Nafaanra language
Encyclopedia
Nafaanra is a Senufo
language spoken in northwest Ghana
, along the border with Côte d'Ivoire
, east of Bondouko. It is spoken by approximately 61,000 people. Its speakers call themselves Nafana; others call them Banda or Mfantera. Like other Senufo languages, Nafaanra is a tonal language. It is somewhat of an outlier in the Senufo language group, with the geographically closest relatives, the Southern Senufo Tagwana–Djimini languages, approximately 200 kilometres (124.3 mi) to the west, on the other side of Comoé National Park
.
The basic word order is subject–object–verb, similar to Latin
and Japanese
. Like other Niger–Congo languages
it has a noun class
system where noun
s are classified according to five different genders, which also affects pronoun
s, adjective
s and copula
s. The phonology
features a distinction between the length of vowels and whether they are oral or nasal
(as in French
or Portuguese
). There are also three distinct tones, a feature shared with the other Senufo languages. Nafaanra grammar features both tense
and aspect
which are marked with particles
. Numbers are mainly formed by adding cardinal numbers to the number 5 and by multiplying the numbers 10, 20 and 100.
to the west, while Deg
(a Gur language
) and Gonja
(Kwa
) are found to the north and east. The closest eastern neighbour is the Mande language
Ligbi
, whose speakers are also called Banda) which, like Nafaanra, is an outlier to its own family. Southeast and south of Nafaanra and Ligbi, the Akan language
Abron
(also Bron or Brong) is spoken.
The Nafana people
live in the north-west corner of the Brong-Ahafo region of Ghana, concentrated mainly in Sampa
(capital of the Jaman North district) and Banda. There are two dialectal variants of Nafaanra: Pantera of Banda, and Fantera of Sampa. Bendor-Samuel gives a 79% cognate
relationship on the Swadesh list
between the two dialects, meaning that they have many basic words in common. The Banda dialect is considered central. The terms "Fantera" and "Pantera" come from other peoples and are considered pejorative by the Nafana.
The Nafana people relate that they come from Côte d'Ivoire
, from a village called Kakala. Their oral history says that some of their people are still there, and if they go back they will not be allowed to leave again. They arrived in the Banda area after the Ligbi people, who came from Begho (Bigu, Bighu) to the area in the early 17th century.
Many Nafana are bilingual in Twi, the regional lingua franca
, to some extent. According to SIL
, 50% of the people are able to "satisfy routine social demands and limited requirements in other domains", while 20% are able to speak Twi "with sufficient structural accuracy and vocabulary to participate effectively in most formal and informal conversations on practical, social, and occupational topics". The remaining 30% are either able to maintain only very simple face-to-face conversations on familiar topics (15%) or unable to speak Twi at all (15%). 15–25% of the Nafana people are literate in Twi, whereas only 1–5% are literate in Nafaanra.
Nafaanra is the second language of the approximately 70 Dompo people living in the close vicinity of Banda. Dompo is their first language, thought to be extinct until a field work trip of Blench in 1998 proved the contrary.
was the first linguist to mention Nafaanra, calling it "a much dispersed Senufo tribe" in 1904. Westermann
in his classification of West-African languages, also grouped Nafaanra with Senufo, apparently based on the word list found in Rapp. This classification is confirmed by Bendor-Samuel, who bases his internal Senufo classification on the comparative word lists in Swadesh et al.
It is less clear which particular Senufo branch Nafaanra is related to most closely. Bendor-Samuel gives a 60% cognate relationship on the Swadesh list
with "Tenere" (a western Senari dialect), 59% with "Central Senari" (the Senari dialect spoken around Korhogo), and 43% with the non-Senufo languages Mo (or Deg), Kabre (or Kabiye), and Dogon
. The relatively low scores of about 60% point to a rather distant relationship. Likewise, Mensah and Tchagbale establish an intercomprensibility factor of 38% with "Tyebaara" (Senari), concluding that Nafaanra is only distantly related to this dialect. Nafaanra has been tentatively linked to Palaka
(Kpalaga) by Manessy, whereas Mills suggests a relation with the southern Tagwana–Djimini branch.
s. A difference in vowel length can make a difference in meaning, as in sɛ, "to go", vs. sɛɛ, "fetish" or o, "we" vs. oo, "we will". Similarly, the phonemic contrastiveness of nasalization can be seen in sii, "to be giving birth," vs. sĩĩ, "to build". The vowel system closely resembles that of other Senufo languages. It is like the two Northern Senufo languages Supyire
and Mamara in having only five nasal against seven oral vowels. In the orthography, nasalization
of vowels is marked by adding the letter "n" after the vowel.
symbols are included between brackets if they differ from the IPA
symbols. Note especially the use of "j" for IPA [ɟ] and the use of "y" for IPA [j], common in African orthographies.
The consonant system of Nafaanra is fairly similar to that of other Senufo languages. Nafaanra has only one attested palatal fricative, /ç/, occupying an intermediate position between the Northern Senufo languages (Mamara, Supyire) that have both /ç/ and its voiced counterpart /ʝ/, and the Central and Southern Senufo languages (e.g. Karaboro, Senari, Djimini) that have no palatal fricatives at all.
