Dogon Languages
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The Dogon languages are a small closely related
language family A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family. The term ''family'' is a metaphor borrowed from biology, with the tree model used in historical linguistics ...
that is spoken by the Dogon people of
Mali Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east b ...
and may belong to the proposed Niger–Congo family. There are about 600,000 speakers of its dozen languages. They are tonal languages, and most, like Dogul, have two tones, but some, like Donno So, have three. Their basic
word order In linguistics, word order (also known as linear order) is the order of the syntactic constituents of a language. Word order typology studies it from a cross-linguistic perspective, and examines how languages employ different orders. Correlatio ...
is subject–object–verb.


External relationships

The evidence linking Dogon to the Niger–Congo family is mainly a few numerals and some common core vocabulary. Various theories have been proposed, placing them with Gur, Mande, or as an independent branch, the last now being the preferred approach. The Dogon languages show very few remnants of the
noun class In linguistics, a noun class is a particular category of nouns. A noun may belong to a given class because of the characteristic features of its referent, such as gender, animacy, shape, but such designations are often clearly conventional. Some ...
system characteristic of much of Niger–Congo, leading linguists to conclude that they likely diverged from Niger–Congo very early. Roger Blench comments, and: The Bamana and
Fula language Fula ( ),Laurie Bauer, 2007, ''The Linguistics Student's Handbook'', Edinburgh also known as Fulani ( ) or Fulah (, , ; Adlam script, Adlam: , , ; Ajami script, Ajami: , , ), is a Senegambian languages, Senegambian language spoken by arou ...
s have exerted significant influence on Dogon, due to their close cultural and geographical ties. Blench (2015) speculates that Bangime and Dogon languages may have a substratum from a "missing" branch of Nilo-Saharan that had split off relatively early from Proto-Nilo-Saharan, and tentatively calls that branch "Plateau".


Internal classification

The Dogon consider themselves a single ethnic group, but recognise that their languages are different. In Dogon cosmology, Dogon constitutes six of the twelve languages of the world (the others being Fulfulde, Mooré, Bambara, Bozo and Tamasheq). Jamsay is thought to be the original Dogon language, but the Dogon "recognise a myriad of tiny distinctions even between parts of villages and sometimes individuals, and strive to preserve these" (Hochstetler 2004:18). The best-studied Dogon language is the escarpment language Toro So (Tɔrɔ sɔɔ) of Sanga, due to Marcel Griaule's studies there and because Toro So was selected as one of thirteen
national language '' '' A national language is a language (or language variant, e.g. dialect) that has some connection— de facto or de jure—with a nation. The term is applied quite differently in various contexts. One or more languages spoken as first languag ...
s of Mali. It is mutually intelligible with other escarpment varieties. However, the plains languages—Tene Ka, Tomo Ka, and Jamsay, which are not intelligible with Toro so—have more speakers. Bangime language ( Baŋgɛri mɛ), is considered a divergent branch of Dogon by some and a possible language isolate by others (Blench 2005b). It is now generally considered to be an isolate.


Calame-Griaule (1956)

Calame-Griaule appears to have been the first to work out the various varieties of Dogon. Calame-Griaule (1956) classified the languages as follows, with accommodation given for languages which have since been discovered (new Dogon languages were reported as late as 2005), or have since been shown to be mutually intelligible (as Hochstetler confirmed for the escarpment dialects). The two standard languages are asterisked. *Plains Dogon: Jamsai,* Tɔrɔ tegu, Western Plains (dialects: Togo kã, Tengu kã, Tomo kã) * Escarpment Dogon (dialects: Tɔrɔ sɔɔ,*
Tommo so Tommo So is a language spoken in the eastern part of Mali's Mopti Region. It is placed under the Dogon language family, a subfamily of the Niger-Congo language family. There are approximately 60,000 speakers of Tommo So. Of the twelve Dogon l ...
, Donno sɔ Kamma sɔ) *West Dogon: Duleri, Mombo, AmpariPenange; Budu *North Plateau Dogon: Bondum, Dogul * Yanda *Nanga: Naŋa, Bankan Tey (Walo), Ben Tey * Tebul Douyon and Blench (2005) report an additional variety, which is as yet unclassified: * Ana Tiŋa. Blench noted that the plural suffix on nouns suggests that Budu is closest to Mombo, so it has been tentatively included as West Dogon above. He also notes that Walo–Kumbe is lexically similar to Naŋa; Hochstetler suspects it may be Naŋa. The similarities between these languages may be shared with Yanda. These are all extremely poorly known.


''Glottolog'' 4.3

''
Glottolog ''Glottolog'' is an open-access online bibliographic database of the world's languages. In addition to listing linguistic materials ( grammars, articles, dictionaries) describing individual languages, the database also contains the most up-to-d ...
'' 4.3 synthesises classifications from Moran & Prokić (2013) and Hochstetler (2004). Moran & Prokić (2013) argue for a binary east-west split within Dogon, with Yanda Dom Dogon, Tebul Ure Dogon, and Najamba-Kindige as originally western Dogon languages that have become increasingly more similar to eastern Dogon languages due to intensive contact. * Dogon **''Western division'' ***West Dogon **** Ampari Dogon **** Bunoge Dogon **** Mombo Dogon ****
Penange Dogon Penange Dogon is a Dogon language spoken in Mali. It is close to Ampari language, Ampari. The language was first described as distinct in 2011 by Prokhorov. The Penange Dogon speakers live in the village of Pinia (''péná)'' in Bandiagara Cercl ...
**** Tiranige Diga Dogon ***North Plateau Dogon **** Dogul Dom Dogon ****Yanda-Bondum-Tebul ***** Najamba-Kindige: ''Bondum Dom, Kindige, Najamba'' ***** Tebul Ure Dogon *****Yanda-Ana ****** Ana Tinga Dogon ****** Yanda Dom Dogon **''Eastern division'' ***Escarpment Dogon **** Donno So Dogon **** Tommo So Dogon **** Toro So Dogon: ''Ibi So, Ireli, Sangha So, Yorno So, Youga So'' ***Nangan Dogon **** Bankan Tey Dogon **** Ben Tey Dogon **** Nanga Dogon ***Plains Dogon **** Jamsay Dogon: ''Bama, Domno, Gono, Guru, Perge Tegu'' **** Toro Tegu Dogon **** Western Plains Dogon ***** Tengou-Togo Dogon: ''Gimri Kan, Tengu Kan, Tenu Kan, Togo Kan, Woru Kan'' ***** Tomo Kan Dogon


Comparative vocabulary

Comparison of basic vocabulary words of the Dogon languages,Heath, Jeffrey; McPherson, Laura; Prokhorov, Kirill; Moran, Steven. 2015.
Dogon Comparative Wordlist
'. Unpublished Manuscript.
along with Bangime:Heath, Jeffrey. 2013. Bangime and Dogon Comparative Wordlists. m.s.


Numerals

Comparison of numerals in individual languages:


See also

* Languages of Mali * Dogon word lists (Wiktionary)


Notes


References

* * * * (report with wordlist) * * * * * * *


External links


Dogon and Bangime Linguistics

Dogon linguistics website


on Rogerblench.info (includes linguistic data and pictures)
Dogon Languages and Linguistics An (sic) Comprehensive Annotated Bibliography
Abbie Hantgan (2007) {{Authority control Languages of Burkina Faso Languages of Mali Subject–object–verb languages Language families