Classification

Maurice Delafosse was the first linguist to mention Nafaanra, calling it "a much dispersed Senufo tribe" in 1904.^[12] Westermann in his classification of West-African languages, also grouped Nafaanra with Senufo, apparently based on the word list found in Rapp.^[13] This classification is confirmed by Bendor-Samuel, who bases his internal Senufo classification on the comparative word lists in Swadesh et al.^[5][14]

It is less clear which particular Senufo branch Nafaanra is related to most closely. Bendor-Samuel gives a 60% cognate relationship on the Swadesh list with "Tenere" (a western Senari dialect), 59% with "Central Senari" (the Senari dialect spoken around Korhogo), and 43% with the non-Senufo languages Mo (or Deg), Kabre (or Kabiye), and Dogon.^[5] The relatively low scores of about 60% point to a rather distant relationship. Likewise, Mensah and Tchagbale establish an intercomprensibility factor of 38% with "Tyebaara" (Senari), concluding that Nafaanra is only distantly related to this dialect.^[15] Nafaanra has been tentatively linked to Palaka (Kpalaga) by Manessy, whereas Mills suggests a relation with the southern Tagwana–Djimini branch.^[16][17]

Vowels

Nafaanra has seven oral and five nasalized vowels. A difference in vowel length can make a difference in meaning, as in sɛ, "to go", vs. sɛɛ, "fetish" or o, "we" vs. oo, "we will". Similarly, the phonemic contrastiveness of nasalization can be seen in sii, "to be giving birth," vs. sĩĩ, "to build".^[18] The vowel system closely resembles that of other Senufo languages. It is like the two Northern Senufo languages Supyire and Mamara in having only five nasal against seven oral vowels.^[19] In the orthography, nasalization of vowels is marked by adding the letter "n" after the vowel.

Consonants

In the table below, orthographic symbols are included between angled brackets if they differ from the IPA symbols. Note especially the use of "j" for IPA [ɟ] and the use of "y" for IPA [j], common in African orthographies.

The consonant system of Nafaanra is fairly similar to that of other Senufo languages. Nafaanra has only one attested palatal fricative, /ç/, occupying an intermediate position between the Northern Senufo languages (Mamara, Supyire) that have both /ç/ and its voiced counterpart /ʝ/, and the Central and Southern Senufo languages (e.g. Karaboro, Senari, Djimini) that have no palatal fricatives at all.

Tone

Like the other Senufo languages, Nafaanra has three contrastive tones: High, Mid and Low. Tone is normally not marked in the Nafaanra orthography. Examples are:^[22]

• kúfɔ̀ "yam" (High-Low)
• dama "two pesewas (coin)" (Mid)
• màŋà "rope" (Low)

The Mid tone sometimes has a rising feature, the High tone sometimes is subject to downstep (a tonal process resulting in a High tone being realised lower than a preceding High tone), and an upstep is also found.^[23][24] The "rising feature" of Mid may be related to the fact that two different Mid tones are found in some other Senufo languages (e.g. Sucite and Supyire).^[19] The High tone downstep (signified by a raised exclamation mark) occurs in the following context:^[22]

It is likely that the tonal lowering seen in this particular example is related to the low tone nasal prefix found in future tense constructions in some other Senufo languages. In fact, Supyire shows a similar phenomenon in future tense constructions with a direct object (in other future tense constructions, a low tone nasal is found).^[25] In general however, downstep is more widespread than in Supyire; a similar phenomenon is found in Palaka, Tagwana, and Djimini.^[26]

An upstep is found in the imperative tense of high tone verbs:^[27]

Personal pronouns

Jordan lists the following list of pronouns, commenting, "Although the pronoun system appears quite simple, it becomes complicated because all the tenses are shown by a combination of pronoun plus particle."^[30]

Tense and aspect

Tense and aspect in Nafaanra are generally encoded in two places: in preverbal particles and on the verb form. Nafaanra has past, recent past, and future tenses and continuative aspect. In a simple sentence, the order of the various constituents can be rendered as follows: SUBJECT • (NEGATION) • (TENSE) • (ASPECT) • VERB . When the negative suffix -n is present, no fusing of preverbal particles takes place. Nafaanra additionally expresses some tense/aspect matters by use of certain time adverbs and auxiliary verbs.^[31]

