Senufo
Language · official in 1 country
Senufo is a branch of about 15 languages rather than a single one, spoken by the Senufo in the south of Mali, the north of Ivory Coast and the southwest of Burkina Faso, with an outlier, Nafaanra, in Ghana. They form their own branch of Atlantic-Congo within Niger-Congo, and Senufo is one of Mali's official languages.
The language on record
- Script
- Not recorded
- Family
- Senufo
- Official in
- 1 country
Where Senufo is official
Mali alone has Senufo on its record, and it counts Minyanka, a northern Senufo language, as a separate official language of its own.
Official beside Senufo
About Senufo
Why Senufo was confused with Mande
Maurice Delafosse, the first linguist to write on these languages, noted that the Senufo were often mistaken for the Mande, because Mande languages had spread among them and many alliances had been made. The difference between the two, he wrote, was deep on every count. The Senufo languages have since borrowed many words from Bambara and Jula, and Carlson thought several of their grammatical constructions were probably calques on Bambara ones.
Where Senufo sits among its neighbours
Westermann and Bendor-Samuel classed Senufo with the Gur languages. Gabriel Manessy called that into doubt in 1975, and John Naden wrote in 1989 that Senufo may be no closer to Central Gur than to Guang. Like Gur, the Senufo languages have noun classes marked by suffixes and verbs marked for aspect. Unlike most Gur languages, which have two tones with downstep, they are usually analysed with three tone levels, high, mid and low, and like Mande they put the object before the verb.
How the branch divides
Early classifications split Senufo by geography, and later linguists kept the northern, central and southern labels. Northern Senufo includes the Suppire-Mamara languages, central Senufo the Karaboro and Senari languages, and southern Senufo the Tagwana-Djimini languages along with Nafaanra.
Common questions
Questions about Senufo
Is Senufo one language?
No. It is a group of about 15 languages. Mali's list of national languages names Syenara and, separately, Mamara, which is Minyanka.
Are the Senufo languages Gur languages?
They were long classed as Gur, and share its suffixed noun classes, but since 1975 that link has been doubted. They are now treated as a separate branch of Niger-Congo.
What have the Senufo languages taken from Bambara?
Many loanwords, from Bambara and Jula, and probably some grammatical constructions copied from Bambara ones.