Difference between revisions of "Sereer Grammar"

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| with|| fo || fo ɟapil "with the knife", fo otɛo "with the woman"
 
| with|| fo || fo ɟapil "with the knife", fo otɛo "with the woman"
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| at || onga || || yes || JM_021, VW_068 || || || temporal
 
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|-
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| behind/after || aciⁿɉ || || || JM_021, VW_040 || || ||
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|-
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| amidst/between/surrounded by/inside || ⁿdɛɛr || || || VW_024 || || ||
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|-
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| in front of || mbaambir || || || JM_021, VW_054 || || ||
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|-
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| over/above/on/up || tok || || || JM_021, VW_040 || || || used also as adv. "up"
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|-
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| under || ɗoχang || ɗoχaᵑɡ, ɗoχaŋ || || JM_021 || || ||
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|-
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| in/inside || kam || || || JM_021, VW_040 || || ||
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|-
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| near/by/next to || paam || pam || || JM_021, VW_040 || || ||
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|-
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| behind || ka'taa || || || VW_040 || || ||
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|-
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| around || kɛˈʋidna || || || VW_040 || || ||
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|-
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| outside || ˈtafil || || || VW_040 || || || also N "outside"
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|-
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| inside/in between/in the middle || a'ndeer || || || JM_012, VW_040 || || ||
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|-
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| at || non || || || VW_024 || || ||
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| toward || ɟof, ɟofin, ɟofna || || || VW_024 || || ||
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|-
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| near to || mɛmaʔna || || || VW_024 || || ||
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|-
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| far from || mɛgotna || || || VW_024 || || ||
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|-
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| to || mɛna, mɛn || || || VW_054 || || ||
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|-
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| at || n- || || || VW_054 || || || eg. noboχolɛ "at the dog"
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| with || fo || || || VW_054 || || ||
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|-
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| before || bala || || || VW_054 || || ||
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|-
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| from || χatna no- || || || VW_068 || || ||
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|-
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| from || inoorna no- || || || VW_068 || || ||
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|-
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| during || anaᵑga || || || VW_068 || || ||
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|-
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| during || yɛtɛ || || || VW_068 || || ||
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| during/in || na || || || VW_068 || || ||
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| until || botɛ || || || VW_068 || || ||
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|-
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| until || bona || || || VW_068 || || ||
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|-
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| until || booyaatɛ || || || VW_068 || || ||
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|}
 
|}
 
|}
   

Revision as of 13:38, 15 October 2012

This is the Wiki page for Sereer.

Sereer a language of the Senegambian branch of Niger–Congo spoken by 1.2 million people in Senegal and 30,000 in The Gambia. It is the principal language of the Sereer people.

Getting started

The handout provided by MediaWiki is below:

In addition to the handbook, a great way to learn how to format Wiki is by poking around Wikipedia, looking for interesting ideas, and clicking the edit button next to them. This is how I figured out how to create sortable lists, for example.

Another question is how we will generate interlinear glosses. The table environment is probably our best bet. This is how most LaTeX glossing packages work.

Ancillary pages

List monomorphemic lexical items and associated information here.

Upload recordings and annotations here.

This is where wordlists for individual elicitation sessions can be uploaded and checked to avoid redundant work.

Upload completed class presentations here.

Phonology

Main article: Phonological Inventory

Consonants

A tentative consonant inventory of Serer:

Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
Stops V'less p t c~ʧ k q ʔ
Voiced b d ɟ~ʤ g    
Implosive ɓ ɗ ʄ      
Voiceless Implosive ƥ ƭ ƈ      
Prenasalized ᵐb ⁿd ᶮɟ ᵑg ᶰɢ  
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ    
Fricative f s     χ~h  
Tap/Trill   ɾ~r        
Liquid   l        
Glide ʋ~β̞~w   j      

Vowels

A tentative vowel inventory of Serer:

Front Central Back
High i ~ ɪ u ~ ʊ
Mid e ~ ɛ   ɔ ~ o
Low a~ə  

Serer also has diphthongs: aɪ, oɪ, ɔɪ.