The Mid tone sometimes has a rising feature, the High tone sometimes is subject to downstep (a tonal process resulting in a High tone being realised lower than a preceding High tone), and an upstep is also found. The "rising feature" of Mid may be related to the fact that two different Mid tones are found in some other Senufo languages (e.g. Sucite and Supyire). The High tone downstep (signified by a raised exclamation mark) occurs in the following context:
It is likely that the tonal lowering seen in this particular example is related to the low tone nasal prefix found in future tense constructions in some other Senufo languages. In fact, Supyire shows a similar phenomenon in future tense constructions with a direct object (in other future tense constructions, a low tone nasal is found).
In general however, downstep is more widespread than in Supyire; a similar phenomenon is found in Palaka, Tagwana, and Djimini.
An upstep is found in the imperative tense of high tone verbs:
may occur as a syllable on its own, in which case it is called a syllabic nasal. The basic syllable structure can be rendered as (C1)(C2)V(C3), with a preference for CV and CVV. Position C1 may contain any consonant, although word-initial /r/ does not occur. Position C2 may contain only trills
(/r/) or approximants (/w, l, j/). Position C3 may contain only nasals (/m n ɲ ŋ/), in which case the syllable as a whole is nasalized
.
Senufo languages have a typical Niger–Congo
noun class
(or gender) system. Suffix
es on nouns mark membership of one of the five noun genders. Pronouns, adjectives and copulas reflect the noun gender of the nominal they refer to. Although none of the sources on Nafaanra provides any details, it can be inferred from a brief word list given by Jordan that the Nafaanra noun class system resembles that of other Senufo languages.
The basic word order in Nafaanra is subject–object–verb, as can be seen in the following sentence: (boys PAST them see) "The boys saw them"
s, commenting, "Although the pronoun system appears quite simple, it becomes complicated because all the tenses are shown by a combination of pronoun plus particle."
and aspect
in Nafaanra are generally encoded in two places: in preverbal particles and on the verb form. Nafaanra has past, recent past, and future tenses and continuative aspect. In a simple sentence, the order of the various constituents can be rendered as follows: SUBJECT • (NEGATION) • (TENSE) • (ASPECT) • VERB . When the negative suffix -n is present, no fusing of preverbal particles takes place. Nafaanra additionally expresses some tense/aspect matters by use of certain time adverbs and auxiliary verbs.
Past tense is marked by the preverbal particle ná (high tone, as opposed to the low tone continuative particle). Future tense is marked by the particle wè. Simple sentences without a preverbal tense particle are interpreted as recent past (sometimes called immediate). If aspect marking is absent, simple sentences are generally interpreted as completive. (Kofi PAST go-completive) "Kofi went" — PAST (Kofi FUTURE go-completive) "Kofi will go" — FUTURE (Kofi go-completive) "Kofi just went" — RECENT PAST (no marking)
Continuative aspect (sometimes called progressive) denotes an action that is ongoing or repetitive. Continuative aspect is usually marked both by a preverbal particle nà (low tone) and by a change of the verb form. The verb , "go" used in the sentences below has the continuative form síé. In sentences where both past tense particle ná and continuative particle nà are present, they combine to give the fused particle náà. In sentences in the recent past tense, the preverbal continuative particle is omitted and continuative aspect is shown only on the verb.
Two classes of verbs can be differentiated on the basis of their behaviour in aspectually marked sentences. One class of verbs has two aspectually distinct forms, as seen in the above example sentences. Another class of verbs does not distinguish aspect — one and the same form shows up in both completive and continuative aspect. In sentences in the recent past tense, this gives rise to ambiguity
since the preverbal continuative particle is omitted there. Thus, the sentence kòfí blú can be interpreted in the following two ways: (Kofi swim-CONT) "Kofi is swimming" — CONT + RECENT PAST
Considerable fusion takes place between pronominal
subjects and the preverbal particles. For example, ná "PAST" fuses with pé, "they", to produce (they-PAST go-completive), "they went", and wè "FUTURE" fuses with pé in (they-FUTURE go-completive), "they will go".
s can be formed in several ways in Nafaanra. Basic yes/no questions
are constructed by adding a sentence-final question marker rá. Constituent questions (sometimes called Wh-questions or question word questions) are doubly marked. They contain a sentence-initial question word and are marked with a sentence-final question marker hin.
The numbers 11–19 are formed by adding 1–9 to 10 by means of the conjunction , e.g. , "eleven", , "fifteen". In the tens and higher, the Nafaanra and Supyire systems diverge. Multiplication of fulo, "twenty," and addition of , "ten", (by means of the conjunction ná) is used to form the 30–90 tens. Perhaps surprisingly, there are considerable differences between Rapp (1933) and Jordan (1980) here. In Rapp's 60, 70 and 80, féle seems to be used to mark ten, which conjoined with 6, 7 and 8 forms 60, 70 and 80.
Rapp (1933) compares the Nafaanra numerals for three () and hundred (lafaa) with eta and ke-lafa from Mpre
, a hitherto unclassified language from Ghana. It should be noted however that Mpre eta is Kwa
-like (cf. Brong esã, Ga
), whereas the Nafaanra form is transparently related to the forms found in the other (non-Kwa) Senufo languages (e.g. Supyire tàànrè).
Nafaanra lafaa "hundred" is a typical Kwa numeral and is most probably borrowed from one of the surrounding Kwa languages (cf. Dangme
làfá, Gonja
kì-làfá, Ewe
alafá). Rapp's implication of affinity between Mpre and Nafaanra seems therefore unwarranted at this level.
