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Dogon classification

Dogon classification. Jeffrey Heath (Univ. of Michigan), Steve Moran (Univ. of Munich), Kirill Prokhorov (Humboldt Univ. of Berlin and MAE RAS). Structure of the talk. Dogon languages, basic information and data Lexicostatistical data and the resulting tentative classification

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Dogon classification

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  1. Dogon classification Jeffrey Heath (Univ. of Michigan), Steve Moran (Univ. of Munich), Kirill Prokhorov (Humboldt Univ. of Berlin and MAE RAS)

  2. Structure of the talk • Dogon languages, basic information and data • Lexicostatistical data and the resulting tentative classification • Evidence from nominal morphology • Revised classification and further issues

  3. Dogon languages: Trivia • 21 language identified

  4. Dogon languages: Trivia • 21 language identified (+Bangiime, isolate)

  5. Dogon languages: Trivia • 21 language identified (+Bangiime, isolate) • Up to 1 million speakers

  6. Dogon languages: Trivia • 21 language identified (+Bangiime, isolate) • Up to 1 million speakers • Spoken in eastern Mali and (partially) northern Burkina Faso

  7. Data • Several grammars and dictionaries done by non-professional linguists (Léger 1971, Prost & Kervran 1986) • Two published reference grammars done by professional linguists (Plungian 1995) and (Heath 2008) • Dogon project materials (www.dogonlanguages.org)

  8. Dogon Project • Started in 2004 • Supported by NSF (grant BCS-0537435) • Website: www.dogonlanguages.org • Data on more than 20 Dogon idioms, incl. comparative lexical spreadsheet with more than 7 thousand entries

  9. 100 Swadesh word list: cognacy rates

  10. Family depth: the lowest rate Bunoge – Tomo Kan ~ 32%

  11. Family depth: the highest rate Ben Tey – Nanga ~ 88%

  12. Family Tree: Lexicostatistics ?2 4 1 ?2 3 ?1 2 Calculated using Starling (starling.rinet.ru)

  13. Problems 1:Tiranige ?1 Even from the lexicostatistical perspective Tiranige may equally be attributed to the Western group (Mombo, Penange, Ampari, Bunoge) Cf. Tiranige – Mombo (West) ~ 65% Tiranige – Najamba-Kindige (North-East) ~ 66% Cf. also morphological evidence below

  14. Problems 2: Bigger groups ?2question whether the 4 branches identified form bigger groups remains problematic: - lexicostatistical data are not definitive cf. rather short period between the supposed major split and following splits into the four branches on the tree) - some morphological isoglosses go across these groupings

  15. Nominal Morphology 1: East • Eastern-type class-number system HumSg HumPl Nonh Jamsay: -n-m- Toro Tegu: -rⁿu ~ -n(u)-m(u)- Tommo so:–nɛ -m - Proto-East: *-nu ‘person’ *-n-bu *- Found in: East

  16. Nominal Morphology 2: North-East • Najamba-Kindige class system suffixes final-vowel animate Sg -Ø E animate Pl -mbo O inanimate Sg -ŋgo/-go (O/E class) O (O/Eclass) -ŋge/-ge (E/E class) E (E/E class) inanimate Pl -ØE Other languages of North-East group have simpler systems, cognate to that of Najamba-Kindige.

  17. Nominal morphology 3 • Western-type system of plural making: Sg PL Mombo Ø -ŋge/-ge Penange Ø -ge Ampari Ø ge Bunoge Ø ge Also found in Tiranige (see below)

  18. Nominal morphology 4: North-West AnSg AnPl Inan Nanga -Ø (-ŋ) Ø Ø Ben Tey -m Ø Ø Bankan Tey -m Ø Ø In Nanga only yǎ-ŋ ‘woman’ (pl. yǎ: ‘women’) has singular nasal suffix

  19. Plural marking in Tiranige ?1 Tiranige shows clear affinities with Western group (Mombo, Penange, Ampari, Bunoge) in nominal morphology (1) Plural formation: Tiranige ná: ‘cow’ ná: gé ‘cows’ táŋgílè 'side‘ táŋgílè gè ‘sides’ (2) Plural formation: Ampari (WEST) gá:wà ‘bone’ gá:wá-gè ‘bones’ nâ: ‘cow’ ná:-gè ‘cows’ Cf. Class system in Najamba kindige

  20. Tiranige: What happened? • Tiranige is originally North-Eastern (NED) language that borrowed nominal morphology (and some lexicon) from Western Dogon (WD) • Tiranige is originally WD that borrowed lexicon from NED • Tiranige is a separate branch, that is equally close to both WD and NED

  21. Frozen class suffixes in WD and Tiranige ‘peanut’ Najamba ɛ́lɛ́ (PL), ɛ́lɛ́-ŋgó (SG) Mombo ɔ́lɔ́ŋgé Tiranige ɛ̀:lɛ̀ŋgè NB: disharmonic combinations ɔ/e and ɛ/e in Mombo and Tiranige

  22. Frozen class suffixes … ‘blood’ Najamba gěn (Pl) gěŋ-gé (Sg) Mombo gè:ŋgé Tiranige jé:ŋgé

  23. Conclusion 1 • 4 groups can be securely identified based on lexicostatistical and morphological data East: Toro Tegu, Tomo Kan, Togo Kan, Perge, Jamsay, Donno So, Tommo So, Yorno So North-East (NED): Najamba-Kindige, Yanda, Tebul, Dogulu North-West (NWD): Ben Tey, Bankan Tey, Nanga West (WD): Mombo, Penange, Ampari, Bunoge

  24. Conclusion 2 • Tiranige shows some lexical grammatical proximity to both WD and NED, but none of them is decisive for defining it’s (inner) affiliation • Tiranige (for now) is better considered as separate branch • Common WD-NED-Tiranige features (cf. frozen class suffixes) may indicate that these languages form a bigger group within the family or an intensive mutual contact influence that these language were subject to in the past.

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