m-pa náhá.
They HAB IP-come here.
“They come here.”
b. Fricative—no prefix
Pi màha shya aní
c. Mìì ná m̀pà ta.
I PAST sheep get
“I got a sheep.”
d. Mpà mìì ná ń-tá.
sheep I PAST IP-get.
“It was a sheep that I got.”
Alternatively, the future prefix is used with verbs that apply a future time reference. In conjunction with certain verb prefixes, the auxiliaries sí and cáá are also used. It also differs from the first prefix in that it uses a distinct tone and it appears on all verbs, not just those beginning with voiceless stops. Just as with the intransitive prefix, the future prefix uses a nasal attached to a verb that is not preceded by a direct object. As an example:
a.Mìì sí m̀-pà.
I FUT FP-come.
“I will come.”
Adjectives
Supyire does not include many adjectives, since most adjectives can be represented by the use of stative verbs instead. However, a small group of adjectives do exist. Adjectives are created in two ways in Supyire: either by compounding or by using derived adjectives. The following are examples of adjectival roots and root compounding:a. Root: -fu- ("hot")
b. kafee-fu-go (“hot wind”)
Sentence Structure
Although almost all Niger–Congo languages have a sentence structure that follows the subject–verb–object pattern, Supyire and other Senufo languages do not follow in this way. Instead, these languages are verb-final and most often are subject–object–verb. The following examples provide evidence for this sentence structure:a. Kà u ú ŋ́́-káré sà a ci-ré pààn-nì. “He went to chop the trees”
DS G1S NARR IP-go go PROG tree-DEF.G4 chop-IMPV
b. Lùpà-àn sì ǹ-tὲὲn ù nà. “A mosquito sat on him”
A mosquito-G3S NARR IP-sit G1S on
Number System
The number system of the Supyire people is very unique, and quite confusing. Values exist for numbers 1-5, 10, 20, 80, and 400. Strangely, all of these numerals are members of gender 1 except “four hundred”, which is in gender 3. The numbers 6-9 are formed using a combination of basic math and the prefix –baa. The word for “six” is baa-nì, translated to mean “five and one”, although the root of “one” has been shortened. After ten, a distinct prefixPrefix
A prefix is an affix which is placed before the root of a word. Particularly in the study of languages,a prefix is also called a preformative, because it alters the form of the words to which it is affixed.Examples of prefixes:...
is associated with the teens, twenties, thirties, and so on (see Table 4). The word for 80, ŋ`kùù, is formally and etymologically identical to the word for 'chicken'. This identity is inexplicable to speakers; Carlson (1994) supposes it to relate to a historical price of a chicken.
Because of obvious confusion with this number system and close contact with neighboring Bambara people, the Supyire have been slowly disregarding this system. Like other languages in this region, numerals that refer to money (in this instance, the franc
Franc
The franc is the name of several currency units, most notably the Swiss franc, still a major world currency today due to the prominence of Swiss financial institutions and the former currency of France, the French franc until the Euro was adopted in 1999...
) are counted in groups of five.
Sources
- Carlson, R. (1991). Of postpositions and word order in Senufo languages. Approaches to
Grammaticalization, 2, 201-223.
- Carlson, R. (1994). A Grammar of Supyire. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co.
- Comrie, B., Matthews, S., & Polinsky, M. (2003). Chapter 4: Africa and the Middle East. In The Atlas of Languages (pp. 72–89). London: Piers Spence.
- Garber-Kompaore, A. (1987). A Tonal Analysis of Senufo: Sucite dialect . Dissertation Abstracts, 1.
Retrieved December 1, 2008, from University of Illinois Web site:
- Nurse, D., & Heine, B. (2000). African Languages. London: Cambridge University Press.
- Pike, K. (1964). Tone Languages: A Technique . Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
- Trudell, B. (2007, September). Local community perspectives and language education in sub-Saharan African communities. International Journal of Educational Development, 27(5), 552-563.