Farefare language

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Frafra consists of three principal dialects, Gurenɛ (also written Gurunɛ, Gudenne, Gurenne, Gudeni, Zuadeni), Nankani (Naane, Nankanse, Ninkare), and Boone. Nabit and Talni have been mistakenly reported to be Frafra dialects.

Names
The general and accepted name for the language is Farefare or Frafra. The varieties in Ghana are usually called "Gurene", and those in Burkina-Faso are called "Ninkare".

Orthography
The Frafra language uses the letters of the Latin alphabet except for c, j, q, x, and with the addition of ɛ, ɩ, ŋ, ɔ, and ʋ. The tilde is used for showing nasalization in Burkina Faso, but in Ghana it is shown using the letter n. The two nasal vowels /ɛ̃/ and /ɔ̃/ are spelt with ẽ and õ respectively. All long nasal vowels only get their tilde written on the first letter.

Acute, grave, circumflex, caron, and macron are sometimes used in grammar books to indicate tone, but not in general-purpose texts. The apostrophe is used to indicate the glottal stop.

Consonants
Frafra has a system of 17 phonemes (or 19, counting /ɣ/, an allophone of /g/, and /ɾ/, an allophone of /d/): The sound /ŋ/ appears in front of some words starting with /w/, leading them to change into the /j/ sound. /h/ only appears in loanwords, exclamations, and as an allophone of /f/. An example of both of these sound changes are weefo and yeho (both meaning "horse"). The only consonants Frafra words may end in are the two nasals /m/ and /n/.

Glottal stop
Glottal stops appear at the initial vowel of a word, but are not transcribed. Word-medially, vowel nasalization continues over the glottal stop. In rapid speech, the glottal stop is usually dropped, similar to how vowel hiatus gets dropped in Spanish.

Word medial glottal stops must be marked in writing.

Allophones of /r/
[d] and [ɾ] are two phonetic realizations of the same phoneme. [d] occurs at the beginning of words, and [ɾ] is its counterpart everywhere else.

Allophones of /g/
[ɣ] is an allophone of /g/ that occurs after certain vowels. It is mostly written "g." Usage of the letter "ɣ" is quite rare.

Allophones of /j/
[ɲ] is an allophone of /j/ that occurs before a nasal vowel. It is always written as "y."

Sandhi
This section will describe all the morpho-phonological sandhi processes that affect Frafra.

Nasals
Nasal consonants undergo assimilation, coalescence, and elision.

Assimilation at Point of Articulation
Nasals assimilate to the point of articulation of the occlusive the proceed.


 * /m/ goes before /p/ and /b/
 * /n/ goes before /t/ and /d/
 * /ŋ/ goes before /k/

Coalescence
When a nasal is followed by /g/, the two consonants amalgamate.


 * /n/ + /g/ = /ŋ/

This rule does not apply to compound words (e.g. tẽŋgãnnɛ "sacred land") or loanwards (e.g. maŋgo "mango")

Elision
Nasals disappear when they go before /f/


 * /m/ + /f/ = /f/
 * /n/ + /f/ = /f/

Stops
Two voiced stops become their unvoiced form. Remember that [ɾ] is the word-medial allophone of /d/


 * /g/ + /g/ = /k/
 * /r/ + /r/ = /t/

Vibrant assimilation
Vibrant consonants, also called taps, assimilate to a preceding lateral or nasal.


 * /l/ + /r/ = /ll/
 * /n/ + /r/ = /nn/
 * /m/ + /r/ = either /nn/ or /mn/

Lateral assimilation

 * /n/ + /l/ = /nn/
 * /m/ + /l/ = /nn/

Combination of these processes
C designates any consonant, and N designates any nasal.


 * Cm + r = Cn
 * Cl + r = Cl

Vowels
Frafra has 9 oral vowels and 5 nasal vowels. All Frafra vowels have a long form.

Vowel harmony
Like many Mande languages, Frafra features vowel harmony. When suffixes are added to word roots, the vowel in the root selects whether the suffix will use the tense or lax form. The exception is suffixes ending in "-a" because /a/ is neutral in Frafra, meaning that it is only one form. Prefixes do not exist in Frafra.

Where all vowels must be in harmony
In disyllabic words, both vowels are always in harmony. The same applies in vowel sequences.

Mid vowels
The lax vowel -a in noun and verb endings will change the tense vowels /e/ and /o/ to lax vowels /ɛ/ and /ɔ/.

