| Susu | |
|---|---|
| Sosoxui | |
| Native to | Guinea, Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau |
| Region | Coastal Guinea |
| Ethnicity | Susu people |
Native speakers | 2.4 million (2017–2019)[1] |
Niger–Congo?
| |
| Latin script Arabic script | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | sus |
| ISO 639-3 | sus |
| Glottolog | susu1250 |
The Susu language (endonym: Susu: Sosoxui; French: Soussou) is the language of the Susu or Soso people of Guinea and Sierra Leone, West Africa. It is in the Mande language family, and its closest relative is Yalunka.
It is one of the national languages of Guinea and spoken mainly in the coastal region of the country.
History
The language was also used by people in the coastal regions of Guinea and Sierra Leone as a trade language.
The first literature in Susu was a translation of the first seven chapters of the Gospel of Matthew, translated by John Godfrey Wilhelm of the Church Mission Society. This was published in London as "Lingjili Matthew" in 1816. J.G. Wilhelm translated a considerable portion of the New Testament, but only this small part appears to have been printed.
Phonology
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labial- velar |
Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m ⟨m⟩ | n ⟨n⟩ | ɲ ⟨ɲ⟩ | ŋ ⟨ŋ⟩ | |||
| Plosive | voiceless | p ⟨p⟩ | t ⟨t⟩ | k ⟨k⟩ | |||
| voiced | b ⟨b⟩ | d ⟨d⟩ | ɡ ⟨g⟩ | ɡb ⟨gb⟩ | |||
| prenasal | nd ⟨nd⟩ | ŋɡ ⟨ng⟩ | |||||
| Fricative | f ⟨f⟩ | s ⟨s⟩ | x ⟨x⟩ | h ⟨h⟩ | |||
| Trill | r ⟨r⟩ | ||||||
| Approximant | l ⟨l⟩ | j ⟨y⟩ | w ⟨w⟩ | ||||
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Close | i ⟨i⟩, iː ⟨ii⟩ | u ⟨u⟩, uː ⟨uu⟩ |
| Close-mid | e ⟨e⟩, eː ⟨ee⟩ | o ⟨o⟩, oː ⟨oo⟩ |
| Open-mid | ɛ ⟨ɛ⟩, ɛː ⟨ɛɛ⟩ | ɔ ⟨ɔ⟩, ɔː ⟨ɔɔ⟩ |
| Open | a ⟨a⟩, aː ⟨aa⟩ | |
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Close | ĩ ⟨in⟩ | ũ ⟨un⟩ |
| Close-mid | ẽ ⟨en⟩ | õ ⟨on⟩ |
| Open-mid | ɛ̃ ⟨ɛn⟩ | ɔ̃ ⟨ɔn⟩ |
| Open | ã ⟨an⟩ | |
Grammatical sketch
Susu is an SOV language, Poss-N, N-D, generally suffixing, non-pro-drop, wh-in-situ, with no agreement affixes on the verb, no noun classes, no gender, and with a clitic plural marker which attaches to the last element of the NP (N or D, typically), but does not co-occur with numerals. It has no definite or indefinite articles. Sentential negation is expressed with a particle, mu, whose distribution is unclear (with adjectival predicates it seems to sometimes infix, but with transitive verbs it comes before the object).
Examples:
khame
man
didi
boy
to
see
ne
PAST
"The/a man saw the/a boy."
Pronouns
n
1sg
taami
bread
don
eat
ma
PRES(generic)
"I eat bread."
i
2sg
taami
bread
don
eat
ma
PRES(generic)
"You (sg) eat bread."
a
3sg
taami
bread
don
eat
ma
PRES(generic)
"He/she/it eats bread."
won
1inc.pl
taami
bread
don
eat
ma
PRES(generic)
"We (including you) eat bread."
mukhu
1exc.pl
taami
bread
don
eat
ma
PRES(generic)
"We (excluding you) eat bread."
wo
2pl
taami
bread
don
eat
ma
PRES(generic)
"You (pl or polite [sg or pl]) eat bread." ("wo" is used as French "vous")
e
3pl
taami
bread
don
eat
ma
PRES(generic)
"They eat bread."
cf.
n
1sg
bankhi
house
to
see
né
PAST
"I saw a/the house."
n
1sg
taami
bread
don
eat
fe
PROG
"I am eating the bread."
