Blench Roger. Yanda, a language of the Dogon group.pdf

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Yanda, a language of the Dogon group
in
Northern Mali and its affinities
[DRAFT CIRCULATED FOR COMMENT -NOT FOR CITATION WITHOUT REFERENCE TO
THE AUTHOR]
Roger Blench
Kay Williamson Educational Foundation
8, Guest Road
Cambridge CB1 2AL
United Kingdom
Voice/ Ans (00-44)-(0)7847-495590
Mobile worldwide (00-44)-(0)7967-696804
E-mail rogerblench@yahoo.co.uk
http://www.rogerblench.info/RBOP.htm
This printout: July 8, 2012
R.M. Blench Yanda Wordlist Circulated for comment
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Introduction.......................................................................................................................................................2
2. Location, history and sociolinguistic situation ...............................................................................................2
2.1 Nomenclature ..............................................................................................................................................2
2.2 Location and settlements............................................................................................................................2
2.3 Language status...........................................................................................................................................3
2.4 Yanda culture and history..........................................................................................................................3
2.5 The classification of Yanda ........................................................................................................................3
3. Phonology ..........................................................................................................................................................3
3.1 Vowels ..........................................................................................................................................................3
3.2 Consonants ..................................................................................................................................................4
3.3 Tones ............................................................................................................................................................4
4. Morphology .......................................................................................................................................................5
4.1 Nouns............................................................................................................................................................5
5. Yanda wordlist ..................................................................................................................................................5
TABLES
Table 1. GPS-determined locations of Yanda settlements......................................................................................3
i
R.M. Blench Yanda Wordlist Circulated for comment
1. Introduction
This is an annotated wordlist of the Yanda language, part of the Dogon group, spoken in northern Mali. The
wordlist was collected from a group of villagers in Yanda on the 4th and 5
th
of March 2005. The informants
were;
Informants: Ambozo Kɔlmatele
Pireme Teniberetele
Kanda Amatele
all over sixty years. I would like to thank them for their patience as the elicitation sessions were long and
sometimes passed through several languages.
The wordlist was collected as a ‘one-shot’ exercise and the transcription must therefore be regarded as
preliminary. This analysis was prepared by Roger Blench, who added the comparative observations
1
. This
document is being circulated to scholars for comment.
2. Location, history and sociolinguistic situation
2.1 Nomenclature
The Yanda language is known as Yanda Dom and its speakers as Yanda Bɔlɔm. There is no official name
for this group.
2.2 Location and settlements
The Yanda live in a series of interconnected settlements on and at the foot of the escarpment, south of
Bamba, on the Dogon Plateau in Northern Mali. Administratively, they are located;
Région
Mopti
Cercle
Koro
Arrondissement
Diankabou
The named sections of the Yanda recorded by this survey were as follows;
Yanda Suŋgu
Turgo
Ginεndyε
ɔgɔl ɔŋgɔ
Kɔŋgɔl Dɔnnɔ
ɔgɔl
pepey
ɔgɔl
andey
Kɔmma
Nyimbε
Yantεmbε Dεnεlu
Yantεmbε Dεŋtiŋa
Yantεmbε Damza
Yantεmbε Kulma
Yantεmbε Togu
Hochstetler et al. (2004) say ‘Yanda-dom is spoken in a small group of villages at the bottom of the cliff
near Bamba. The villages are: Anana, Ante, Diankabou, Guinedie, Ogol, Omna, Tourougo, and Yadasongo.’
Some of these can be identified with the names in the table above. Ana is a village where a distinct lect is
spoken related to both Yanda and Tebul. Table 1 shows the locations of these ‘official’ settlements as
recorded by GPS;
1
The author is grateful to the Swiss Ethno-archaeological project for providing funding for this survey.
2
R.M. Blench Yanda Wordlist Circulated for comment
Table 1. GPS-determined locations of Yanda settlements
Official name
Local name
N
W
Diankabou
14:35:00
3:05:00
Guine'die'
14:39:10
3:08:40
Ogol
Owalpe'pe'
14:39:10
3:09:50
Tourougo
14:39:25
3:08:20
Yadasongo
14:39:45
3:08:00
Ante'
Onggo
14:39:00
3:09:50
Omna
Komma
14:39:40
3:10:10
Source: Hochstetler et al. (2004)
As to population, Calame-Griaule (1956:67) says, ‘il est parlé par moins de 2.000 Dogon dans une partie
des cantons de Gondo-Séno Foulbés et Bamba (villages de Yanda).’ Hochstetler et al. (2004) give a figure
from the population census of 1987 as 1400 and extrapolated this to 1998 to give a figure of 1600. Assessing
the population is not easy. Yanda settlements are all small and interconnected. The Yanda used to live in
villages set into the cliff-face itself and there are still some houses there; however, most villages are
established at the bottom of the cliff. Visual observation suggests a figure of 2-3000.
