Jeffrey Heath (Univ. of Michigan),
Steve Moran (Univ. of Munich),
Kirill Prokhorov (Humboldt Univ. of Berlin and MAE RAS)

• Dogon languages, basic information and data
• Lexicostatistical data and the resulting tentative classification
• Evidence from nominal morphology
• Revised classification and further issues
Niger-Congo Congress
September 18-21,
2012, Paris, INALCO
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21 language identified
Niger-Congo Congress
September 18-21,
2012, Paris, INALCO
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21 language identified (+Bangiime, isolate)
Niger-Congo Congress
September 18-21,
2012, Paris, INALCO
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21 language identified (+Bangiime, isolate)
Up to 1 million speakers
Niger-Congo Congress
September 18-21,
2012, Paris, INALCO
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21 language identified (+Bangiime, isolate)
Up to 1 million speakers
Spoken in eastern Mali and (partially) northern Burkina Faso
Niger-Congo Congress
September 18-21,
2012, Paris, INALCO
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 Several grammars and dictionaries done by non-professional linguists
(Léger 1971, Prost & Kervran 1986)
 Two published reference grammars done by professional linguists
(Plungian 1995) and (Heath 2008)
 Dogon project materials
(www.dogonlanguages.org)
Niger-Congo Congress
September 18-21,
2012, Paris, INALCO
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 Started in 2004
 Supported by NSF (grant BCS-
0537435)
 Website: www.dogonlanguages.org
 Data on more than 20 Dogon idioms, incl. comparative lexical spreadsheet with more than 7 thousand entries
Niger-Congo Congress
September 18-21,
2012, Paris, INALCO
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100 Swadesh word list: cognacy rates
Niger-Congo Congress
September 18-21,
2012, Paris, INALCO
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Bunoge – Tomo Kan ~ 32%
Niger-Congo Congress
September 18-21,
2012, Paris, INALCO
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Ben Tey – Nanga ~ 88%
Niger-Congo Congress
September 18-21,
2012, Paris, INALCO
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?
2
4
1
?
2
3
?
1 2
Calculated using Starling (starling.rinet.ru)
Niger-Congo Congress
September 18-21,
2012, Paris, INALCO
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?
1 Even from the lexicostatistical perspective
Tiranige may equally be attributed to the
Western group (Mombo, Penange, Ampari,
Bunoge)
Cf. Tiranige – Mombo (West) ~ 65%
Tiranige – Najamba-Kindige (North-East) ~
66%
Cf. also morphological evidence below
Niger-Congo Congress
September 18-21,
2012, Paris, INALCO
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?
2 question whether the 4 branches identified form bigger groups remains problematic:
- lexicostatistical data are not definitive cf. rather short period between the supposed major split and following splits into the four branches on the tree)
- some morphological isoglosses go across these groupings
Niger-Congo Congress
September 18-21,
2012, Paris, INALCO
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 Eastern-type class-number system
Jamsay :
HumSg
-n
HumPl
-m
Toro Tegu : -rⁿu ~ -n(u) -m(u)
Tommo so: –n ɛ -m
Proto-East: *-nu ‘person’ *-n-bu
Nonh



*- 
Found in: East
Niger-Congo Congress
September 18-21,
2012, Paris, INALCO
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Nominal Morphology 2: North-East
 Najamba-Kindige class system suffixes final-vowel animate Sg -Ø animate Pl -mbo
E
O inanimate Sg -ŋgo/-go (O/E class) O (O/E class)
-ŋge/-ge (E/E class) E (E/E class) inanimate Pl -Ø E
Other languages of North-East group have simpler systems, cognate to that of Najamba-Kindige.
Niger-Congo Congress
September 18-21,
2012, Paris, INALCO
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 Western-type system of plural making:
Mombo
Penange Ø
Sg PL
Ø -ŋge/-ge
-ge
Ampari Ø
Bunoge Ø ge ge
Also found in Tiranige (see below)
Niger-Congo Congress
September 18-21,
2012, Paris, INALCO
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Nominal morphology 4: North-West
Nanga
Ben Tey
Bankan Tey
AnSg
-Ø (-ŋ)
-m
-m
AnPl
Ø
Ø
Ø
Inan
Ø
Ø
Ø
In Nanga only nasal suffix ya -ŋ ‘woman’ (pl. ya : ‘women’) has singular
Niger-Congo Congress
September 18-21,
2012, Paris, INALCO
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?
1 Tiranige shows clear affinities with Western group
(Mombo, Penange, Ampari, Bunoge) in nominal morphology
(1) Plural formation: Tiranige na : ‘cow’ na : ge ta ŋgi le 'side‘ ta ŋgi le ge ‘sides’
‘cows’
(2) Plural formation: Ampari (WEST) ga na :
:wa ‘bone’
‘cow’ ga na
:wa
:-ge
-ge
‘cows’
‘bones’
Cf. Class system in Najamba kindige
Niger-Congo Congress
September 18-21,
2012, Paris, INALCO
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1.
Tiranige is originally North-Eastern (NED) language that borrowed nominal morphology
(and some lexicon) from Western Dogon (WD)
2.
Tiranige is originally WD that borrowed lexicon from NED
3.
Tiranige is a separate branch, that is equally close to both WD and NED
Niger-Congo Congress
September 18-21,
2012, Paris, INALCO
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Frozen class suffixes in WD and
Tiranige
‘peanut’
Najamba ɛ́
Mombo ɔ́
Tiranige ɛ̀ l l ɛ ɔ́
(PL), ŋge
:l ɛ̀ ŋge ɛ́ l ɛ́ -ŋgo (SG)
NB: disharmonic combinations ɔ /e and ɛ /e in Mombo and Tiranige
Niger-Congo Congress
September 18-21,
2012, Paris, INALCO
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‘blood’
Najamba
Mombo
Tiranige ge n (Pl) ge ŋ-ge (Sg) ge :ŋge je :ŋge
Niger-Congo Congress
September 18-21,
2012, Paris, INALCO
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 4 groups can be securely identified based on lexicostatistical and morphological data
East: Toro Tegu, Tomo Kan, Togo Kan, Perge, Jamsay,
Donno So, Tommo So, Yorno So
North-East (NED): Najamba-Kindige, Yanda, Tebul,
Dogulu
North-West (NWD): Ben Tey, Bankan Tey, Nanga
West (WD): Mombo, Penange, Ampari, Bunoge
Niger-Congo Congress
September 18-21,
2012, Paris, INALCO
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 Tiranige shows some lexical grammatical proximity to both WD and NED, but none of them is decisive for defining it’s (inner) affiliation
 Tiranige (for now) is better considered as separate branch
 Common WD-NED-Tiranige features (cf. frozen class suffixes) may indicate that these languages form a bigger group within the family or an intensive mutual contact influence that these language were subject to in the past.
Niger-Congo Congress
September 18-21,
2012, Paris, INALCO
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