Object pronouns have the same form as subject pronouns:
khame
man
n
1sg
to
see
né
PAST
"A/the man saw me."
khame
man
i
2sg
to
see
né
PAST
"A/the man saw you (sg)."
khame
man
a
3sg
to
see
né
PAST
"A/the man saw him/her/it."
khame
man
won
1inc.pl
to
see
né
PAST
"A/the man saw us (including you)."
khame
man
mukhu
1exc.pl
to
see
né
PAST
"A/the man saw us (excluding you)."
khame
man
wo
2pl
to
see
né
PAST
"A/the man saw you (pl)."
khame
man
e
3pl
to
see
né
PAST
"A/the man saw them."
Possessive affixes precede the noun:
baba "father": m baba "my father" i baba "your (sg) father" a baba "his/her/its father" wom baba "our father" wo baba "your (pl) father" e baba "their father"
Adverbs
Adverbs can precede the subject or follow the verb:
khoro
yesterday
n
1sg
fa
arrive
né
PAST
"Yesterday I arrived."
n
1sg
fa
arrive
né
PAST
khoro
yesterday
"I arrived yesterday."
Grammatical number
NPs come in a variety of forms:
khamé "boy (sg)", khame e "boys (pl) taami "bread (sg)", taami e "breads (pl)"
khame
boy
e
pl
taami
bread
don
eat
ma
PRES
"The/0 boys eat bread."
khamé
boy
taami
bread
e
pl
don
eat
ma
PRES
"The/a boy eats breads."
Numerals
- woto keren car one "one car"
- woto firin car two "two cars"
- woto sakhan "three cars"
- woto nani "four cars"
- woto suli "five cars"
- woto senni "six cars"
- woto solofere "seven cars"
- woto solomasakhan "eight cars"
- woto solomanani "nine cars"
- woto fu "ten cars"
- woto fu nun keren "eleven cars"
- woto fu nun firin "twelve cars"
n woto nde e to né 1sg car indef.D pl see PAST "I saw several cars"/"J'ai vu des autos." woto nde "some car" di nde "some boy" bangkhi nde "some house" khame nde "someone" se nde "something" nde "who/some" i nde to? you who see "Who did you see?" i munse don ma? 2sg what eat PRES "What will you eat?"
Orthography
Susu has been written with a variety of writing systems, including the Ajami variant of the Arabic script (perhaps introduced during the time of the Imamate of Futa Jallon), various Latin script orthographies (formalized with the adoption of the Guinean languages alphabet under the government of Ahmed Sékou Touré and adapted in 1989 to adhere closer to the African reference alphabet), and the N'ko and Adlam scripts.[3] Additionally, an alphabetic script known as Koré Sèbèli or Wakara, developed by sociologist Mohamed Bentoura Bangoura based on traditional symbols used by secret societies, has been adopted by a small community of users since its introduction in 2009.[3][4]
Other
Sosoxui is closely related to the Yalunka language.
References
- ↑ Susu at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
- 1 2 3 Houis, Maurice (1963). Étude Descriptive de la Langue Susu. Dakar: Institut Fondamental d'Afrique Noire, Université de Dakar.
- 1 2 Sagno, Geneviève. "Langues nationales : comment la langue soussou en Guinée en est venue à être écrite avec autant d'alphabets". BBC Afrique (in French). BBC. Retrieved 19 July 2023.
- ↑ Bangoura, Mohamed Bentoura; Guigon, Lucille; Sylla, Mohamed Lamine (July 2020). "Proposal for the encoding of « KORE SEBELI »" (PDF). Unicode Consortium. Retrieved 20 July 2023.