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Tiefo language

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Tyefo
cɛ̀fɔ́-mìì
Native toBurkina Faso
Ethnicity12,000–15,000 (1995)[1]
Native speakers
(1,000 cited 1995)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3tiq
Glottologtief1243
ELPTiéfo
Personcɛ̀fɔ̂[2]
Peoplecɛ̀fɔ́ɔ̀
Languagecɛ̀fɔ́-mìì, cɛ̀fɔ́-mìyì

Tyefo, also spelled Cɛfɔ, Tiéfo, Kiefo, Tyeforo, is a pair of languages of Burkina Faso. It may be a peripheral member of the Gur languages, but it is of uncertain affiliation.

Classification

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Güldemann (2018) considers Tiefo to be of uncertain affiliation within Niger-Congo.[3]

Varieties

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The two extant languages are provisionally called Tiefo-N (Tiefo of Numudara / Niafogo) and Tiefo-D (Tiefo of Daramandugu). They are mutually unintelligible. Tiefo-D is spoken in parts of the village cluster Daramandougou (Dramandougou, Daramandugu) of Comoé Province. Its phonology, morphology, some basic grammar, and lexicon were described in Kerstin Winkelmann's 1998 doctoral dissertation (in German). A full grammar by Heath and Ouattara was published online in 2021. Tiefo-N covers the extinct variety spoken in Noumoudara [fr] (Numudara) village of Houet Province, and the closely related and nearly extinct variety of Nyafogo (Gnanfogo) village. A short Tiefo-N grammar by Heath, Ouattara, and Hantgan, based on salvage fieldwork with the last two known competent speakers from Nyafogo, was published in 2017. Winkelmann's dissertation includes limited data from both Tiefo-N varieties.

Tiefo varieties were formerly spoken over a much wider area. They have been steadily declining ever since Tiefo military power was broken in an 1897 battle. Jula (Dioula) is now the dominant spoken language throughout southwestern Burkina Faso.

Villages

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Tiefo villages:[2]

Official name Village Person People Notes
Nyafogo ɲáɣáfɔ̀ɣɔ̀ⁿ ɲáɣáfɔ̀ɣɔ̀ⁿ ɲáɣáfɔ̀ɣɔ̀ Tiefo-N
Noumoudara tə́ráʕāⁿ tə́ráʕāⁿ tə́ráʕā Tiefo-N
Daramandougou káɣà(-lě) káɣà káɣà Tiefo-D
Me mɛ̀ɛ́ màɣá màɣá formerly Tiefo-speaking
Maturku mátòò ~ mátyòò mát(y)òò mát(y)òò formerly Tiefo-speaking
Samogan formerly Tiefo-speaking
Tien formerly Tiefo-speaking
Kodala formerly Tiefo-speaking
Koumandara ʃíyɛ̀yⁿ ʃíyɔ̀ⁿ ʃíyɔ̀ formerly Tiefo-speaking
Dege-dege dègèdègè dègèdègè-ɲɔⁿ́ -by-ó formerly Tiefo-speaking
Derege dɛ̀rɛ̀gbɛ̀ dɛ̀rɛ̀gbɛ̀ dɛ̀rɛ̀gbɔ̀ formerly Tiefo-speaking
Laranfiera làɣàⁿfyɛ̀lá làɣàⁿfyɛ̀ làɣàⁿfyɔ̀ formerly Tiefo-speaking
Musubadugu ʃíkìyàʕà formerly Tiefo-speaking
Sidéradougou formerly Tiefo-speaking; partially Tiefo

Phonology

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Consonants[2]
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Labiovelar Pharyngeal Glottal
Plosive p b t d k g kp gb (ʔ)
Fricative f s ɣ ʕ (h)
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ ŋm
Approximant w l, r j
  • /n/ is heard as [ɾ̃] intervocalically.
  • /g/ is pronounced [ɣ] between two instances of the vowels [a] or [ɔ].
  • /ʔ/ only occurs word-finally in a verbal clitic.
  • /h/ is only attested in loanwords and sometimes in syllable boundaries between vowels.
Vowels[2]
Front Central Back
High i ĩ ĩː u ũ ũː
Mid-high e o
Mid-low ɛ ɛː ɛ̃ ɛ̃ː ɔ ɔː ɔ̃ ɔ̃ː
Low a ã ãː

Tiefo also has three tones;[2] high, mid, and low.

Grammar

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One notable feature of Tiefo languages is a vocalic morpheme that precedes nouns under some conditions. In Tiefo-D it is ē, and it appears chiefly in postpausal position. Tiefo-N has à, è, and ò, constituting a noun-class system with a partial semantic basis. These prenominal markers are apparently unrelated to the original Gur system of noun-class suffixes. Traces of old noun-class suffixes, now frozen to stems and no longer synchronically segmentable, have been discussed by Winkelmann and other Gur specialists.

Verb phrases in Tiefo languages consist of two (Tiefo-N) or three (Tiefo-D) forms of the verb stem, plus preverbal inflectional particles marking aspect and negation. Verbs show no further morphological variation. The two Tiefo-N verb forms are called perfective and imperfective, but their distribution among clause-level inflectional categories is more complex than this suggests. Tiefo-D verbs have at most three distinct forms called perfective, imperfective, and base, but some verbs merge imperfective and base. In both languages, the forms of a given verb are morphophonologically related to each other by some combination of vocalic mutation, tonal shift, and/or suffixation.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Tyefo at Ethnologue (16th ed., 2009) Closed access icon
  2. ^ a b c d e Jeffrey Heath, Aminata Ouattara & Abbie Hantgan. 2017. Short grammar of Tiefo-N of Nyafogo (Gur, Burkina Faso). Language Description Heritage Dictionary (online).
  3. ^ Güldemann, Tom (2018). "Historical linguistics and genealogical language classification in Africa". In Güldemann, Tom (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of Africa. The World of Linguistics series. Vol. 11. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 58–444. doi:10.1515/9783110421668-002. ISBN 978-3-11-042606-9.
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