The Toro language, Tɔrɔ tegu 'Mountain speech', is a Dogon language spoken in Mali. It is closest to the prestige variety of Dogon, Jamsay tegu, though speakers deny they are related and understand little of it. (They understand nothing of the Dogon languages on the escarpment or plateau.) Hochstetler report difficulties in comprehension between Tɔrɔ tegu and one of the western Plains Dogon languages, Tomo kan.
| Toro-tegu Dogon | |
|---|---|
| Tɔrɔ tegu | |
| Region | Mali |
Native speakers | (2,900 cited 1998)[1] |
Niger–Congo?
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | dtt |
| Glottolog | toro1253 |
Phonology
editConsonants
edit| Labial | Alveolar | Alveopalatal | Velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | ||
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | tʃ | k |
| voiced | b | d | dʒ | ɡ | |
| Fricative | s | ||||
| Lateral | l | ||||
| Sonorant | plain | w | r | j | |
| nasalized | w̃ | r̃ | j̃ | ||
Vowels
edit| Short Oral | Long Oral | Long Nasal |
|---|---|---|
| u | uː | ũː |
| o | oː | õː |
| ɔ | ɔː | ɔ̃ː |
| a | aː | ãː |
| ɛ | ɛː | ɛ̃ː |
| e | eː | ẽː |
| i | iː | ĩː |
Tone
editThere are two tones, high and low. Each stem contains a tone melody, and each tone melody must contain at least one high tone- that is, a word cannot be exclusively low tone. The tone melody of a word may be overridden by inflectional morphology or syntax. In some cases a word may HLH or LHL melody, as in the case of gɔːn˧˦˨ (griot with war tomtoms) or kaː˦˨nu˦ (monkey).
Grammar
editNumber
editWhen referring to humans, number is indicated by suffixing of the noun. In words for humans with a basic CV- stem, the singular suffix is -r̃ú. In words for humans with longer stems, the singular suffix is -nú or apocopated -ń. For plural words for humans, the suffix is -mú or -ḿ, regardless of stem length.
References
edit- ^ Toro-tegu Dogon at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ Heath, Jeffrey (2014). A Grammar of Toro Tegu (Dogon), Tabi mountain dialect.
Sources
edit- Blench, Roger (2005). "A survey of Dogon languages in Mali: Overview". OGMIOS: Newsletter of Foundation for Endangered Languages. 3.02 (26): 14–15. Retrieved 2011-06-30..
- Hochstetler, J. Lee; Durieux, J.A.; E.I.K. Durieux-Boon (2004). Sociolinguistic Survey of the Dogon Language Area (PDF). SIL International. Retrieved 2011-06-30.
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