Dogon languages

The Dogon languages are spoken by the Dogon in Mali. There are about 600,000 speakers of a dozen languages. They are tonal languages, most like Dogul Dom having two tones, some like Donno So having three.

The place of Dogon inside the Niger-Congo family is not clear, and the evidence linking them to Niger-Congo is weak. Various theories have been proposed, placing them in Gur, Mande, or as an independent branch, the last now being the preferred theory. The Dogon languages show no remnants of the noun class system characteristic of much of Niger-Congo, leading linguists to conclude that they likely diverged from Niger-Congo very early. The basic word order is Subject Object Verb.

The Bambara and Fula languages have exerted significant influence on Dogon, due to their close cultural and geographical ties.

Languages

The Dogon consider themselves a single ethnic group, but recognize that their languages are different.

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 has been selected as one of thirteen national languages 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, and Jamsay and Tommo so are most conservative linguistically.

Hochstetler et al. (2004) recognize 17 varieties, each of which may have mutually intelligible internal variation, and a few of which may be mutually intelligible with each other, though most comparisons were done with Toro So. Griaule grouped the varieties as follows:

• Plain Dogon: Jamsay tegu, Tɔrɔ tegu, Tene kã, Tomo kã
• Escarpment Dogon: Tɔrɔ sɔɔ, Tɔmmɔ sɔɔ, Donno sɔ (aka Kamma sɔ)
• West Dogon: Tiranige dige (aka Duleri dom), Ejenge dõ
• North Plateau Dogon: Bondum dom, Dogulu dom
• Yanda dom
• Oru yille
• Naŋa dama (aka Naŋa tegu)

According to Hochstetler, there is an additional variety,

• Korandabo (aka Budu sɔ),

which is reported to be mutually unintelligible with other varieties. Two villages, Oualo and Koumbe-Na, are reported to have another unintelligible variety, but Hochstetler suspect that it may be Naŋa dama.

Plains: Hochstetler divides Tene kã into Teŋu kã and Togo kã, which are mutually intelligible with each other and with Tomo kã. However, they report difficulties in comprehension between Tomo kã and Tɔrɔ tegu. They suggest that Naŋa dama may be close to Jamsay tegu.

Escarpment: Hochstetler confirms that the escarpment varieties are mutually intelligible.

West: Hochstetler divides Ejenge dõ into Mombo and Ampari kora. The Ampari appear to understand Mombo but not vice versa; this may be learned intelligibility, since the Ampari visit Mombo yearly.

Bangi-me (aka Baŋgɛri mɛ), formerly considered a divergent branch of Dogon, turns out not to be Dogon at all, and is possibly a language isolate (Blench 2005b).

References

• Bendor-Samuel, John & Olsen, Elizabeth J. & White, Ann R. (1989) 'Dogon', in Bendor-Samuel & Rhonda L. Hartell (eds.) The Niger-Congo languages — A classification and description of Africa's largest language family (pp. 169-177). Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America.
• Bertho, J. (1953) 'La place des dialectes dogon de la falaise de Bandiagara parmi les autres groupes linguistiques de la zone soudanaise,' Bulletin de l'IFAN, 15, 405–441.
• Blench, Roger (2005a) 'A survey of Dogon languages in Mali: Overview', OGMIOS: Newsletter of Foundation for Endangered Languages, 3.02 (#26), 14-15. (Online version: http://www.ogmios.org/266.htm, Retrieved June 26, 2005).
• Blench, Roger (2005b) 'Baŋgi me, a language of unknown affiliation in Northern Mali', OGMIOS: Newsletter of Foundation for Endangered Languages, 3.02 (#26), 15-16. (report with wordlist)
• Calame-Griaule, Geneviève (1956) Les dialectes Dogon. Africa, 26 (1), 62-72.
• Calame-Griaule, Geneviève (1968) Dictionnaire Dogon Dialecte tɔrɔ: Langue et Civilisation. Paris: Klincksieck: Paris.
• Heath, Jeffrey (2008) A grammar of Jamsay. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
• Hochstetler, J. Lee, Durieux, J.A. & E.I.K. Durieux-Boon (2004) Sociolinguistic Survey of the Dogon Language Area. SIL International. online version
• Plungian, Vladimir Aleksandraovič (1995) Dogon (Languages of the world materials vol. 64). München: LINCOM Europa
• Williamson, Kay & Blench, Roger (2000) 'Niger-Congo', in Heine, Bernd and Nurse, Derek (eds) African Languages - An Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University press, pp. 11—42.

See also

Languages of Mali

External links

• Guide linguistique dogon, on the French Wikitravel
• Dogon linguistics website
• Dogon languages on Rogerblench.info (includes linguistic data and pictures)
• Dogon Languages and Linguistics An (sic) Comprehensive Annotated Bibliography Abbie Hantgan (2007)

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