Past tense is marked by the preverbal particle ná (high tone, as opposed to the low tone continuative particle). Future tense is marked by the particle wè. Simple sentences without a preverbal tense particle are interpreted as recent past (sometimes called immediate). If aspect marking is absent, simple sentences are generally interpreted as completive.^[32]

Continuative aspect (sometimes called progressive) denotes an action that is ongoing or repetitive. Continuative aspect is usually marked both by a preverbal particle nà (low tone) and by a change of the verb form. The verb sɛ́, "go" used in the sentences below has the continuative form síé. In sentences where both past tense particle ná and continuative particle nà are present, they combine to give the fused particle náà. In sentences in the recent past tense, the preverbal continuative particle is omitted and continuative aspect is shown only on the verb.^[31]

Two classes of verbs can be differentiated on the basis of their behaviour in aspectually marked sentences.^[33] One class of verbs has two aspectually distinct forms, as seen in the above example sentences. Another class of verbs does not distinguish aspect—one and the same form shows up in both completive and continuative aspect. In sentences in the recent past tense, this gives rise to ambiguity since the preverbal continuative particle is omitted there. Thus, the sentence kòfí blú can be interpreted in the following two ways:

Considerable fusion takes place between pronominal subjects and the preverbal particles. For example, ná "PAST" fuses with pé, "they", to produce prá sɛ́ (they-PAST go-completive), "they went", and wè "FUTURE" fuses with pé in píè sɛ́ (they-FUTURE go-completive), "they will go".

Questions

Questions can be formed in several ways in Nafaanra. Basic yes–no questions are constructed by adding a sentence-final question marker rá. Constituent questions (sometimes called Wh-questions or question word questions) are doubly marked. They contain a sentence-initial question word and are marked with a sentence-final question marker hin.^[34]

Numbers

The cardinal numbers without tonal marking are presented below;^[35] where possible, the tone pattern is added based on the list in Rapp.^[36] Numbers six to nine are derived by adding the numbers one to four to kɔɔ, "five", by means of the conjunction na.

The numbers 11–19 are formed by adding 1–9 to 10 by means of the conjunction mbɔ, e.g. kɛmbɔnunu, "eleven", kɛmbɔkunɔ, "fifteen". In the tens and higher, the Nafaanra and Supyire systems diverge. Multiplication of fulo, "twenty," and addition of kɛ, "ten", (by means of the conjunction ná) is used to form the 30–90 tens. Perhaps surprisingly, there are considerable differences between Rapp (1933) and Jordan (1980) here. In Rapp's 60, 70 and 80, féle seems to be used to mark ten, which conjoined with 6, 7 and 8 forms 60, 70 and 80.

Rapp (1933) compares the Nafaanra numerals for three (táárɛ) and hundred (lafaa) with eta and ke-lafa from Mpre, a hitherto unclassified language from Ghana. The Mpre eta is Kwa-like (cf. Brong esã, Ga etɛ), whereas the Nafaanra form táárɛ is transparently related to the forms found in the other (non-Kwa) Senufo languages (e.g. Supyire tàànrè). Nafaanra lafaa "hundred" is a typical Kwa numeral and is most probably borrowed from one of the surrounding Kwa languages (cf. Dangme làfá, Gonja kì-làfá, Ewe alafá). Rapp's implication of affinity between Mpre and Nafaanra seems therefore unwarranted at this level.

Morphophonological alternations occur here and there, most notably the reduction of kúnɔ, "five" to kɔ́ɔ̀ (preserving the tone pattern) and the change from lafaa to lafɛɛ in the hundreds.

Colour words

There are 3 to 4 basic colors in Nafanan.^[39] The three basic colour words of Nafaanra are: wɔɔ, "black", finge, "white", and ɲiɛ, "red". As with adjectives in Senufo languages, the form of the colour words reflects the noun class of the noun that is modified.