Morphophonological
alternations occur here and there, most notably the reduction of , "five" to (preserving the tone pattern) and the change from lafaa to in the hundreds.
The cognate
forms in closely related Supyire are , "red; warm colored", and -fyìn-, "white; light colored", in Supyire
. These adjectives are related to the respective verbs , "be white; whiten" and , "be red; redden", which in turn are causative
forms of the now defunct verbs fini ,"be white" and , "be red".
:
After a period of silence on Nafaanra, Painter (1966) appeared, consisting of basic word lists of the Pantera and Fantera dialects. The SIL linguist Dean Jordan published an article on Nafaanra discourse in 1978, and together with his wife Carol Jordan has produced a translation of the New Testament
, which appeared in 1984. Kropp-Dakubu's 1980 West African language data sheets vol II contains a few pages on Nafaanra put together in the late seventies by Dean and Carol Jordan, including a phonology, a list of nouns, a list of pronouns, a list of numbers, and some example sentences; tones are not marked. A more detailed phonology of Nafaanra by Jordan, also containing a Swadesh list
, appeared in 1980. Several books of Nafana folk tales have been published by the Summer Institute of Linguistics. Mensah and Tchagbale in their 1983 linguistic atlas of Côte d'Ivoire include a comparative Senufo word list of about 120 items; Nafaanra is present under the name "Nafara of Bondoukou". An orthography of Nafaanra, lacking tonal marking, is included in Hartell (1993). The area where Nafaanra is spoken has been the subject of recent archaeological-anthropological studies (Stahl 2004).
Senufo languages
The Senufo or Senufic languages comprise ca. 15 languages spoken by the Senufo in the north of Côte d'Ivoire, the south of Mali and the southwest of Burkina Faso. An isolated language, Nafaanra, is also spoken in the west of Ghana. The Senufo languages are generally considered a branch of the Gur...
language spoken in northwest 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...
, along the border with Côte d'Ivoire
Côte d'Ivoire
The Republic of Côte d'Ivoire or Ivory Coast is a country in West Africa. It has an area of , and borders the countries Liberia, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana; its southern boundary is along the Gulf of Guinea. The country's population was 15,366,672 in 1998 and was estimated to be...
, east of Bondouko. It is spoken by approximately 61,000 people. Its speakers call themselves Nafana; others call them Banda or Mfantera. Like other Senufo languages, Nafaanra is a tonal language. It is somewhat of an outlier in the Senufo language group, with the geographically closest relatives, the Southern Senufo Tagwana–Djimini languages, approximately 200 kilometres (124.3 mi) to the west, on the other side of Comoé National Park
Comoé National Park
Comoé National Park is a national park in north eastern Côte d'Ivoire as well as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since its inscription in 1983. It is in the Ivoirian Zanzan Region between the towns of Kong to the west of both the park and the Comoé River, and Bouna to the east of the park, and just...
.
The basic word order is subject–object–verb, similar to Latin
Latin grammar
The grammar of Latin, like that of other ancient Indo-European languages, is highly inflected; consequently, it allows for a large degree of flexibility in choosing word order...
and Japanese
Japanese grammar
The Japanese language has a regular agglutinative verb morphology, with both productive and fixed elements. In language typology, it has many features divergent from most European languages. Its phrases are exclusively head-final and compound sentences are exclusively left-branching. There are many...
. Like other Niger–Congo languages
Niger–Congo languages
The Niger–Congo languages constitute one of the world's major language families, and Africa's largest in terms of geographical area, number of speakers, and number of distinct languages. They may constitute the world's largest language family in terms of distinct languages, although this question...
it has a noun class
Noun class
In linguistics, the term noun class refers to a system of categorizing nouns. A noun may belong to a given class because of characteristic features of its referent, such as sex, animacy, shape, but counting a given noun among nouns of such or another class is often clearly conventional...
system where noun
Noun
In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...
s are classified according to five different genders, which also affects pronoun
Pronoun
In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun , such as, in English, the words it and he...
s, adjective
Adjective
In grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified....
s and copula
Copula
In linguistics, a copula is a word used to link the subject of a sentence with a predicate . The word copula derives from the Latin noun for a link or tie that connects two different things.A copula is often a verb or a verb-like word, though this is not universally the case...
s. The phonology
Phonology
Phonology is, broadly speaking, the subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the sounds of language. That is, it is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use...
features a distinction between the length of vowels and whether they are oral or nasal
Nasal vowel
A nasal vowel is a vowel that is produced with a lowering of the velum so that air escapes both through nose as well as the mouth. By contrast, oral vowels are ordinary vowels without this nasalisation...
(as in French
French phonology
This article mainly discusses the phonological system of standard French based on the Parisian dialect. French is notable for its uvular r, nasal vowels, and three processes affecting word-final sounds: liaison, a certain type of sandhi, wherein word-final consonants are not pronounced unless...
or Portuguese
Portuguese phonology
The phonology of Portuguese can vary considerably between dialects, in extreme cases leading to difficulties in intelligibility. This article focuses on the pronunciations that are generally regarded as standard...
). There are also three distinct tones, a feature shared with the other Senufo languages. Nafaanra grammar features both tense
Grammatical tense
A tense is a grammatical category that locates a situation in time, to indicate when the situation takes place.Bernard Comrie, Aspect, 1976:6:...
and aspect
Grammatical aspect
In linguistics, the grammatical aspect of a verb is a grammatical category that defines the temporal flow in a given action, event, or state, from the point of view of the speaker...
which are marked with particles
Grammatical particle
In grammar, a particle is a function word that does not belong to any of the inflected grammatical word classes . It is a catch-all term for a heterogeneous set of words and terms that lack a precise lexical definition...
