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The complex noun class system of Baïnounk Gubëeher, a hitherto undescribed minority language whos... more The complex noun class system of Baïnounk Gubëeher, a hitherto undescribed minority language whose speakers are concentrated in Djibonker, Casamance/Senegal, combines a very large number of prefixes and a plural suffix, which occur in paradigms, conveying number and configurational information. The choice of the paradigm as basic unit of analysis as pursued here provides a new perspective on noun class systems. A detailed description of the paradigms attested in Gubëeher, including their semantic contribution to the nouns they derive from roots are the main concern of this thesis. The systematic aspects of how the paradigms are employed in Gubëeher are highly relevant in this context. Their role
Copyright © and Moral Rights for this thesis are retained by the author and/or other copyright o... more Copyright © and Moral Rights for this thesis are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non‐commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder/s. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. When referring to this thesis, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full thesis title", name of the School or Department, PhD Thesis, pagination.
Cet article présente les aspects sociolinguistiques et linguistiques d'une situation plur... more Cet article présente les aspects sociolinguistiques et linguistiques d'une situation plurilingue dans un contexte rural en Casamance (Sénégal). En nous basant sur des recherches interdisciplinaires en cours, nous introduisons les langues patrimoniales associées aux villages que nous étudions. Nous élaborons ensuite le dualisme entre langue patrimoniale en tant que construit identitaire et usage fluide dans le discours et identifions les motivations de cette stratégie duale et comment elle s'insère dans les id²ologies linguistiques locales, régionales et nationales. Nous finissons par exposer les conséquences de ce type de plurilinguisme de longue durée sur les systèmes linguistiques et le défi qu'il pose pour une tradition descriptive basée sur la notion d'une langue et non pas sur celle d'un répertoire dynamique. Nous proposons un modèle inspiré par la théorie des prototypes servant comme repère pour ancrer la description de la variation et de l'hybridité qui caractérisent le discours.
Journal of African Languages and Linguistics, 2018
The Santo Antão variety (SA) of Cape Verdean Creole (CVC) is not only very little studied but the... more The Santo Antão variety (SA) of Cape Verdean Creole (CVC) is not only very little studied but the existing publications, overwhelmingly in Portuguese, are not well known among a wider linguistic audience. This is particularly surprising if we consider that from the first Cape Verdean census, in 1731 (Carreira 1984), until the 1970s Santo Antão has been the second most populous island of the archipelago. The article presents a review of the literature from historical sources about the settlement of Santo Antão, which then serves as a base from which to reconsider current debates about the genesis of CVC. Linguistic data, mainly of phonological nature, from conversations recorded during a short field trip to Santo Antão (Cabo da Ribeira and Vila das Pombas), complemented by existing data on other varieties of CVC, are used to support the proposed hypotheses.
Journal of African Languages and Linguistics, 2017
This paper re-evaluates hypotheses about the agreement behaviour of nouns using plural suffixes i... more This paper re-evaluates hypotheses about the agreement behaviour of nouns using plural suffixes in the Baïnounk languages (Niger Congo/ Atlantic/ North Atlantic). Although these languages dispose of a large and complex prefixing noun class systems which are involved in expressing number distinctions, a subgroup of nouns uses a suffix for pluralisation. It is shown here that plural-suffixing nouns do not engage in the typologically rare process of phonological agreement copying as has been claimed previously. Instead, they are prefixed nouns, triggering alliterative agreement. Several scenarios about the origin and further development of the plural suffixes are presented. Synchronic data suggest that plural suffixes are older than the split of Nyun-Buy languages from a common ancestor. It is highly unlikely that it is borrowed from Mandinka, a regionally influential lingua franca which does not have noun classes. Instead, it seems plausible that plural suffixes have arisen through in...
Africana Linguistica, 2015
Studies in Language Companion Series, 2014
http://deniscreissels.fr N.B. Par rapport à la version précédemment mise en ligne, celle-ci prése... more http://deniscreissels.fr N.B. Par rapport à la version précédemment mise en ligne, celle-ci présente quelques adjonctions et corrections, mais surtout, la notation tonale a été entièrement revue. La raison est que l'analyse des alternances tonales en fin de mot et du comportement tonal des enclitiques, qui était encore en cours lors de la mise en ligne de la version précédente, a été depuis achevée, ce qui a permis de rectifier quelques inexactitudes dans la transcription tonale des exemples et de proposer un système plus satisfaisant de représentation de la structure tonale des unités dans les entrées lexicales. * Les enquêtes d'avril 2010, novembre 2010 et novembre 2011 ont été réalisées dans le cadre de missions financées par le programme Sénélangues de documentation des langues du Sénégal (Projet ANR-09-BLAN-0326).
