Gur languages

Gur languages
formerly Voltaic languages

Branch of the huge Niger-Congo language family.

Gur comprises some 85 languages and language complexes spoken by about 20,000,000 people mainly in Burkina Faso, northern Côte d'Ivoire, northern Ghana, and northern Togo. Moore in Burkina Faso has the largest number of speakers, more than 6,000,000 (see Mossi). Once considered a Gur language, Dogon is spoken by about 600,000 people in Mali; it is of uncertain affiliation within Niger-Congo.

* * *

formerly  Voltaic languages 

      a branch of the Niger-Congo language family (Niger-Congo languages) comprising some 85 languages that are spoken by approximately 20 million people in the savanna lands north of the forest belt that runs from southeastern Mali across northern Côte d'Ivoire, through much of Burkina Faso, to all of northern Ghana, Togo, and Benin. Moore, which is spoken by some five million people, is the most widely used language of the branch.

      Most Gur languages fall into one of two groups: Central Gur and Senufo. Central Gur itself breaks down into two major subgroups, termed Oti-Volta (with some 25 languages in Ghana, Togo, Benin, and Burkina Faso) and Grusi (with a further 20 languages, some to the west and others to the east of the Oti-Volta group). The largest languages in the Oti-Volta group include Moore, the principal language of eastern Burkina Faso; Gurma (600,000); Gurenne (550,000); Dagbani, the principal language of northern Ghana (500,000); and Dagaari (450,000), spoken in northwestern Ghana. Among the Grusi languages, Kabiye (550,000) is widely spoken as a second language in northern Togo so that approximately 1,200,000 people use it.

      The Senufo group, with some 20 languages, is situated to the west of the Central Gur group in northern Côte d'Ivoire, southwestern Burkina Faso, and southeastern Mali. Within this group are Senari (700,000), Mamara (500,000), and Supyire (400,000).

      One characteristic of Gur languages is the widespread occurrence of syllabic nasals (nasal), which contrast in distribution with both consonantal nasals and nasalized vowels and occur only initially in the word, carrying their own tone and syllabic timing, as can be seen, for example, in the Dagbani words nzugu ‘my head' and mbia ‘my child.' Another characteristic of Gur languages is the presence of noun class systems—that is, systems in which every noun is marked by one of a set of affixes and other elements of the clause are also marked by an affix determined by the respective noun class. Also notable is the contrast between imperfective and perfective (expressing completed action) forms of the verb. There are tonal systems (tone) as well, which usually carry grammatical rather than lexical functions.

John T. Bendor-Samuel
 

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Gur languages — Infobox Language family name=Savannas region=West Africa, around Burkina Faso in the west to CAR in the east familycolor=Niger Congo fam2=Atlantic Congo fam3=Savannas child1=Northern Gur child2=Southern GurThe Gur languages, also known as Central …   Wikipedia

  • Gur — can refer to: *A group of languages, see Gur languages *An agricultural product of India, see Jaggery *Ground Under Repair, a term used in Golf *A village in Tibet, see Gur, Tibet *Gur Kimchi, a Microsoft Architect working on Virtual Earth, also… …   Wikipedia

  • Languages of Ghana — Different sources give different figures for the number of languages of Ghana. This is because of different classifications of varieties as either languages or dialects. Ethnologue lists a total of 79 languages.As with many ex colonies in Africa …   Wikipedia

  • Languages of the African Union — The languages of the African Union (AU) are languages used by citizens within the member states of the AU. The Union has defined all languages of Africa as official, and currently uses Arabic, English, French, and Portuguese as its working… …   Wikipedia

  • GUR, BATYA — (1947–2005), Israeli writer and literary critic. Gur was born in Tel Aviv, studied Hebrew literature and history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and completed her M.A. in comparative studies. She worked as a high school teacher before… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • Gur-Sprachen — Die Gur Sprachen oder voltaischen Sprachen bilden eine Untereinheit des Nord Volta Kongo Zweigs der Niger Kongo Sprachen. Die etwa 75 Gur Sprachen werden in einem zusammenhängenden Territorium, das vom Südosten Malis über die nördliche… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Languages of Nigeria — Linguistic map of Nigeria, Cameroon, and Benin …   Wikipedia

  • Languages of Mali — Mali is a multilingual country. The languages spoken there reflect ancient settlement patterns, migrations, and its long history. Ethnologue counts 50 languages. Of these, French is the official language and Bambara is the most widely spoken.… …   Wikipedia

  • Gur — /goor/, n. a branch of the Niger Congo subfamily of languages, including Mossi and other languages spoken in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Ivory Coast, and Mali. Also called Voltaic. * * * …   Universalium

  • Gur — n. Voltaic, group of languages spoken in western Africa, subgroup of the Niger Congo family of languages …   English contemporary dictionary

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”