. Numbers are mainly formed by adding cardinal numbers to the number 5 and by multiplying the numbers 10, 20 and 100.
Geography and demography
Nafaanra is bordered by Kulango languagesKulango languages
The Kulango or Kulango–Lorhon languages are spoken principally in Ivory Coast. They were once classified as part of an expanded Gur family, and are part of the Savannas proposal.The languages distinguished by Ethnologue are...
to the west, while Deg
DEG
DEG or deg is an acronym or initialism that can mean:* Diethylene glycol, an organic compound* Degree **Degree , a measurement of plane angle**Degree , used in several scales of temperature...
(a Gur language
Gur languages
The Gur languages, also known as Central Gur, belong to the Niger–Congo languages. There are about 70 languages belonging to this group. They are spoken in Burkina Faso, southern Mali, northeastern Côte d'Ivoire, northern Ghana, northern Togo, northwestern Benin, and southwestern Niger.Like most...
) and Gonja
Gonja language
The Gonja language is a Kwa language spoken by an estimated 230,000 people, almost all of whom are of the Gonja ethnic group of northern Ghana. Related to Guang languages in the south of Ghana, it is spoken by about a third of the population in the northern region...
(Kwa
Kwa languages
The Kwa languages, often specified as New Kwa, are a proposed but as-yet-undemonstrated family of languages spoken in the south-eastern part of Côte d'Ivoire, across southern Ghana, and in central Togo...
) are found to the north and east. The closest eastern neighbour is the Mande language
Mande languages
The Mande languages are spoken in several countries in West Africa by the Mandé people and include Mandinka, Soninke, Bambara, Bissa, Dioula, Kagoro, Bozo, Mende, Susu, Yacouba, Vai, and Ligbi...
Ligbi
Ligbi language
Ligbi is a Mande language spoken in Ghana in the north-west corner of the Brong-Ahafo region. Ligbi is spoken by approximately 10 000 speakers . It is fairly closely related to Jula, Vai and Kono. A small population of Ligbi speakers is reported to live in Côte d'Ivoire . Ligbi is also known as...
, whose speakers are also called Banda) which, like Nafaanra, is an outlier to its own family. Southeast and south of Nafaanra and Ligbi, the Akan language
Akan language
Akan, also known as Twi and Fante, is an Akan language that is the principal native language of Ghana, spoken over much of the southern half of that country, by about 52% of the population, and to a lesser extent across the border in eastern Côte d'Ivoire...
Abron
Abron language
Abron or Bono is the language of the Abron people and a major dialect of the Akan language of southern Ghana. It is spoken by 1,050,000 in southwestern Ghana , as well as 131,700 in eastern Côte d'Ivoire in the departments of Tanda and Bondoukou. Alternative or former names include Brong, Bron,...
(also Bron or Brong) is spoken.
The Nafana people
Nafana people
The Nafana are a Senufo people living in the north-west of Ghana and the north-east of Côte d'Ivoire, in the area east of Bonduku. They number about 45, 000 and they speak Nafaanra, a Senufo language....
live in the north-west corner of the Brong-Ahafo region of Ghana, concentrated mainly in Sampa
Sampa, Ghana
Sampa is a town in the Brong-Ahafo region of Ghana, on the border with Côte d'Ivoire. It is the capital of Jaman North District, and was formerly the site of a slave market. It is the biggest border town in Ghana with a population of over 26,000. It is the principal town of the Nafana ethnic group....
(capital of the Jaman North district) and Banda. There are two dialectal variants of Nafaanra: Pantera of Banda, and Fantera of Sampa. Bendor-Samuel gives a 79% cognate
Cognate
In linguistics, cognates are words that have a common etymological origin. This learned term derives from the Latin cognatus . Cognates within the same language are called doublets. Strictly speaking, loanwords from another language are usually not meant by the term, e.g...
relationship on the Swadesh list
Swadesh list
A Swadesh list is one of several lists of vocabulary with basic meanings, developed by Morris Swadesh from 1940 onward, with the final, posthumously published version 1971 [1972], which is used in lexicostatistics and glottochronology .- Versions and authors :There are several versions of Swadesh...
between the two dialects, meaning that they have many basic words in common. The Banda dialect is considered central. The terms "Fantera" and "Pantera" come from other peoples and are considered pejorative by the Nafana.
The Nafana people relate that they come from Côte d'Ivoire
Côte d'Ivoire
The Republic of Côte d'Ivoire or Ivory Coast is a country in West Africa. It has an area of , and borders the countries Liberia, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana; its southern boundary is along the Gulf of Guinea. The country's population was 15,366,672 in 1998 and was estimated to be...
, from a village called Kakala. Their oral history says that some of their people are still there, and if they go back they will not be allowed to leave again. They arrived in the Banda area after the Ligbi people, who came from Begho (Bigu, Bighu) to the area in the early 17th century.
Many Nafana are bilingual in Twi, the regional lingua franca
Lingua franca
A lingua franca is a language systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both mother tongues.-Characteristics:"Lingua franca" is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic...
