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The Senufo languages comprise ca. 15 lects (depending on the method of counting) spoken in the north of Côte d'Ivoire, the southeast of Mali and the southwest of Burkina Faso. An isolated lect, Nafaanra, is also spoken in the northwest of Ghana. The Senufo languages belong to the Gur sub-family of Niger-Congo languages. Garber (1987) estimates the total number of speakers of Senufo languages at some 1.5 million.
The Senufo languages are bounded to the west by Mande languages, to the south by Kwa languages, and to the north and east by other Gur languages.
The Senufo languages are typical Gur languages in that they have a noun class system and that verbs are marked for aspect. Most Gur languages to the north of Senufo have a two tone downstep system, but the tonal system of the Senufo languages is mostly analysed as a three level tone system (High, Mid, Low).
The Senufo languages have been influenced by the neighbouring Mande languages in numerous ways. Many words have been borrowed from the Mande languages Bambara and Jula. Carlson (1994:2) notes that it is probable that several grammatical constructions are calques on the corresponding Bambara constructions. Like Mande languages, the Senufo languages have a Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) constituent order, rather than the SVO order which is more common in Gur.
Subclassification
Early Senufo classifications (e.g. Bendor-Samuel 1971) were mainly geographically motivated, dividing the Senufo languages into Northern, Central, and Southern Senufo. In subsequent years, this terminology was adopted by several linguists working on Senufo languages (Garber 1987; Carlson 1983, 1994). Mensah (1983) and Mills (1984) avoided this geographical terms but used mainly the same grouping, according to Garber 1987. SIL in its Ethnologue subdivides the Senufo languages in six groups. Combining the two classifications results in the grouping below.
Map of the Senufo language area showing the major groups and some neighbouring languages. Northern Senufo
Central Senufo
- Karaboro languages
- Eastern Karaboro (Kar)
- Western Karaboro (Syer-Tenyer)
- Senari languages
- Cebaara
- Senara (Senari, Syenere, Tiebaara)
- Nyarafolo
- Syenara (Syenara, Shenara)
- Kpalaga (Palaka)
Southern Senufo
- Tagwana-Djimini languages
- Djimini (Dyimini)
- Tagwana (Tagouna)
- Nafaanra (Nafaara)
References
- Bendor-Samuel, John (1971) 'Niger-Congo: Gur' in: Thomas Sebeok & Jack Berry (eds.), Linguistics in sub-saharan Africa (Current trends in linguistics 7), The Hauge/Paris: Mouton, 141-178.
- Carlson, Robert (1994) A Grammar of Suppyire. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
- Garber, Anne (1980) 'Word order change and the Senufo languages.' In Studies in the Linguistic Sciences, 10, 1, 45-57.
- Garber, Anne (1987) A Tonal Analysis of Senufo: Sucite dialect (Gur; Burkina Faso). PhD dissertation, Urbana: University of Illinois / Ann Arbor: UMI.
- Mensah, E.N.A. and Z. Tchagbale (1983) Atlas des langues Gur de Côte dIvoire. Abidjan: Institut de Linguistique Applique.
- Mills, Elizabeth (1984) Senoufo phonology, discourse to syllabe (a prosodic approach) SIL publications in linguistics (ISSN 1040-0850), 72.
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