Isolates in Atlantic Guillaume Segerer Workshop Language Isolates

‘Isolates’ in ‘Atlantic’ Guillaume Segerer Workshop « Language Isolates in Africa » Lyon – Dec 2010

The ‘Atlantic’ languages and the neighbouring language families

Sapir, J. David (1971). West Atlantic: an inventory of the languages, their noun class systems and consonant alternation. In Sebeok, T. A. (Ed), Current trends in linguistics, 7: linguistics in sub-Saharan Africa, The Hague & Paris : Mouton & Co. , pp. 45 -112. Sapir 1971 : resemblance rates

Sapir 1971 : classification I. Northern Branch A. Sénégal Languages 1. a. Fula b. Serer 2. Wolof B. Cangin Languages (Lehar, Safen, Non; Ndut, (Falor) C. Bak Languages (Lower Casamance) 1. Diola Group: Fogny, Huluf, (other Diola dialects); Gusilay; Karon; Kwaatay; (Bayot) 2. Manjaku; Papel; (Mankanya) 3. Balanta; (Ganja) D. Eastern Sénégal-Portuguese Guinea Languages 1. a. Tenda Group: Tanda, Bassari, Bedik, [Bapeŋ] b. Konyagi 2. Biafada; Pajade 3. a. Kobiana; (Kasanga) b. Banhum E. a. Nalu b. [Mbulungish (otherwise known as Baga Fore)] c. [Baga Mboteni] II. Bijago (isolated) III. Southern Branch A. Sua B. Mel Languages 1. Temne, Baga Koba, (Banta, Landuma, Tyapi, other Baga languages (excluding ‘Fore’ and Mboteni)) 2. Sherbro, Mmani, (other Bullom dialects), Krim; Kisi 3. Gola C. Limba

Wilson, W. A. A. (1989). Atlantic. In Bendor-Samuel, J. T. (Ed), The Niger-Congo languages. Lanham, New York & London : University Press of America, SIL. , pp. 81 -104. Sapir 1971 > Wilson 1989

Sapir 1971 Wilson 1989

The Swadesh list 1 tout 2 cendre 3 écorce 4 ventre 5 gros 6 oiseau 7 mordre 8 noir 9 sang 10 os 11 sein 12 brûler 13 nuage 14 froid 15 venir 16 mourir 17 chien 18 boire 19 sec 20 oreille 21 manger 22 oeuf 23 oeil 24 graisse 25 plume all ashes bark belly big bird to bite black blood bone breast to burn cloud cold to come to die dog to drink dry ear to eat egg eye fat feather the 40 ASJP notions 26 feu 27 poisson 28 pou 29 voler 30 jambe 31 plein 32 donner 33 aller 34 bon 35 terre 36 cheveu 37 bras 38 tête 39 entendre 40 coeur 41 corne 42 chaud 43 moi 44 tuer 45 genou 46 savoir 47 feuille 48 être couché 49 petit 50 foie fire fish louse to fly foot full to give to go good ground hair hand head to heart horn hot I to kill knee to know leaf to lie little liver 51 long 52 homme 53 beaucoup 54 viande 55 lune 56 colline 57 bouche 58 ongle 59 nom 60 cou 61 nouveau 62 nuit 63 NEG 64 nez 65 un 66 personne 67 pluie 68 rouge 69 chemin 70 racine 71 rond 72 sable 73 dire 74 voir 75 graine long many meat moon mountain mouth nail name neck new night no nose one person rain red road root round sand to say to seed 76 s’asseoir 77 peau 78 dormir 79 fumée 80 être debout 81 étoile 82 pierre 83 soleil 84 nager 85 queue 86 cela 87 ceci 88 langue 89 dent 90 arbre 91 deux 92 marcher 93 eau 94 nous 95 quoi ? 96 blanc 97 qui ? 98 femme 99 toi 100 vous to sit skin to sleep smoke to stand star stone sun to swim tail that this tongue tooth tree two to walk water we what white who woman you sg you pl

The data 1 st inventory : 220 sources Elimination of poorly documented sources (less than 75% Swadesh) > - 128 sources - 75 « languages » baga-fore erame kobiana nyun-gunyamolo baga-koba fulfulde konyagi nyun-gubaxer baga-maduri gola krim nyun-gujaxer baga-mboteni jaad landuma palor baga-sitemu joola-banjal lehar pepel balante-kentohe joola-bliss limba pulaar balante-fca joola-ejamat manjaku-bok pular bapen joola-fogny manjaku-tsam safen basari joola-gusilay manjaku-ulund sereer-mar-loj bayot joola-karon manjaku-bassarel sereer-sine bedik joola-kasa manjaku-cur sherbro biafada joola-kasa-esuulaalu manjaku-tsits sua bijogo-kagbaaga joola-kerak mankanya tanda bijogo-kajoko joola-kwaatay mmani temne bijogo-kamona joola-mlomp nalu wolof brame kasanga ndut bullom kisi noon

The data : a sample

The data : cognacy judgments Bijogo Joola Kasa tête bu fu-kow oeil nɛ ji-cil

The data : cognacy judgments (2)

Processing : the Splitstree program

First result hard to read. . .

Detail

Simplification : reduce the number of languages by singling out homogenous branches Balanta Ø 42 ‘languages’

Results (2)

Results (2)

Results (3) Unproblematic groups may be simplified in order to get a more synthetic picture

Final result - 3 big clusters - northern 1 - northern 2 - southern - differences from Sapir : - Wolof-Nyun-Buy - Bijogo together with Bak - Sua together with Mel balante manjaku, mankanya, pepel joola central karon, mlomp kwaatay bayot bijogo nyun, buy wolof cangin tenda biafada, jaad peul sereer nalu, baga mboteni baga temne kisi sherbro, krim sua gola limba

Further arguments for the new classification Class suffixes implosive stops consonant mutation

Additional result Insertion of outer languages: • Mandinka (Mande) • Kabiye (Gur) • Ngomba (Bantoid) • Godie (Kru) balante manjaku, mankanya, pepel joola central karon, mlomp kwaatay bayot bijogo nyun, buy wolof cangin tenda biafada, jaad peul sereer nalu, baga mboteni baga temne kisi sherbro, krim sua gola limba

Warnings about the use of phylogenetic softwares ‘southern’ group (swadesh list) ‘southern’ group + outer languages (ASJP list)

Alternate method Back to Sapir’s use of distance matrix

Distance matrix for ‘Atlantic’ and beyond

Phylogenetic tree and distance matrix balante manjaku, mankanya, pepel joola central karon, mlomp kwaatay bayot bijogo nyun, buy wolof cangin tenda biafada, jaad peul sereer nalu, baga mboteni baga temne kisi sherbro, krim sua gola limba

Singletons (Gola, Limba) Comparison of personal pronouns with ‘nearest’ neighbours Gola Limba Sg Pl 1 mi e 2 mu 3 (w)o Sg Pl 1 yaŋ min ni 2 yi ben a 3 wun-de binde Kisi Temne Sg Pl 1 yá náá 2 nùm 3 ndú Sg Pl 1 min sia ɲá 2 mun nia ndá 3 kɔn ŋa

Singletons (Gola, Limba) Comparison of first numerals with ‘nearest’ neighbours one two three four Gola gun tīel táál tínâ Limba kunte bile bitat binaŋ Temne -in -rəŋ -sàs -aŋlɛ Kisi pi lɛ ɛ -i ŋ, -ɔ ɔ ŋ ŋa a , ya a hi ɔ ɔ lu

New map of 'Atlantic'

Thank you