, to some extent. According to SIL
SIL International
SIL International is a U.S.-based, worldwide, Christian non-profit organization, whose main purpose is to study, develop and document languages, especially those that are lesser-known, in order to expand linguistic knowledge, promote literacy, translate the Christian Bible into local languages,...
, 50% of the people are able to "satisfy routine social demands and limited requirements in other domains", while 20% are able to speak Twi "with sufficient structural accuracy and vocabulary to participate effectively in most formal and informal conversations on practical, social, and occupational topics". The remaining 30% are either able to maintain only very simple face-to-face conversations on familiar topics (15%) or unable to speak Twi at all (15%). 15–25% of the Nafana people are literate in Twi, whereas only 1–5% are literate in Nafaanra.
Nafaanra is the second language of the approximately 70 Dompo people living in the close vicinity of Banda. Dompo is their first language, thought to be extinct until a field work trip of Blench in 1998 proved the contrary.
Classification
Maurice DelafosseMaurice Delafosse
Maurice Delafosse was a French ethnographer and colonial official who also worked in the field of the languages of Africa...
was the first linguist to mention Nafaanra, calling it "a much dispersed Senufo tribe" in 1904. Westermann
Diedrich Hermann Westermann
Diedrich Hermann Westermann was a German missionary, Africanist, and linguist. He substantially extended and revised the work of Carl Meinhof, his teacher, although he rejected some of Meinhof's theories only implicitly...
in his classification of West-African languages, also grouped Nafaanra with Senufo, apparently based on the word list found in Rapp. This classification is confirmed by Bendor-Samuel, who bases his internal Senufo classification on the comparative word lists in Swadesh et al.
It is less clear which particular Senufo branch Nafaanra is related to most closely. Bendor-Samuel gives a 60% cognate relationship on the Swadesh list
Swadesh list
A Swadesh list is one of several lists of vocabulary with basic meanings, developed by Morris Swadesh from 1940 onward, with the final, posthumously published version 1971 [1972], which is used in lexicostatistics and glottochronology .- Versions and authors :There are several versions of Swadesh...
with "Tenere" (a western Senari dialect), 59% with "Central Senari" (the Senari dialect spoken around Korhogo), and 43% with the non-Senufo languages Mo (or Deg), Kabre (or Kabiye), and Dogon
Dogon languages
The Dogon languages are spoken by the Dogon of Mali. There are about 600,000 speakers of a dozen languages. They are tonal languages, most like Dogul having two tones, some like Donno So having three....
. The relatively low scores of about 60% point to a rather distant relationship. Likewise, Mensah and Tchagbale establish an intercomprensibility factor of 38% with "Tyebaara" (Senari), concluding that Nafaanra is only distantly related to this dialect. Nafaanra has been tentatively linked to Palaka
Palaka language
Palaka is a central Senufo language spoken by approximately 8 000 people in northern Côte d'Ivoire. It is bordered to the south by Djimini, a southern Senufo language, and to the west by Nyarafolo, another Senufo language...
(Kpalaga) by Manessy, whereas Mills suggests a relation with the southern Tagwana–Djimini branch.
Vowels
Nafaanra has seven oral and five nasalized vowelVowel
In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...
s. A difference in vowel length can make a difference in meaning, as in sɛ, "to go", vs. sɛɛ, "fetish" or o, "we" vs. oo, "we will". Similarly, the phonemic contrastiveness of nasalization can be seen in sii, "to be giving birth," vs. sĩĩ, "to build". The vowel system closely resembles that of other Senufo languages. It is like the two Northern Senufo languages Supyire
Supyire language
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...
and Mamara in having only five nasal against seven oral vowels. In the orthography, nasalization
Nasalization
In phonetics, nasalization is the production of a sound while the velum is lowered, so that some air escapes through the nose during the production of the sound by the mouth...
of vowels is marked by adding the letter "n" after the vowel.
| 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 |
Consonants
In the table below, orthographicOrthography
The orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example Kurdish, Uyghur, Serbian or Inuktitut, there can be more than one orthography...
symbols are included between brackets if they differ from the IPA
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...
symbols. Note especially the use of "j" for IPA [ɟ] and the use of "y" for IPA [j], common in African orthographies.
| | bilabial Bilabial consonant In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:... | labio- dental Labiodental consonant In phonetics, labiodentals are consonants articulated with the lower lip and the upper teeth.-Labiodental consonant in IPA:The labiodental consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:... | | 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).... | | labio- velar | | 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... |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| stop Stop consonant In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or an oral stop, is a stop consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be done with the tongue , lips , and &... |
p b | t d | c (ch) ɟ (j) | k ɡ | kp ɡb | ||
| fricative Fricative consonant Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or... |
f v | s z | ç (sh) | h | |||
| nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :... |
m | n | ɲ (ny) | ŋ | ŋm | ||
| trill Trill consonant In phonetics, a trill is a consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the articulator and the place of articulation. Standard Spanish <rr> as in perro is an alveolar trill, while in Parisian French it is almost always uvular.... |
r | ||||||
| approximant Approximant consonant Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough or with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a turbulent airstream, and vowels, which produce no... |
w | l | j (y) |
The consonant system of Nafaanra is fairly similar to that of other Senufo languages. Nafaanra has only one attested palatal fricative, /ç/, occupying an intermediate position between the Northern Senufo languages (Mamara, Supyire) that have both /ç/ and its voiced counterpart /ʝ/, and the Central and Southern Senufo languages (e.g. Karaboro, Senari, Djimini) that have no palatal fricatives at all.