Vowel length is contrastive.

Vowels after implosive consonants are sometimes creaky; this does not seem to be contrastive.

Suprasegmentals

Serer makes use of stress. (?) It is unclear at this point whether it is automatically/metrically assigned to words or if it is lexically specified and unpredictable.

Plural marker χa- (supposing that it is a separate morpheme) seems to attract stress in some instances (e.g. aˈlas "tail", ˈχalas "tails").


Spectrograms and Audio Samples of Consonants

Phonological Alternations

Phonotactics

Loanword Phonology

Borrowed words show phonemes that are not normally present in Serer, like /y/, in the word borrowed from French for 'wall' (etc).

Morphology

Nominal Morphology

Verbal Morphology

Tense (and aspect) Paradigm Table

Derivational Verbal Morphology

Syntax

Questions

Imperatives

Sentences with sound files

Word Order

Word order in possessive constructions appears to be possessum-possessor, as seen in [muusnɛ noⁿdɛboᵑgɛ] 'a boy's cat' (040).


N-Adj order, as in [ino fop] 'all of us' (054), and [muus fodadaru] 'clumsy cat' (068)

Adpositions

Position in Sereer is mostly indicated with prepositions. Currently, it's not clear if all these prepositions can be used verbally. Some can, i.e. ɟof no taχarkɛ "towards the trees" and mɛhɛ ɟofaa "I am going toward (something)".


Gloss Adposition Example Sentence
by, next to, near pam pam ⁿdaχarnɛ "by the tree"
behind acinᶮɟ acinᶮɟ ᵐbinɛ "behind the house"
amidst/between/surrounded by/inside ⁿdɛɛr ⁿdɛɛr taχarkɛ "amidst the trees"
between, in the middle between ⁿdɛɛⁿdɛr ⁿdɛɛⁿdɛr taχarkɛ "between the (two) trees"
at non non ⁿdaχarnɛ "at the tree"
under ɗoχaᵑɡ, ɗoχaŋ ɗoχaᵑɡ ᵐbaɟnɛ "under the blanket"
toward ɟof, ɟofin, ɟofna ɟofna noqololɛ "toward the field"
near to mɛmaʔna mɛˈmaʔna ⁿdaχarnɛ "close to the tree"
far from mɛgotna mɛgotna ⁿdaχarnɛ "far from the tree"
behind kaˈtaa
around kɛˈʋidna
outside ˈtafil
inside/in kam
over/above/on tok
in front of ᵐbaaᵐbir
with fo fo ɟapil "with the knife", fo otɛo "with the woman" at onga yes JM_021, VW_068 temporal
behind/after aciⁿɉ JM_021, VW_040
amidst/between/surrounded by/inside ⁿdɛɛr VW_024
in front of mbaambir JM_021, VW_054
over/above/on/up tok JM_021, VW_040 used also as adv. "up"
under ɗoχang ɗoχaᵑɡ, ɗoχaŋ JM_021
in/inside kam JM_021, VW_040
near/by/next to paam pam JM_021, VW_040
behind ka'taa VW_040
around kɛˈʋidna VW_040
outside ˈtafil VW_040 also N "outside"
inside/in between/in the middle a'ndeer JM_012, VW_040
at non VW_024
toward ɟof, ɟofin, ɟofna VW_024
near to mɛmaʔna VW_024
far from mɛgotna VW_024
to mɛna, mɛn VW_054
at n- VW_054 eg. noboχolɛ "at the dog"
with fo VW_054
before bala VW_054
from χatna no- VW_068
from inoorna no- VW_068
during anaᵑga VW_068
during yɛtɛ VW_068
during/in na VW_068
until botɛ VW_068
until bona VW_068
until booyaatɛ VW_068

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Old Pages

- Bari grammar (old main page) - Recordings and transcriptions (Bari) - Bari lexicon