• wɔɔ—ki wɔ   "it is black"
• finge—ki finge   "it is white"
• ɲiɛ—ki ɲina   "it is red"

The cognate forms in closely related Supyire are -ɲyɛ-, "red; warm colored", and -fyìn-, "white; light colored", in Supyire. These adjectives are related to the respective verbs fíníŋɛ́, "be white; whiten" and ɲááŋá, "be red; redden", which in turn are causative forms of the now defunct verbs fini,"be white" and ɲana, "be red".^[40]

Primary sources

• Delafosse, Maurice (1904). Vocabulaires comparatifs de plus de 60 langues ou dialectes parlés à la Côte d'Ivoire et dans les régions limitrophes (avec des notes linguistiques et ethnologiques, une bibliographie et une carte) (in French). E. Leroux.
• International Bible Society (1984): Nyiɛkpɔɔ nyu nunu fɔŋgɔ.
• Jordan, Dean (1978). "Nafaara tense-aspect in the folk tale". In Grimes, Joseph Evans (ed.). Papers on discourse. Summer Institute of Linguistics. pp. 84–90. ISBN 0-88312-061-5. OCLC 4516192.
• Jordan, Carol; Jordan, Dean (1980a). "Nafaara". In Kropp-Dakubu, Mary Esther (ed.). West African Language Data Sheets. Vol. II. West African Linguistic Society, African Studies Centre. pp. 138–143.
• Jordan, Dean (1980b). Collected field reports on the phonology of Nafaara. Collected language notes. Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana.
• Painter, Colin (1966) Word lists of two Senufo dialects: Fantera et Pantera. Legon: University of Ghana. (30p)
• Rapp, Eugen Ludwig (1933). "Der Einfluss der Migration auf die Sprache". Migration und kulturelle Diversität [The Náfana language in Ivory Coast and Gold Coast] (in German). Vol. 36–3. Mitteilungen des Seminars für Orientalische Sprachen (M.S.O.S.). pp. 66–69. doi:10.3726/978-3-653-04688-5/10. ISBN 9783631652206.

Secondary sources

• Bendor-Samuel, John T. (1971). "Niger–Congo: Gur". In Sebeok, Thomas; Berry, Jack (eds.). Linguistics in sub-saharan Africa. The Hauge/Paris: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 141–178. doi:10.1515/9783111562520-007. ISBN 978-3-11-156252-0.
• Blench, Roger (1999). Recent Field Work in Ghana: Report on Dompo and a note on Mpre.
• Carlson, Robert (1994). A Grammar of Supyire. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. doi:10.1515/9783110883053. ISBN 3-11-014057-8. OCLC 30895666.
• Hartell, Rhonda L. (1993). The Alphabets of Africa. Dakar: UNESCO and SIL. OCLC 464050942.
• Manessy, Gabriel (1981). "Les langues voltaïques". In Perrot, Jean; Leiper Kane Collection, Thomas (eds.). Les langues dans le monde ancien et moderne (in French). Vol. I. Paris: Éditions du Centre national de la recherche scientifique. ISBN 2-222-01720-3. OCLC 9946042.
• Mensah, Emmanuel N. A.; Tchagbale, Zakari (1983). Atlas des langues gur de Côte d'Ivoire (in French). Abidjan, Paris: Agence de coopération culturelle et technique / Institut de linguistique appliquée. OCLC 492982594.
• Mills, Elizabeth (1984). Senoufo phonology, discourse to syllable (a prosodic approach). Dallas, TX: Summer Institute of Linguistics. ISBN 0-88312-087-9. ISSN 1040-0850. OCLC 11484538.
• Stahl, Ann (2004). "Making History in Banda: Reflections on the Construction of Africa's Past". Historical Archaeology. 38 (1): 50–65. doi:10.1007/BF03376632. ISSN 0440-9213. JSTOR 25617131. S2CID 140961583.
• Swadesh, Morris; Arana Swadesh, Evangelina; Bendor-Samuel, John T.; Wilson, W. A. A. (1966). "A preliminary glottochronology of Gur languages". Journal of West African Languages. 3 (2): 27–65.
• Westermann, Diedrich; Bryan, M. A.; Arnott, D. W. (1970) [1952]. The Languages of West Africa (new ed.). Folkstone: Dawsons. ISBN 0-7129-0462-X. OCLC 150447.