Tone
Like the other Senufo languages, Nafaanra has three contrastive tones: High, Mid and Low. Tone is normally not marked in the Nafaanra orthography. Examples are: "yam" (High-Low)- dama "two pesewas (coin)" (Mid) "rope" (Low)
The Mid tone sometimes has a rising feature, the High tone sometimes is subject to downstep (a tonal process resulting in a High tone being realised lower than a preceding High tone), and an upstep is also found. The "rising feature" of Mid may be related to the fact that two different Mid tones are found in some other Senufo languages (e.g. Sucite and Supyire). The High tone downstep (signified by a raised exclamation mark) occurs in the following context:
- we ! (he FUT go) "he will go".
It is likely that the tonal lowering seen in this particular example is related to the low tone nasal prefix found in future tense constructions in some other Senufo languages. In fact, Supyire shows a similar phenomenon in future tense constructions with a direct object (in other future tense constructions, a low tone nasal is found).
In general however, downstep is more widespread than in Supyire; a similar phenomenon is found in Palaka, Tagwana, and Djimini.
An upstep is found in the imperative tense of high tone verbs:
- ki (it close) "close it!"
Grammar
The Nafaanra syllable comprises a vowel and a maximum of three consonants. A nasal consonantNasal consonant
A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :...
may occur as a syllable on its own, in which case it is called a syllabic nasal. The basic syllable structure can be rendered as (C1)(C2)V(C3), with a preference for CV and CVV. Position C1 may contain any consonant, although word-initial /r/ does not occur. Position C2 may contain only trills
Trill consonant
In phonetics, a trill is a consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the articulator and the place of articulation. Standard Spanish <rr> as in perro is an alveolar trill, while in Parisian French it is almost always uvular....
(/r/) or approximants (/w, l, j/). Position C3 may contain only nasals (/m n ɲ ŋ/), in which case the syllable as a whole is nasalized
Nasalization
In phonetics, nasalization is the production of a sound while the velum is lowered, so that some air escapes through the nose during the production of the sound by the mouth...
.
Senufo languages have a typical Niger–Congo
Niger–Congo languages
The Niger–Congo languages constitute one of the world's major language families, and Africa's largest in terms of geographical area, number of speakers, and number of distinct languages. They may constitute the world's largest language family in terms of distinct languages, although this question...
noun class
Noun class
In linguistics, the term noun class refers to a system of categorizing nouns. A noun may belong to a given class because of characteristic features of its referent, such as sex, animacy, shape, but counting a given noun among nouns of such or another class is often clearly conventional...
(or gender) system. Suffix
Suffix
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns or adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs...
es on nouns mark membership of one of the five noun genders. Pronouns, adjectives and copulas reflect the noun gender of the nominal they refer to. Although none of the sources on Nafaanra provides any details, it can be inferred from a brief word list given by Jordan that the Nafaanra noun class system resembles that of other Senufo languages.
The basic word order in Nafaanra is subject–object–verb, as can be seen in the following sentence: (boys PAST them see) "The boys saw them"
Personal pronouns
Jordan lists the following list of pronounPronoun
In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun , such as, in English, the words it and he...
s, commenting, "Although the pronoun system appears quite simple, it becomes complicated because all the tenses are shown by a combination of pronoun plus particle."
| Jordan 1980a:6 | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st person | ni | o |
| 2nd person | mu | e |
| 3rd person | u | pe |
Tense and aspect
TenseGrammatical tense
A tense is a grammatical category that locates a situation in time, to indicate when the situation takes place.Bernard Comrie, Aspect, 1976:6:...
and aspect
Grammatical aspect
In linguistics, the grammatical aspect of a verb is a grammatical category that defines the temporal flow in a given action, event, or state, from the point of view of the speaker...
in Nafaanra are generally encoded in two places: in preverbal particles and on the verb form. Nafaanra has past, recent past, and future tenses and continuative aspect. In a simple sentence, the order of the various constituents can be rendered as follows: SUBJECT • (NEGATION) • (TENSE) • (ASPECT) • VERB . When the negative suffix -n is present, no fusing of preverbal particles takes place. Nafaanra additionally expresses some tense/aspect matters by use of certain time adverbs and auxiliary verbs.
Past tense is marked by the preverbal particle ná (high tone, as opposed to the low tone continuative particle). Future tense is marked by the particle wè. Simple sentences without a preverbal tense particle are interpreted as recent past (sometimes called immediate). If aspect marking is absent, simple sentences are generally interpreted as completive. (Kofi PAST go-completive) "Kofi went" — PAST (Kofi FUTURE go-completive) "Kofi will go" — FUTURE (Kofi go-completive) "Kofi just went" — RECENT PAST (no marking)
Continuative aspect (sometimes called progressive) denotes an action that is ongoing or repetitive. Continuative aspect is usually marked both by a preverbal particle nà (low tone) and by a change of the verb form. The verb , "go" used in the sentences below has the continuative form síé. In sentences where both past tense particle ná and continuative particle nà are present, they combine to give the fused particle náà. In sentences in the recent past tense, the preverbal continuative particle is omitted and continuative aspect is shown only on the verb.
