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Notice: all citations are from:
Kervran, Marcel. 1982. Dictionnaire Dogon: Donno SO, Re'gion de Bandiagara. Bandiagara, Mali: Paroisse catholique. Electronic version, and English translations, by Christopher Culy.
Look at:
p. 272
kandOw kO kandyu min~ mOrElE
maintenant je n'ai pas le temps de faire cela
Now I don't have time to do that
(Lit. Now this to-do me (it)-don't-have-time)
There are four aspects of Donno SO vowels that are relevant for the examples here. The first aspect is vowel height. Dogon has 7 oral vowels i, e, E (front mid lax "eh"), a, u, o, O (back mid lax "aw"). Where the dictionary uses epsilon these examples will have E, and where the dictionary uses backwards c, these examples will have O. Donno SO verbs have a system of vowel harmony, but other parts of speech do not.
The second aspect of vowels is their tones. Donno SO has three tones that can distinguish syllables, High, Mid, and Low. High tone is marked by an acute accent (apostrophe) and low tone is marked by a grave accent (backquote). Mid tone is unmarked. Tone in these examples is marked following the vowel; in the dictionary it is marked over the vowel. The dictionary marks tones only in the entries, not in the examples. This is in large part due to the fact the tonal system has not been systematically studied.
The third aspect of vowels is nasality. Donno SO has distinct nasal vowels. These are marked in the examples by a following tilde, whereas in the dictionary the tilde is over the vowel.
The fourth aspect of vowels is length. Donno SO has both long and short vowels. The dictionary indicates long vowels by underlining the vowel; here they are indicated by doubling the vowel. Tone is marked only for the first element of a long vowel.
Three final notes:
kana is one of a small class of verbs in which the final vowel is deleted before a suffix starting with z, and the z becomes dy [j]. The other verbs are bElE` , bo'lo, gala` , yE'lE. This pattern is not phonological, since there are other verbs ending in nV or lV which do not have this pattern. For example, dyana` and da'la. Sentence
in~ oze baagara
apprendre a` un enfant a` marcher
to teach a child to walk
i-gOn~ u mO~ nE bErEndEmO~
laisse l'enfant s'approcher de toi
let the child come to you
The conditions on the distribution of phrases with object case marking are quite complex. See Culy 1995. Sentence
It might be analysed as El+E+0, where -El- is the negative for the present progressive, E is the present progressive, and -0- indicates the third person singular. Compare
p. 447
un~ tubO tubOzEm
je te pose une question
I'm asking you a question
A complete analysis would be more complex. See Kervran and Prost 1986. Sentence
S
________________|_________________
Adv VP NP V
kandOw ___|____ miñ mOrElE
now NP V I.acc don't have time
kO kandyu
that do
This example illustrates an interesting fact about Donno SO. There are apparently only a couple verbs like mOrO which allow their object to be understood as the subject of the preceding infinitive. All of these verbs have essentially identical meanings: bilE`, OlO`.
Another interesting aspect of this sentence is that in other constructions, the -zu infinitives are used to indicate that the subject of the infinitive is the same as the main subject. For example,
p. 281
nyaa u sirO nandazu ibEm
je veux gou^ter la nourriture que tu as pre'pare'e
I want to taste the food that you cooked
The above mentioned class of verbs seems to be the only instance in which the infinitive in -zu allows the main subject to be different from the subject of the infinitive.
p. 34 bElE` (back to morphology)
gagner, pouvoir
to win, can (to be able to)
p. 39 bilE` (back to syntax)
avoir le temps (v. impersonnel: la personne est comple'ment du verbe)
to have time (impersonal verb: the person is a complement of the verb)
p. 43 bo'lo (back to morphology)
1. aller, partir
to go, to leave
2. employe' comme auxiliaire
used as an auxiliary
p. 60 da'la (back to morphology)
e'chouer dans une entreprise
to fail in an effort
p. 108 dyana` (back to morphology)
frapper
to hit
p. 141 gala` (back to morphology)
passer
to pass (by)
p. 167 gO` (back to morphology)
1. particule indiquant le de'fini (apre#96;s une voyelle bre#96;ve, gO est contracte' en OO avec cette voyelle)
particle indicating the definite (after a short vowel, gO contracts with this vowel into OO)
2. accompagnant les relatives et comple'tives
accompanies relative and completive clauses
p. 182 i'i (back to morphology)
1. enfant (pl. ulun)
child (plural ulun)
2. fruit d'arbre
fruit of a tree
3. exprime le diminutif
expresses the diminutive
p. 194 kana` (back to morphology)
1. faire
do
2. employe' comme auxiliaire
used as an auxiliary
3. employe' avec les noms d'action
used with action nouns
4. employe' avec les mots d'emprunt
used with borrowed words
p. 194 kanda' (back to morphology)
neuf, nouveau
new
p. 195 kandO'w (back to morphology)
maintenant
now
p. 224 kO' (back to sentence)
ceci
this
p. 266 mi' (back to morphology)
je, moi - (premie#96;re personne du singulier)
I, me - (first person singular)
p. 272 mO'rO (back to morphology)
avoir le temps, le loisir, (v. impersonnel)
to have time, leisure (impersonal verb)
p. 304 OlO` (back to syntax)
1. devenir souple, pre^t
to become supple, ready
2. e^tre pre^t a`, avoir le temps
to be ready, to have time
p. 499 yE'lE (back to morphology)
venir
to come
The dictionary was compiled by Marcel Kervran, a member of the Pe`res Blancs, who lived in the town of Bandiagara, Mali for about 30 years. This dictionary has over 7000 head words. A second expanded edition was published in 1993. The dictionary (partially) represents the varieties of Donno SO spoken in and around Bandiagara.
Donno SO is a Dogon language. Dogon is a group of languages in the Niger-Congo language family (roughly analogous to the Romance languages in Indo-European), spoken in Mali and Burkina Faso. The affiliation of Dogon within Niger-Congo has not been determined with certainty, but it seems to be marginally related to Gur.
Kervran, Marcel. 1982. Dictionnaire Dogon: Donno SO, Re'gion de Bandiagara. Bandiagara, Mali: Paroisse catholique.
Send comments to:
Christopher Culy chris-culy@uiowa.edu