Difference between revisions of "Sereer Grammar"

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[[Adpositions]]
 
[[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)".
 
 
 
 
{|class="wikitable"
 
 
! Gloss || Aposition || || Position || Source || || || Notes, Example Sentences
 
|-
 
| at || onga || || posposed to N || JM_021, VW_068 || || || temporal
 
|-
 
| behind/after || aciⁿɉ || || || JM_021, VW_040 || || || acinᶮɟ ᵐbinɛ "behind the house"
 
|-
 
| amidst/between/surrounded by/inside || ⁿdɛɛr || || || VW_024 || || || ⁿdɛɛr taχarkɛ "amidst the trees"
 
|-
 
| between, in the middle between (2 things) || ⁿdɛɛrⁿdɛr || || || VW_024 || || || ⁿdɛɛⁿdɛr taχarkɛ "between the (two) trees"
 
|-
 
| 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 || || || ɗoχaᵑɡ ᵐbaɟnɛ "under the blanket"
 
|-
 
| in/inside || kam || || || JM_021, VW_040 || || ||
 
|-
 
| near/by/next to || paam || pam || || JM_021, VW_040 || || || pam ⁿdaχarnɛ "by the tree"
 
|-
 
| 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 || || || non ⁿdaχarnɛ "at the tree"
 
|-
 
| toward || ɟof, ɟofin, ɟofna || || || VW_024 || || || ɟofna noqololɛ "toward the field"
 
|-
 
| near to || mɛmaʔna || || || VW_024 || || || mɛˈmaʔna ⁿdaχarnɛ "close to the tree"
 
|-
 
| far from || mɛgotna || || || VW_024 || || ||
 
|-
 
| to || mɛna, mɛn || || || VW_054 || || ||
 
|-
 
| at || n- || || || VW_054 || || || eg. noboχolɛ "at the dog"
 
|-
 
| with || fo || || || VW_054 || || || fo ɟapil "with the knife", fo otɛo "with the woman"
 
|-
 
| 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 || || ||
 
|-
 
| in front of || adoχ || || || VW_038 (JH_039) || || || derived from "leader" N
 
|}
 
   
 
= Texts =
 
= Texts =

Revision as of 07:57, 29 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 handbook provided by MediaWiki is below:

Ancillary pages

List monomorphemic lexical items and associated information here.

Upload recordings and annotations here.

Backup and download the FLEx files here.

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

Upload completed class presentations here.

Find code here to make things (tables, interlinear glosses) on the Wiki.

Phonology

Main article: Phonological Inventory

Consonants

A tentative consonant inventory of Sereer Saalum is given below. Working orthography for a given symbol is indicated in parentheses following a symbol if the orthography differs from the IPA.

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

Vowels

A tentative vowel inventory of Sereer Saalum is given below. Orthographic versions of vowels are given in parentheses.

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

Vowel length is contrastive; all vowels have long versions.

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

Suprasegmentals

Serer makes use of stress. Stress is largely assigned metrically, with a preference for left-anchored iambs (if V-shaped prefixes are taken to be part of the noun's phonological word) or right-anchored trochees (if they are not). Some irregularities, especially concerning the frequent noun plural agreement prefix xa-, are yet to be worked out.

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 [myr] 'wall' (Fr. mur), or /ʃ/ in [maʃin] 'machine, device' (Fr. machine).

Morphology

Nominal Morphology

Compounds

Verbal Morphology

Tense (and aspect) Paradigm Table

Inflectional Verbal Morphology

Derivational Verbal Morphology

Syntax

main clause word order and pronominalization
I'm not sure where this stuff really belongs, so I just made a page for it. Feel free to move it. -JM

Negation

Questions

Imperatives and Hortatives

Relative Clauses

Sentences with sound files Ignore these for now, I will relocate them. --136.152.188.149 20:36, 23 October 2012 (UTC) Who is "I"? Faytak 23:24, 24 October 2012 (UTC)

Adjectives and Adverbs

Valence patterns and alignment

Copular clauses and other copula-like things

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

Adpositions

Texts

File:121011G 067 Sereer time anecdote.wav

Old Pages

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