Close vowels
When a suffix's vowel is close, and stem's vowel is close and tense, it causes the suffix's vowel to become tense.

For example, the locative postposition "-ʋm" becomes "-um" after the vowels /i/, /ĩ/, /u/, and /ũ/.


 * pʋʋrɛ ("belly") > pʋʋrʋm ("inside the belly")
 * nifo ("eye") > nifum ("inside the eye")

However, tense vowels that are not close do not affect "ʋm". Therefore poore ("back") becomes poorʋm ("behind").

The particle "nɩ," which goes after a verbs to mark the incomplete aspect, becomes "ni" after /i/, /ĩ/, /u/, and /ũ/.

Tone
Gurenɛ marks a high and a low tone. Changes in tone have an impact on either the lexical or grammatical function of a particular word.

Lexical Function
With low tones the word becomes a verb, whereas with high tones it is a noun. vàlèŋà

„waist bead.“

váléŋá

„spider“

Grammatical Function
The low tone on the preverbal tense marker wà indicates future, while the high tone on the same element indicates aspect. Átáŋá wà nyù kò'òm lá.

Ataŋa 	FUT   	drink   	water   	DEF

„Ataŋa will drink the water.“ Átáŋá 	wá  	nyù   	kò'òm   	lá.

Ataŋa 	ASP 	drink 	water 	DEF

„Ataŋa definitely drank the water.“

Noun Classes
Nouns in Gurunɛ have different "classes" with regard to plurals:

Pronouns
Source:

Emphatic Pronouns
Only emphatic pronouns can appear in focus positions, whereas all other pronouns cannot appear in those positions. Emphatic pronouns are used in exclusive contexts, in which the speaker indicates that only one thing is true and not the other. Mam ti a dikɛ bo.

1SG.EMPH FOC 1SG take give

„It is me that he gave it to.“ Yamam n sagum loore lá.

2PL.EMPH FOC destroy lorry DEF

„It is you guys (not us) who destroyed the lorry.“

Reciprocal Pronoun
The reciprocal pronoun is taaba and occurs postverbally. Budaa lá pɔka 	lá   	nɔŋɛ  	taaba   	mɛ.

man DEF woman DEF love RECP FOC

„The man and the woman love each other.“

Reflexive Pronouns
To form a reflexive pronoun in Gurenɛ the morphem -miŋa for singular or -misi for plural is attached to a particular personal pronoun. While in other Gur languages, the reflexive morphem is not sensitive to number, in Gurenɛ there exist two forms, one for each number. Amaa mami daa guri nmiŋa.

but 1SG PST hold.PST 1SG.REFL

„But I restrained myself.“ Ba ka le 	ŋmɛ bamisi.

3PL NEG again beat 3PL.REFL

„They will not beat themselves again.“

Relative Pronouns
There are two relative pronouns, ti and n. The former relativizes subjects, while the latter is used to relativize objects. Both pronouns are not sensitive to number or animacy, while this is the case in other Gur languages such as Dagbani for instance. Budaa lá n wa'am kalam de là ma sɔ.

man DEF REL come here COP FOC 1SG father

„The man who came here is my father.“ Budaa lá ti fu nyɛ là de là ma sɔ.

man DEF REL 2SG see FOC COP FOCɛ 1SG father

„The man that you saw is my father.“

Interrogative Pronouns
Interrogative pronouns can either occur sentence-initially or sentence-finally. Ani n di dia lá?

who FOC eat.PFV food DEF

„Who ate the food?“ Sukuu 	kɔma  	lá   	siŋɛ   	  là 	bɛ?

school children DEF do FOC where

„Where did the students go?“ Beni dia ti ba 	kɔɔsa 	da'a?

what food that 3PL sell market

„What food are they selling at the market?“ Naafu 	lá   	de   	là   	alɛ?

cow DEF COP FOC how.much

„How much is the price of the cow?“

Demonstrative Pronouns
Each demonstrative pronoun refers to a single noun class.

Word Order
The word order in Gurenɛ is strictly SVO.

N wan kule beere.

1SG FUT go.home tomorrow

„I will go home tomorrow.“ Dɔgeta lá wan lu ma.

doctor DEF FUT inject 1SG

„The doctor will inject me.“ À bo ma ligeri lá.