- kòfí náà síé (Kofi PAST+CONT go-CONT) "Kofi was going" — CONT + PAST
- kòfí wè nà síé (Kofi FUT CONT go-CONT) "Kofi will be going" — CONT + FUTURE
- kòfí síé (Kofi go-CONT) "Kofi is going" — CONT + RECENT PAST
Two classes of verbs can be differentiated on the basis of their behaviour in aspectually marked sentences. One class of verbs has two aspectually distinct forms, as seen in the above example sentences. Another class of verbs does not distinguish aspect — one and the same form shows up in both completive and continuative aspect. In sentences in the recent past tense, this gives rise to ambiguity
Ambiguity
Ambiguity of words or phrases is the ability to express more than one interpretation. It is distinct from vagueness, which is a statement about the lack of precision contained or available in the information.Context may play a role in resolving ambiguity...
since the preverbal continuative particle is omitted there. Thus, the sentence kòfí blú can be interpreted in the following two ways: (Kofi swim-CONT) "Kofi is swimming" — CONT + RECENT PAST
- kòfí blú (Kofi swim-completive) "Kofi just swam" — RECENT PAST (no marking)
Considerable fusion takes place between pronominal
Pronoun
In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun , such as, in English, the words it and he...
subjects and the preverbal particles. For example, ná "PAST" fuses with pé, "they", to produce (they-PAST go-completive), "they went", and wè "FUTURE" fuses with pé in (they-FUTURE go-completive), "they will go".
Questions
QuestionQuestion
A question may be either a linguistic expression used to make a request for information, or else the request itself made by such an expression. This information may be provided with an answer....
s can be formed in several ways in Nafaanra. Basic yes/no questions
Yes-no question
In linguistics, a yes–no question, formally known as a polar question, is a question whose expected answer is either "yes" or "no". Formally, they present an exclusive disjunction, a pair of alternatives of which only one is acceptable. In English, such questions can be formed in both positive...
are constructed by adding a sentence-final question marker rá. Constituent questions (sometimes called Wh-questions or question word questions) are doubly marked. They contain a sentence-initial question word and are marked with a sentence-final question marker hin.
- u pan rá (he come Q) "Has he come?" — basic yes/no-question (what he+PAST see Q) "What did he see?" — constituent question
Numbers
The cardinal numbers without tonal marking are presented below; where possible, the tone pattern is added based on the list in Rapp. Some Supyire correlates are given for comparison. Numbers six to nine are derived by adding the numbers one to four to , "five", by means of the conjunction na.| No. | Nafaanra | Supyire | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | núnu | nìŋkìn | |
| 2 | shíín | shùùnnì | |
| 3 | tàànrè | Mpre Mpre language Mpre Mpra is a language once spoken in the village of Butie in Ghana, near the confluence of the Black and White Voltas, that has been difficult to classify... : eta |
|
| 4 | |||
| 5 | kaŋkuro | ||
| 6 | baa-nì | < 5 + 1 | |
| 7 | baa-shùùnnì | < 5 + 2 | |
| 8 | baa-tàànrè | < 5 + 3 | |
| 9 | < 5 + 4 | ||
| 10 | |||
| 20 | fúlo | benjaaga | |
| 30 | < 20 + 10 | ||
| 40 | fúloe shiin | < 20 x 2 | |
| 50 | < 20 x 2 + 10, Rapp | ||
| 60 | < 20 x 3, however compare Rapp félèko-a-ná-nò | ||
| 70 | < 20 x 3 + 10, Rapp féleko-náshèn | ||
| 80 | < 20 x 4, Rapp | ||
| 90 | < 20 x 4 + 10, Rapp | ||
| 100 | lafaa | Mpre Mpre language Mpre Mpra is a language once spoken in the village of Butie in Ghana, near the confluence of the Black and White Voltas, that has been difficult to classify... : ke-lafa (Rapp 1933) |
|
| 200 | |||
| 400 | |||
| 1000 | kagbenge nunu | Rapp (< 100 x 10) or káboŋge | |
| |2000 | kagbenge shiin |
The numbers 11–19 are formed by adding 1–9 to 10 by means of the conjunction , e.g. , "eleven", , "fifteen". In the tens and higher, the Nafaanra and Supyire systems diverge. Multiplication of fulo, "twenty," and addition of , "ten", (by means of the conjunction ná) is used to form the 30–90 tens. Perhaps surprisingly, there are considerable differences between Rapp (1933) and Jordan (1980) here. In Rapp's 60, 70 and 80, féle seems to be used to mark ten, which conjoined with 6, 7 and 8 forms 60, 70 and 80.
Rapp (1933) compares the Nafaanra numerals for three () and hundred (lafaa) with eta and ke-lafa from Mpre
Mpre language
Mpre Mpra is a language once spoken in the village of Butie in Ghana, near the confluence of the Black and White Voltas, that has been difficult to classify...
, a hitherto unclassified language from Ghana. It should be noted however that Mpre eta is Kwa
Kwa languages
The Kwa languages, often specified as New Kwa, are a proposed but as-yet-undemonstrated family of languages spoken in the south-eastern part of Côte d'Ivoire, across southern Ghana, and in central Togo...
-like (cf. Brong esã, Ga
Ga language
The Ga language is a Kwa language spoken in Ghana, in and around the capital Accra. It has a phonemic distinction between 3 vowel lengths.-Classification:Ga is a Kwa language, part of the Niger–Congo family...
), whereas the Nafaanra form is transparently related to the forms found in the other (non-Kwa) Senufo languages (e.g. Supyire tàànrè).
