DOGON LANGUAGES
1. General Introduction
INTRODUCTION
The languages spoken on the Dogon Plateau and adjacent areas are generally known to outsiders as ‘Dogon’, but this term is not used by individual groups. For a long time, research on the Dogon was dominated by the work of Marcel Griaule and his successors, which focused on a very specific group, the Dogon of Sangha. Bertho published short comparative wordlists of some Dogon lects but these made little impression. Calame-Griaule (1956) published a dialect map of Dogon, the relationship between the named communities and the T¨r¨-S¨¨ represented in her dictionary remained unclear in the absence of data. Until recently, Dogon was treated in reference books as if it were a single language (e.g. Bendor-Samuel et al. 1989), but Hochstetler et al. (2004) estimated there are no less than 17 languages under the Dogon rubric and that the family is highly internally divided.
The classification of the Dogon languages is a matter of considerable dispute. They have always been considered part of Niger-Congo, but their place in that family is difficult to determine. Hochstetler et al. (2004) review the various theories that have been advanced, which are essentially either Gur, Mande or an independent branch. Conventional wisdom now treat Dogon as its own branch of Niger-Congo (Williamson & Blench 2000).
Another
major question is the place of Dogon within Niger-Congo. Dogon is both
lexically and structurally very different from most other families. It lacks
the noun-classes usually regarded as typical of Niger-Congo and has a word
order (SOV) that resembles Mande and Ịjọ, but not the other
branches. The system of verbal inflections, resembling French is quite unlike
any surrounding languages. As a consequence, the ancestor of Dogon is likely to
have diverged very early, although the present-day languages probably reflect
an origin some 3-4000 years ago. Dogon languages
are territorially coherent, suggesting that, despite local migration histories,
the Dogon have been in this area of
One language in the Dogon-speaking area is apparently not
Dogon but which is difficult to classify, Baŋgi me.
This language contains some Niger-Congo roots but is lexically very remote from
all other languages in
In terms of data collection, the surveys in February and March 2005 focused strongly on;
a) collecting basic lexical data on so far undescribed varieties of Dogon (and other languages of the Dogon Plateau)
b) collecting terminology of cultural and historical significance, such names of crops, domestic animals, fauna and flora and blacksmithing terms
The results from historical linguistics are still being analysed, but preliminary findings suggest some rather surpising results. For example, speakers of the proto-Dogon language were already farmers, growing sorghum, millet and fonio, keping cattle but not sheep and goats. They did not use hoes, but planting sticks, and were experienced arboriculturalists. Further analysis will be reported here as it becoems available.
Data
collected in 2005 field surveys
Linguistic materials were collected on and preliminary documents can be downloaded here;
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Ambaleenge of Kema |
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Ana |
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Bunoge |
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Dogul Dom |
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Nyambeenge |
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Tebul Ure |
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Walo |
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Yanda |
Four languages, Ana, Bunoge, Tebul Ure and Walo, are reported here for the first time. A previously undocumented sign language was discovered among the Tebul people and a video record of sample sentences and narratives in sign language, Tebul Ure and French was made.
An introduction to the status of endangered languages was published in Ogmios, for April 2005. A PDF version is available at;
1. Photos
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Instrument |
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Shaken gourd |
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Whistle |
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Cylindrical drum |
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Small gourd drum |
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Log gongs |
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Kettle-drums |
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Slit bell |
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Slide show |
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2. Videos
References
Bendor-Samuel,
J., E. J. Olsen, and A. R. White, 1989. Dogon. In: Bendor-Samuel, J.
(ed). The Niger-Congo Languages—a classification and description of
Bertho, J. 1953. La place des dialectes dogon de
la falaise de Bandiagara parmi les autres groupes linguistiques de la zone
soudanaise. Bulletin de l’IFAN 15: 405-41.
Calame-Griaule, G. 1956. Les dialectes Dogon.
Hochstetler, J. Lee, Durieux, J.A. & E.I.K.
Durieux-Boon 2004. Sociolinguistic Survey of
the Dogon Language Area. SIL
International. Available at: http://www.sil.org/silesr/2004/silesr2004-004.pdf
Williamson, Kay
& R.M. Blench 2000. Niger-Congo. In: African
languages: an introduction. B. Heine & D. Nurse eds. 11-42.