3SG give 1SG money DEF

„S/he gave me the money.“

Verb Phrase
The verb phrase (VP) consists of pre- and postverbal particles surrounding the verb. Preverbal particles encode aspect, tense, negation, and mood, such as imperative and conditional. Postverbal particles also encode aspect and tense, but in addition to that they can also encode focus. The order of particles within the VP is strictly organized as shown below. Moreover, the maximal amount of pre- and postverbal particles is also strictly defined. There can be at maximum five preverbal and two postverbal particles within one clause in Gurenɛ.

Time > Tense > Conditional > Aspectual > Future > Negation > Emphatic > Epistemic > Purpose > Verb > Tense > Focus/Affirmative/Completive/Directional

Nɛreba 	lá   	zaamtext1   	nyaa2   	kɔ'ɔm3   	sirum4   	ta5   	iŋɛ   	ba'asum1   	gaŋɛ  	mɛ2.

people 	DEF   	yesterday   	then   	just   	surely  	in.order   	do   	certainly   	more   	AFF

„The people yesterday certainly did more than what was just expected.“

Particles
There are a lot of particles in Gurenɛ, such that the total number is not fully clear. The following table provides an overview of the most common particles.

Verb
The verb in Gurenɛ consists of an obligatory stem or root, that can take one or more morphemes. Verbs appear either in the perfective or imperfective form, depending on its aspect. The perfective expresses actions in the present, whereas the imperfective denotes actions in the past or progressive.

Question Formation
There are several ways of forming a question in Gurenɛ, but importantly the strict word order SVO is always to obey.

Ex situ
In subject questions the question word occurs as the first element of the clause and can either function as the subject or as the agent of the clause.

Ani 	n   	tum?

who 	FOC   	work.PFV

„Who worked?“ Ani 	n   	tun-i?

who 	FOC   	work-IPFV

„Who is working?“

In situ
In general, questions are formed by raising intonation of the final tone. Questions without an explicit question word have a clause-final question marker -ì. Fʊ 	nyɛ 	ʔí-ì?

2SG 	see 	3SG-Q

„Did you see him?“ Fʊ 	n   	nyɛ   	ʔí.

2SG 	FOC   	see   	3SG

„You saw him.“

Embedded
Questions can be embedded and are then preceded by the complementizer tí.

Má 	m 	sokè   	ʔì   	tí   	3SG   	nyɛ   	Ádʊŋɔ.

1SG 	FOC   	ask   	3SG   	SUBR   	3SG   	see   	Adongo

„I asked him whether he had seen Adongo.“ Má 	m   	sokè 	ʔì   	lá-à   	ánɪ   	tì   	à   	nyɛ-ɛ`.

1SG 	FOC   	ask   	3SG   	TOP-Q   	whom   	SUBR   	3SG   	see-Q

„I asked him whom he saw.“

Multiple Questions
Question can also be formed by more than one question word. In these cases one question word occurs ex situ and the other(s) in situ. Again, a question word can only appear ex situ, if it replaces the subject or agent of the clause.

Ani 	n   	da   	(*là)   	beni?

who 	FOC   	buy.PFV   	FOC   	what

„Who bought what?“
 * Beni 	ti   	ani   	da?

what 	FOC   	who   	buy.PFV

„*What bought who?“ Napari 	*(n)   	da   	yire.

Napari 	FOC   	buy.PFV   	house

„Napari bought a house..“

Long distance extraction
Question words in Gurenɛ can also cross clause boundaries, such that they originated in the embedded clause and have been fronted to the clause-initial position.

Beni 	ti   	Ama   	soke   	ti   	John   	kõregɛ   	ya   	*(là).

what 	FOC   	Ama   	ask   	SUBR   	John   	slaughter   	COMPL   	FOC

„What did Ama ask that John slaughtered?“ Beni 	ti   	Ama   	spoke   	ti   	John   	kõregɛ-ri/-*ra   	ya   	*(là)?

what 	FOC   	Ama   	ask   	SUBR   	John   	slaughter-IPFV   	COMPL   	FOC

„What did Ama ask that John is slaughtering?“ Beni 	ti   	Ama   	bɔta   	ti   	John   	kõregɛ?

what 	FOC   	Ama   	want   	SUBR   	John   	slaughter

„What did Ama ask that John slaughtered?“

Geography
Solemitẽŋa means "land of the white man" and is used to refer to all non-African countries.

Soleminɛ is theoretically referring to all non-African languages, however it is only used to refer to English.