View source for Senufo languages

{{Short description|Language family of West Africa}}
{{More footnotes needed|date=September 2024}}
{{Infobox language family
|name=Senufo
|altname=Senoufo
|region=northern [[Ivory Coast]], southern [[Mali]], southwestern [[Burkina Faso]], western [[Ghana]]
|familycolor=Niger-Congo
|fam2=[[Atlantic–Congo]]
|glotto=senu1239
|glottorefname=Senufo
|child1=[[Suppire–Mamara languages|Suppire–Mamara]]
|child2=[[Karaboro languages|Karaboro]]
|child3=[[Senari languages|Senari]]
|child4=[[Kpalaga language|Kpalaga]] (Palaka)
|child5=[[Tagwana–Djimini languages|Tagwana–Djimini]]
|child6=[[Nafaanra language|Nafaanra]]
|map=Senufo languages.png
|mapcaption=Map of the Senufo language area showing the major groups and some neighbouring languages.
}}

The '''Senufo''' or '''Senufic languages''' ({{langx|fr|Senoufo}}) comprise around 15 languages spoken by the [[Senufo people|Senufo]] in the north of [[Ivory Coast]], the south of [[Mali]] and the southwest of [[Burkina Faso]]. An isolated language, [[Nafaanra language|Nafaanra]], is also spoken in the west of [[Ghana]]. The Senufo languages constitute their own branch of the [[Atlantic–Congo]] sub-family of the [[Niger–Congo languages]]. Anne Garber estimates the total number of [[Senufo people|Senufos]] at some 1.5 million; the [[Ethnologue]], based on various population estimates, counts 2.7 million.{{year needed|date=May 2018}}
 
The Senufo languages are bounded to the west by [[Mande languages]], to the south by [[Kwa languages]], and to the north and east by Central [[Gur languages]].

The Senufo languages are like the Gur languages in that they have a suffixal [[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 language|Bambara]] and [[Jula language|Jula]]. Carlson notes that "it is probable that several grammatical constructions are calques on the corresponding Bambara constructions".{{sfnp|Carlson|1994|p=2}} Like Mande languages, the Senufo languages have a [[subject–object–verb]] (SOV) [[constituent order]], rather than the [[subject–verb–object]] (SVO) order which is more common in Gur and in [[Niger–Congo languages|Niger–Congo]] as a whole.

==Classification==
Delafosse was the first linguist to write on the Senufo languages. He noted that the Senufo were often confused with the Mande, partly because use of Mande languages by the Senufo was widespread:{{sfnp|Delafosse|1904|pp=192–217}}
:''[L]a langue mandé s'est répandue parmi eux, des alliances nombreuses ont eu lieu... C'est là l'origine de la confusion que l'on a faite souvent entre Mandé et Sénoufo ... alors que, au triple point de vue ethnographique, antropologique et linguistique, la différence est profonde entre ces deux familles.''{{sfnp|Delafosse|1904|p=193}}

In the influential classifications of Westermann and Bendor-Samuel, the Senufo languages were classified as Gur languages.{{sfnp|Westermann|1927}}{{sfnp|Westermann|Bryan|1970}}{{sfnp|Bendor-Samuel|1971}} In 1975, this classification was called into doubt by [[Gabriel Manessy]].{{sfnp|Manessy|1975}} In 1989, John Naden, in his overview of the Gur family, stated that ‘[t]he remaining languages, especially Senufo, may well be no more closely related to Central Gur than to Guang or Togo Remnant, or than these to Central Gur or Volta-Comoe’.{{sfnp|Naden|1989|p=143}}

==Subclassification==
Early Senufo classifications were mainly geographically motivated, dividing the Senufo languages into Northern, Central, and Southern Senufo.{{sfnp|Bendor-Samuel|1971}} In subsequent years, this terminology was adopted by several linguists working on Senufo languages.{{sfnp|Garber|1987}}{{sfnp|Carlson|1983}}{{sfnp|Carlson|1994}} Mensah (1983) and Mills (1984) avoided this geographical terms but used mainly the same grouping.{{sfnp|Garber|1987}} [[SIL International]] in its Ethnologue subdivides the Senufo languages in six groups. Combining the two classifications results in the grouping below.