Nafaanra lafaa "hundred" is a typical Kwa numeral and is most probably borrowed from one of the surrounding Kwa languages (cf. Dangme
Ga language
The Ga language is a Kwa language spoken in Ghana, in and around the capital Accra. It has a phonemic distinction between 3 vowel lengths.-Classification:Ga is a Kwa language, part of the Niger–Congo family...
làfá, Gonja
Gonja language
The Gonja language is a Kwa language spoken by an estimated 230,000 people, almost all of whom are of the Gonja ethnic group of northern Ghana. Related to Guang languages in the south of Ghana, it is spoken by about a third of the population in the northern region...
kì-làfá, Ewe
Ewe language
Ewe is a Niger–Congo language spoken in Ghana, Togo and Benin by approximately six million people. Ewe is part of a cluster of related languages commonly called Gbe, spoken in southeastern Ghana, Togo, and parts of Benin. Other Gbe languages include Fon, Gen, Phla Phera, and Aja...
alafá). Rapp's implication of affinity between Mpre and Nafaanra seems therefore unwarranted at this level.
Morphophonological
Morphophonology
Morphophonology is a branch of linguistics which studies, in general, the interaction between morphological and phonetic processes. When a morpheme is attached to a word, it can alter the phonetic environments of other morphemes in that word. Morphophonemics attempts to describe this process...
alternations occur here and there, most notably the reduction of , "five" to (preserving the tone pattern) and the change from lafaa to in the hundreds.
Colour words
The three basic colour words of Nafaanra are: , "black", finge, "white", and , "red". As with adjectives in Senufo languages, the form of the colour words reflects the noun class of the noun that is modified.- — "it is black"
- finge — ki fninge "it is white"
- — "it is red"
The cognate
Cognate
In linguistics, cognates are words that have a common etymological origin. This learned term derives from the Latin cognatus . Cognates within the same language are called doublets. Strictly speaking, loanwords from another language are usually not meant by the term, e.g...
forms in closely related Supyire are , "red; warm colored", and -fyìn-, "white; light colored", in Supyire
Supyire language
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...
. These adjectives are related to the respective verbs , "be white; whiten" and , "be red; redden", which in turn are causative
Causative
In linguistics, a causative is a form that indicates that a subject causes someone or something else to do or be something, or causes a change in state of a non-volitional event....
forms of the now defunct verbs fini ,"be white" and , "be red".
Sample sentences
Sample Nafaanra sentences from the SILSIL International
SIL International is a U.S.-based, worldwide, Christian non-profit organization, whose main purpose is to study, develop and document languages, especially those that are lesser-known, in order to expand linguistic knowledge, promote literacy, translate the Christian Bible into local languages,...
:
- story some I want and-FUTURE beat and-FUTURE your ear put and-FUTURE it hear
- "I want to tell a story for you to hear."
- true that hyena hide-completive
- "It's true that the hyena hid himself."
- it day some frog not-there
- "On a certain day the frog wasn't here."
- he not-CONT them kill-CONT
- "He wasn't killing them."
- if fish you-PAST-CONT chew-CONT you-not past say-completive that
- "If you had been eating fish you would not have said that."
Research
There is relatively little published on or in the Nafaanra language. The first linguistic publication to mention Nafaanra is Delafosse (1904), containing some notes on the Nafana people and a fairly extensive comparative Senufo word list, though it lacked any proper tonal marking. Rapp (1933) is an appendix to an article on Kulango containing a German-Nafaanra (Nafana-Sprache) word list of around 100 items, gathered during a stay of four hours at Sampa. Rapp notes in passing that special attention was paid to the marking of the tones.After a period of silence on Nafaanra, Painter (1966) appeared, consisting of basic word lists of the Pantera and Fantera dialects. The SIL linguist Dean Jordan published an article on Nafaanra discourse in 1978, and together with his wife Carol Jordan has produced a translation of the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
, which appeared in 1984. Kropp-Dakubu's 1980 West African language data sheets vol II contains a few pages on Nafaanra put together in the late seventies by Dean and Carol Jordan, including a phonology, a list of nouns, a list of pronouns, a list of numbers, and some example sentences; tones are not marked. A more detailed phonology of Nafaanra by Jordan, also containing a Swadesh list
Swadesh list
A Swadesh list is one of several lists of vocabulary with basic meanings, developed by Morris Swadesh from 1940 onward, with the final, posthumously published version 1971 [1972], which is used in lexicostatistics and glottochronology .- Versions and authors :There are several versions of Swadesh...
, appeared in 1980. Several books of Nafana folk tales have been published by the Summer Institute of Linguistics. Mensah and Tchagbale in their 1983 linguistic atlas of Côte d'Ivoire include a comparative Senufo word list of about 120 items; Nafaanra is present under the name "Nafara of Bondoukou". An orthography of Nafaanra, lacking tonal marking, is included in Hartell (1993). The area where Nafaanra is spoken has been the subject of recent archaeological-anthropological studies (Stahl 2004).
Further reading
- (a bridge material to English) Nafaanra. Ghana Institute of Linguistics, Literacy and Bible Translation (1994)
- Nafaanra dictionary (PDF), by Dean Jordan of SILSIL InternationalSIL International is a U.S.-based, worldwide, Christian non-profit organization, whose main purpose is to study, develop and document languages, especially those that are lesser-known, in order to expand linguistic knowledge, promote literacy, translate the Christian Bible into local languages,...
.