Dogon languages (Dogon languages) - a family of Nigerian-Congolese languages . Distributed among the Dogon in Mali (living compactly or mixed with fulbe in the area of the Bandiagar ledge and the adjacent plateau in the northwest, as well as the Hay plain in the southeast) and in the border villages of Burkina Faso . The number of speakers is about 800 thousand people. ( 2007 , estimate).
It was traditionally believed that Dogon languages are a group of dialects of one language, the understanding between the speakers of which in many cases is difficult or completely absent. They were included in the languages of the Gur , in the early African studies - and in the languages of Manda . Many modern researchers are inclined to believe that this is a separate family of 15-20 closely related languages that do not show significant proximity to other languages of West Africa.
Content
Classification
| Languages | Peoples | 2007 (Mali) |
|---|---|---|
| Southern | ||
| tomo-kan | dawn | 168,000 |
| tene-kan (tengu-tingi) | tengu | 67 788 |
| tene-kan (to-kan) | Togo | 92 232 |
| Eastern | ||
| dyamsai tag | dymsay | 164,000 |
| toro tag | toro | 3,654 |
| Central | 195 852 | |
| toro so | Thoron (Bommu) | 63,000 |
| bottom | donnon | 57,000 |
| tommo co | tommom | 75 852 |
| Western | ||
| ampari | ampari | 6 552 |
| mombo (colum-so) | mombo | 24,000 |
| Northern | ||
| bunoge | I will | 882 |
| tyranige diga | tyranige (doolery) | 5,292 |
| nanga (dama) | nanga | 3 150 |
| yanda (house) | yanda | 2,500 |
| bondum (house) | bondum | 31,000 |
| dogu (house) | dogged | 20,000 |
| tebul-ure | 3,500 | |
| ana | 500 | |
| bangeri-me (bangime) | bangana | 1 512 |
| Total: | 790 102 | |
Dogon languages, according to modern classifications, can be divided into 5 branches:
- central (1 language - Central Dogon , the largest and with the highest sociolinguistic status, with three dialects, which, however, can be considered as separate languages: tommo-so, bottom-so, toro-so),
- southern ( tomo-kan and tene-kan ),
- Eastern ( Dyamsay and Toro- tegu ),
- Western (ampari and mombo),
- northern (bunoge [corandabo, bu-tagu], tyranige-diga [duleri], nanga, yanda, bondum, dogul, tebul-ure [oru-yille], ana, ualo).
Each language, as a rule, is divided into several dialects and dialects; practically, in each locality there are linguistic features, from minor to very significant. All speakers of Dogon languages are well aware of these differences and strive to preserve them, recognizing themselves, at the same time, as representatives of a single Dogon people. The greatest linguistic fragmentation is observed in the north and west of the Dogon range, where the number of local language formations can be significantly larger than is currently known. The Bangeri-Me (Bangime) language, widely spread in the north, which was previously included in the Dogon language, may not belong to this family at all, but is an isolated language , although its speakers consider themselves Dogon. There is a secret ritual Dogon language - sigiso .
Typological Characteristics
All Dogon languages have basic seven-term vocalism , with additional correlations in longitude and nasalization; Labialized front vowels are also limited in some languages. The system of consonantism is relatively poor, the closest ones are contrasted by deafness-voiced (usually only at the beginning of a word or root) in a number of languages syllable nasal sonants are found. In the intervocal position and at the end of the word, only some consonants are possible. In all Dogon languages there are meaningful tones (the phonetic nature of which has not been studied enough), syngarmonism is also represented (mainly in middle vowels). The syllabic structure is mostly consonant + vowel.
Name morphology is weakly expressed in all languages, the indicators of number and certainty are analytical; the name class category is missing. Most languages have a twenty-decimal system of numbers (with 80 as the base element).
Among the verbs , dynamic and stative are distinguished, while the number of adjectives is small. Both reduced verb systems (in the languages of the southern group) and systems with a rich agglutinative conjugation (in the northern and central languages) are presented. The verb expresses aspectual oppositions ( progressive , habitualis , perfect with evidential functions) and time (in southern languages they are expressed mainly analytically, with the help of auxiliary verbs); there are derivative forms of causation , media , reverse .