'''Northern Senufo'''
*[[Suppire–Mamara languages]]
**[[Mamara language|Mamara]] (Minyanka, Mianka) (740,000 speakers)
**[[Nanerigé language|Nanerigé]] (Nanergé) (50,000 speakers)
**[[Sucite language|Sucite]] (Sicite, Sìcìté) (38,000 speakers)
**[[Supyire language|Supyire]] (Suppire, Shempire, Syempire) (spoken in [[Mali]]) (460,000 speakers)
'''Central Senufo'''
*[[Karaboro languages]]
**[[Kar language|Eastern Karaboro]] (Kar) (40,000 speakers)
**[[Syer-Tenyer language|Western Karaboro]] (Syer-Tenyer) (30,000 speakers)
*[[Senari languages]]
**[[Cebaara language|Cebaara]] (Tyebaala) (860,000 speakers)
**[[Senara language|Senara]] (spoken in [[Côte d'Ivoire]]) (210,000 speakers)
**[[Nyarafolo language|Nyarafolo]] (60,000 speakers)
*[[Palaka language|Kpalaga]] (Palaka) (spoken in [[Côte d'Ivoire]]) (8,000 speakers)
'''Southern Senufo'''
*[[Tagwana–Djimini languages]]
**[[Djimini language|Djimini]] (Dyimini) (spoken in [[Côte d'Ivoire]]) (96,000 speakers)
**[[Tagwana language|Tagwana]] (Tagouna) (140,000 speakers)
*[[Nafaanra language|Nafaanra]] (Nafaara) (61,000 speakers)

==Footnotes==
{{reflist|20em}}

==References==

===Linguistic features===
* {{cite book |last=Carlson |first=Robert |date=1994 |title=A Grammar of Supyire |place=Berlin/New York |publisher=Mouton de Gruyter |isbn=3-11-014057-8}}
* {{cite book |last=Carlson |first=Robert |date=1997 |title=The Senufo Languages |publisher=CP/CV 2: Actes du CILG1 |pages=23–42}}
* {{cite journal |last=Garber |first=Anne |date=1980 |title=Word order change and the Senufo languages |journal=Studies in the Linguistic Sciences |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=45–57}}
* {{cite book |last=Garber |first=Anne |date=1987 |title=A Tonal Analysis of Senufo: Sucite dialect (Gur; Burkina Faso) |type=PhD dissertation |publisher=Urbana: University of Illinois / Ann Arbor: UMI}}
* {{cite journal |last=Garber |first=Anne |date=1991 |title=The phonological structure of the Senufo word (Sicite) |journal=Journal of West African Languages |volume=21 |issue=2 |pages=3–20}}
* {{cite journal |last=Manessy |first=Gabriel |date=1996a |title=La determination nominal en sénoufo |journal=Linguistique Africaine |volume=16 |pages=53–68}}
* {{cite journal |last=Manessy |first=Gabriel |date=1996b |title=Observations sur la classification nominale en sénoufo |journal=Afrika und Übersee |volume=79 |pages=21–35}}
* {{cite book |last=Mills |first=Elizabeth |date=1984 |title=Senoufo phonology, discourse to syllabe (a prosodic approach) |series=SIL publications in linguistics |issn=1040-0850 |volume=72}}

===Classification===
* {{cite book |last=Bendor-Samuel |first=John |date=1971 |chapter=Niger–Congo: Gur |editor1=Thomas Sebeok |editor2=Jack Berry |title=Linguistics in sub-saharan Africa |series=Current trends in linguistics |volume=7 |place=The Hauge/Paris |publisher=Mouton |pages=141–178}}
* {{cite book |last=Delafosse |first=Maurice |date=1904 |url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k824366 |title=Vocabulaires comparatifs de plus de 60 langues ou dialects parlés à la Côte d' Ivoire ou dans les régions limitrophes (avec des notes linguistiques et ethnologiques, une bibliographie et une carte) |place=Paris |publisher=Leroux}}
* {{cite book |last=Manessy |first=Gabriel |date=1975 |title=Les langues Oti–Volta |place=Paris |publisher=SELAF}}
* {{cite book |last1=Mensah |first1=E.N.A. |last2=Tchagbale |first2=Z. |date=1983 |title=Atlas des langues Gur de Côte d'Ivoire |place=Abidjan |publisher=Institut de Linguistique Applique}}
* {{cite book |last=Naden |first=Anthony J. |date=1989 |chapter=Gur |editor1=Bendor-Samuel, John |editor2=Hartell, Rhonda L. |title=The Niger–Congo languages. A classification and description of Africa's largest language family |place=Lanham, New York, London |publisher=University Press of America |pages=140–168}}
* {{cite book |last1=Westermann |first1=Diedrich |last2=Bryan |first2=M.A. |date=1970 |orig-date=1952 |title=The Languages of West Africa |place=Oxford |publisher=International African Institute / Oxford University Press}}
* {{cite book |last1=Williamson |first1=Kay |last2=Blench |first2=Roger |date=2000 |chapter=Niger–Congo |editor1=Heine, Bernd |editor2=Nurse, Derek |title=African languages: an introduction |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=11–42}}

{{Gur languages}}
{{Languages of Burkina Faso}}
{{Languages of Côte d'Ivoire}}
{{Niger-Congo branches}}

{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Senufo languages| ]]
[[Category:Atlantic–Congo languages]]