Journal of Language Contact, 2010
The complex noun class system of Baïnounk Gubëeher, a hitherto undescribed minority language whos... more The complex noun class system of Baïnounk Gubëeher, a hitherto undescribed minority language whose speakers are concentrated in Djibonker, Casamance/Senegal, combines a very large number of prefixes and a plural suffix, which occur in paradigms, conveying number and configurational information. The choice of the paradigm as basic unit of analysis as pursued here provides a new perspective on noun class systems. A detailed description of the paradigms attested in Gubëeher, including their semantic contribution to the nouns they derive from roots are the main concern of this thesis. The systematic aspects of how the paradigms are employed in Gubëeher are highly relevant in this context. Their role
Copyright © and Moral Rights for this thesis are retained by the author and/or other copyright o... more Copyright © and Moral Rights for this thesis are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non‐commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder/s. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. When referring to this thesis, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full thesis title", name of the School or Department, PhD Thesis, pagination.
Cet article présente les aspects sociolinguistiques et linguistiques d'une situation plur... more Cet article présente les aspects sociolinguistiques et linguistiques d'une situation plurilingue dans un contexte rural en Casamance (Sénégal). En nous basant sur des recherches interdisciplinaires en cours, nous introduisons les langues patrimoniales associées aux villages que nous étudions. Nous élaborons ensuite le dualisme entre langue patrimoniale en tant que construit identitaire et usage fluide dans le discours et identifions les motivations de cette stratégie duale et comment elle s'insère dans les id²ologies linguistiques locales, régionales et nationales. Nous finissons par exposer les conséquences de ce type de plurilinguisme de longue durée sur les systèmes linguistiques et le défi qu'il pose pour une tradition descriptive basée sur la notion d'une langue et non pas sur celle d'un répertoire dynamique. Nous proposons un modèle inspiré par la théorie des prototypes servant comme repère pour ancrer la description de la variation et de l'hybridité qui caractérisent le discours.
Journal of African Languages and Linguistics, 2018
The Santo Antão variety (SA) of Cape Verdean Creole (CVC) is not only very little studied but the... more The Santo Antão variety (SA) of Cape Verdean Creole (CVC) is not only very little studied but the existing publications, overwhelmingly in Portuguese, are not well known among a wider linguistic audience. This is particularly surprising if we consider that from the first Cape Verdean census, in 1731 (Carreira 1984), until the 1970s Santo Antão has been the second most populous island of the archipelago. The article presents a review of the literature from historical sources about the settlement of Santo Antão, which then serves as a base from which to reconsider current debates about the genesis of CVC. Linguistic data, mainly of phonological nature, from conversations recorded during a short field trip to Santo Antão (Cabo da Ribeira and Vila das Pombas), complemented by existing data on other varieties of CVC, are used to support the proposed hypotheses.
Journal of African Languages and Linguistics, 2017
This paper re-evaluates hypotheses about the agreement behaviour of nouns using plural suffixes i... more This paper re-evaluates hypotheses about the agreement behaviour of nouns using plural suffixes in the Baïnounk languages (Niger Congo/ Atlantic/ North Atlantic). Although these languages dispose of a large and complex prefixing noun class systems which are involved in expressing number distinctions, a subgroup of nouns uses a suffix for pluralisation. It is shown here that plural-suffixing nouns do not engage in the typologically rare process of phonological agreement copying as has been claimed previously. Instead, they are prefixed nouns, triggering alliterative agreement. Several scenarios about the origin and further development of the plural suffixes are presented. Synchronic data suggest that plural suffixes are older than the split of Nyun-Buy languages from a common ancestor. It is highly unlikely that it is borrowed from Mandinka, a regionally influential lingua franca which does not have noun classes. Instead, it seems plausible that plural suffixes have arisen through in...
Africana Linguistica, 2015
Studies in Language Companion Series, 2014
http://deniscreissels.fr N.B. Par rapport à la version précédemment mise en ligne, celle-ci prése... more http://deniscreissels.fr N.B. Par rapport à la version précédemment mise en ligne, celle-ci présente quelques adjonctions et corrections, mais surtout, la notation tonale a été entièrement revue. La raison est que l'analyse des alternances tonales en fin de mot et du comportement tonal des enclitiques, qui était encore en cours lors de la mise en ligne de la version précédente, a été depuis achevée, ce qui a permis de rectifier quelques inexactitudes dans la transcription tonale des exemples et de proposer un système plus satisfaisant de représentation de la structure tonale des unités dans les entrées lexicales. * Les enquêtes d'avril 2010, novembre 2010 et novembre 2011 ont été réalisées dans le cadre de missions financées par le programme Sénélangues de documentation des langues du Sénégal (Projet ANR-09-BLAN-0326).
Journal of Language Contact, 2010