2.3 Language status
The Yanda language is presently being transmitted to the children. The second language of Yanda speakers
is another Dogon language, Jamsay, but this is not a threat. Fulfulde, a dominant language in the zone has
had a limited impact on schoolchildren and there is a limited amount of French spoken, usually by migrant
workers or students.
2.4 Yanda culture and history
Little is known of Yanda culture. However, unlike most of the Dogon groups who are their immediate
neighbours, most Yanda are not Muslims and drink beer as well as performing masquerades. Their
agriculture depends on rainfed sorghum and millet, fruit-trees and large herds of transhumant cattle and
sheep which are away most of the year on the plains.
2.5 The classification of Yanda
Calame-Griaule (1956:67) says, ‘Il
présente beaucoup d'analogies avec le dogul-dom’
[a Dogon language
further west]. The lexicostatistical table in Hochstetler et al. (2004) gives no more than 49% with any Dogon
lect and comparing the present list with Dogul Dom does not hint at any special closeness. However, the
newly recorded Tebul Ure language clearly is a relative of Yanda, with many words quite similar. Yanda
often seems to have reduced forms found in more complete form in Tebul Ure.
3. Phonology
The phonology of Yanda is based on rapid observations and should therefore be regarded as tentative at this
stage.
3.1 Vowels
Yanda probably has seven phonemic vowels;
Front
Close
Close-Mid
Open-Mid
Open
i
e
E
a
ɔ
o
Central
Back
u
Yanda permits all vowels to be long or short and all short vowels can be nasalised. Examples of nasalised
long vowels are not so far recorded, but certainly exist in other Dogon lects.
Yanda and other Dogon languages permit sequences of tone-bearing vowels without any consonants. These
can be in contrast with sequences of vowel plus semi-vowel.
3
R.M. Blench Yanda Wordlist Circulated for comment
3.2 Consonants
Yanda consonants are as follows:
Bilabial
Alve-
olar
t
d
n
r
s z
ɲ
[ʃ] [ʒ]
[ʤ]
y
l
w
Alveopa
latal
Palatal
Velar
Labial-
velar
Glottal
Plosive
Nasal
Trill
Fricative
Affricate
Approximant
Lateral Approximant
p b
m
k g
N
h
There appears to be certain amount of allophonic or free variation between voiced and voiceless alveolars
and velars especially in medials. Thus a single elicitation session two speakers may produce the same word
with k/g/, t/d. The same is true of the palatal forms of alveolar fricatives; these seem to be in free variation
with non-palatal forms. [ʃ] and [ʒ] are may not be distinct phonemes and /s/ and /ʃ/ can be produced in
parallel especially in initial position, perhaps reflecting perceptions of sentence context. However, in some
words, /ʃ/ can be strongly palatalised, possibly a remnant of a lost syllable. Thus the fricative in /magaʃ
y
am/
does not seem to occur in variation with /s/. [ʤ] only occurs in the data as an allophone of [z] in medial
position. Thus
kigizu
‘house-bat’ can also be realised as
kigiju.
/d/ and /r/ appear to be in complementary distribution. Words never have initial /r/ or final /d/. Medial /d/
and /r/ are apparently in free variation and differ between speakers in the same elicitation session. They can
thus be treated as a single phoneme although they are here written as sounded.
A unique phoneme is /’l/, glottalised /l/, which seems to occur in a single word,
’lo,
‘house’. Other Dogon
lects have
ulo
for ‘house’, so this phoneme appears to have arisen from initial vowel deletion. It also occurs
in the neighbouring Ana language in the same word. But it is at the very least puzzling as to why this
phoneme should occur at all and yet be so rare.
Nasals
Yanda has a pervasive process of nasal assimilation. A final lateral followed by an initial nasal becomes a
nasal.
3.3 Tones
Yanda has two tones, High and Low. For example;
name
tooth’
ín
ìn
4. Morphology
4.1 Nouns
Plurals of nouns in Yanda are typically formed by the suufix –mu. Thus;
4

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