Postulates are used to express predicate-argument relations. The word order is relatively free, common designs with the removal of the topic are common . The neutral word order “subject + complement + predicate”, the noun definition is prepositive, adjectives and pronouns follow the noun. The participle and serial verb constructions are widely represented.
In the vocabulary of borrowing from the language of the Fula , Songai , Manda.
Writing
Languages are spellingless. In the middle of the XX century. missionaries made attempts to translate Christian texts into Don-So, Tomo-Kan, Toro-So and some other major languages and creatures based on Toro-so-called. standard catch-up, not widely used (although proclaimed one of the official languages of Mali).
| Bottom-co Alphabet [1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | B | C | D | E | È | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | Ny | Ŋ | O | Ò | P | R | S | T | U | Ü | W | Y | Z |
| a | b | c | d | e | è | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | ny | ŋ | o | ò | p | r | s | t | u | ü | w | y | z |
Study History
Most of the Dogon languages are poorly studied, reliable data on the languages of the northwestern part of the Dogon range are practically absent. The first studies (Toro-co language) were started in the middle of the 20th century. French missionaries and ethnographers led by M. Griol . At the end of XX century. there were works by Africanists from the USA and Russia, carried out jointly with Malian linguists - native speakers of Dogon languages.
Literature
- Arakelova A.S. Verb in Dogon language (based on the Tene-Kan dialect) // Fundamentals of African linguistics: Verb. M., 2003
- Plungyan V.A. Verb in agglutinative language (based on Dogon material). M., 1992
- Bendor-Samuel JT, Olsen E., White AR Dogon. // The Niger-Congo languages - A classification and description of Africa's largest language family . Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, 1989
- Bertho, J. (1953) 'La place des dialectes dogon de la falaise de Bandiagara parmi les autres groupes linguistiques de la zone soudanaise,' Bulletin de l'IFAN , 15, 405–441.
- Blench, Roger (2005a) 'A survey of Dogon languages in Mali: Overview', OGMIOS: Newsletter of Foundation for Endangered Languages , 3.02 (# 26), 14-15. (Online version: https://web.archive.org/web/20070913081551/http://www.ogmios.org/266.htm , Retrieved June 26, 2005).
- Blench, Roger (2005b) 'Baŋgi me, a language of unknown affiliation in Northern Mali', OGMIOS: Newsletter of Foundation for Endangered Languages , 3.02 (# 26), 15-16. (report with wordlist)
- Calame-Griaule, Geneviève (1956) Les dialectes Dogon . Africa (L.), 26 (1), 62-72.
- Hochstetler J. Lee, Durieux JA, Durieux-Boon EIK (2004) Sociolinguistic Survey of the Dogon Language Area. SIL International. online version
- Calame-Griaule G. Ethnologie et langage: La parole chez les Dogon. P., 1987
- Kervran M., Prost A. Un parler dogon: Le donno so. Notes de grammaire. Bandiagara, 1986
- Léger J. Grammaire dogon: Tomo-kan. Bandiagara, 1971
- Leiris M. La langue secrète des Dogons de Sanga. P., 1948
- Plungian Vladimir Aleksandrovič , Tembiné I. Vers une description sociolinguistique du pays dogon: attitudes linguistiques et problèmes de standardization // Stratégies communicatives au Mali: langues régionales, bambara, français. P., 1994
- Plungian VA Dogon (Languages of the world materials vol. 64). München: LINCOM Europa, 1995.
- Williamson, Kay & Blench, Roger (2000) 'Niger-Congo', in Heine, Bernd and Nurse, Derek (eds) African Languages - An Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University press, pp. 11–42.
- Dictionaries
- Calame-Griaule, Geneviève (1968) Dictionnaire Dogon Dialecte tɔrɔ: Langue et Civilization . Paris: Klincksieck: Paris.
- Kervran M. Dictionnaire dogon: donno-so. Bandiagara, 1993.
- Léger J. Dictionnaire dogon: Tomo-kan. Bandiagara, 1971
Notes
Links
- Guide linguistique dogon , in French Wikivoyage (fr.)
- Jamsay Grammar , author - Jeffrey Heath ( Jeffrey Heath ; to be removed after the publication of the book )
- Overview of Dogon languages on Roger Blench’s page + word lists of several individual languages and photos (English)
- A site dedicated to ongoing Dogon language learning projects