Sucite language

Sucite
Native to Burkina Faso, Mali
Region Sikasso Region
Native speakers
 38,000 (1999–2007)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3 sep
Glottolog sici1249[2]

Sucite is a Senufo language spoken in southwestern Burkina Faso by approximately 35,000 people. Sucite is a close neighbour of Supyire, spoken in southeastern Mali. Sucite is sometimes regarded as the northern extension of Supyire. The two dialects are, according to Garber (1987), ‘quite mutually intelligible’. Sometimes speakers of Sucite will even refer to themselves as speaking Supyire. Another closely related lect is Mamara (also known as Minyanka).

Some other Senufo groups refers to the Sùcìté people as Tagba, because they live on the Tagouara plateau. There are various ways to spell the dialect names. Variants of Sùcìté include Sìcìté, Sìpììté, and Sicire. The SIL language code is SEP.

Sounds

Vowels

All vowels can be lengthened and nasalized. The schwa /ə/ is included in brackets because it is found only in two specific environments, where it appears to be in complementary distribution with some other vowel.

Phonetic inventory of vowels in Sucite
Garber 1987 Front Central Back
Closei • ĩ u • ũ
Close-mide • ẽ(ə) o • õ
Open-midɛ • ɛ̃ ɔ • ɔ̃
Open a • ã

Consonants

  Labial Alveolar (Alveolo-)Palatal Velar Labio-velar Glottal
Plosive / Affricate voiceless p t t͡ɕ k   ʔ
voiced b d d͡ʑ   ɡ͡b  
geminate bː dː d͡ʑː ɡː    
prenasalized ⁿb ⁿd ⁿd͡ʑ ⁿɡ ⁿɡ͡b  
Nasal m n nʲ ŋ ŋ͡m  
Fricative f fʲ s   x    
Glide w wʲ   j      

Geminate voiced stops/affricates are cognate to prenasalized voiceless stops in Supyire,[3] and are indicated orthographically as ⟨mp, nt, ...⟩ in Garber (1987).

Tone

Sucite is a tonal language with three surface tone levels: High, Mid, and Low. Garber (1987) and Carlson (1994) analyse the Northern Senufo system as having two different Mid tones, a strong mid (Ms) and a weak mid (Mw). The Ms tone undergoes substantially less tonal alternations than the Mw tone. Garber (1988) suggests that this peculiarity may have its origin in a tonal split.

Glides formed by combining pairs of tones exist, the most common being HL and ML.

Grammar

Nouns

Like the other Senufo languages, Sucite employs a noun class system of five genders: three pairings of singular/plural classes and two mass/collective classes.

Nouns take class-specific suffixes for definiteness. For example:

Gloss Indef. Def. Gender Class
'river' gba gba-ŋé wi 1
'rivers' gba-ála gba-á-bí 2
'house' gba-xa gba-ké ki 3
'houses' gba-ya gba-nyɛ́ 4
'forehead' gba-là gba-à-ne li 5
'foreheads' gbà-ʔala gbà-ʔà-ki 6

[4]

Pronouns

Each noun class has its own set of pronouns. These may be general (clitic), emphatic, partitive, interrogative, demonstrative, or relative.

Pronouns[5]
Class 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Clitic wu bi kə yi lə ki tə bə
Emphatic wurə̀ perə̀ kərə̀ yirə̀ lərə̀ kerə̀ tərə̀ pərə̀
Partitive wà pì kà yà là kì tà pà
Demonstrative ngə́ mpí nkə́ njí ndə́ nkí ntə́ mpə́
Interrogative ngə mpi nkə nji ndə nki ntə mpə

References

  1. ↑ Sucite at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. ↑ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Sicite Senoufo". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
  3. ↑ Garber 1987, p. 15.
  4. ↑ Garber 1987, pp. 25-26.
  5. ↑ Garber 1987, p. 26.

Sources

See also

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