This article should specify the language of its non-English content, using {{ lang }}, {{ transliteration }} for transliterated languages, and {{ IPA }} for phonetic transcriptions, with an appropriate ISO 639 code. Wikipedia's multilingual support templates may also be used - notably bqj for Bandial.(January 2025) |
Bandial | |
---|---|
Eegima | |
Banjaal | |
Native to | Senegal |
Region | south of the Casamance River |
Native speakers | 16,000 (2017) [1] |
Dialects |
|
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | bqj |
Glottolog | band1340 |
ELP | Bandial |
Bandial (Banjaal), or Eegima (Eegimaa), is a Jola language of the Casamance region of Senegal. The three dialects, Affiniam, Bandial proper, and Elun (Hulon, also Kuluunaay, Kujireray) are divergent, on the border between dialects and distinct languages.
Bandial has the highest percentage of similarity with Fulup at 87% and is classified as one of the Jóola dialects in Sapir's [2] West Atlantic inventory. Bandial is classified amongst Central Jóola languages as a member of the Endungo language group. [3] The Jóola varieties are mutually intelligible. Even though some who do not speak some Jóola varieties are not part of the former Kingdom of Mof-Ávvi where Bandial is spoken, they are considered as having a direct historical link to Mof-Ávvi though not so much with other Jóola groups due to the dictation of oral tradition. [4]
Oral tradition says that the ancestors of the Mof-Ávvi migrated from Guinea-Bissau in search for arable land. Besides contact with other Jóola people and the Bainounk people from the village of Jibonker inhabitants of Mof-Ávvi were isolated from the outside world until French imperialism. [4]
Along with the Mankagn, Manjak, Bainouk, Manding, Balanta and Fula (French : Peul; Fula : Fulɓe), Jóola people are one of the many peoples that inhabit the region of Senegal known as Casamance. Jóola people and languages are distributed over three West-African countries: Guinea-Bissau, Senegal and The Gambia. Many Jóola of Senegal live in the former Casamance region, mainly in the Basse-Casamance (Lower Casamance), the present-day region of Ziguinchor. [4]
Many Bandial speakers live in a former small Kingdom of ten villages known as Mof-Ávvi ‘the king's land’, located eighteen kilometers southwest of the city of Ziguinchor. Mof-Ávvi is a peninsula composed of the following ten villages: Bajjat, Essil, Bátiŋer-yal-Essil, Gáabal, Enappor, Sállagi, Bátiŋer-Bulan, Elubalir, Ettama and Banjal. These villages are usually divided by the inhabitants of Mof-Ávvi between Fásuga which includes villages located in the mainland (Bajjat, Essil, Gáabal, Enappor) and Gállux ‘mud’ which comprises islands (Bátiŋer-yal-Essil, Sállagi, Bátiŋer-Bulan, Elubalir, Ettama, Banjal.) Many speakers of Bandial, up to 2/5 of the population of Mof-Ávvi live outside of the area, [4] [5] for example in Ziguinchor or Dakar.
The majority of speakers are multilingual, with languages dependent on their life history. The most common other languages in speakers' repertoires are French, Wolof and other Joola languages. [6] French is the official language of Senegal, retained after independence from France and is the official language of instruction in schools. Wolof is the most widely spoken language in Senegal. Bandial is the predominant language spoken in Mof-Ávvi and children are still learning it.
Gújjolaay Eegimaa (Bandial) is also known by several names most of which refer to village names. The language is referred to by the Jóola from the northern bank of the Casamance River as Bandial. Bandial, one of the villages of Mof-Ávvi, is an island that is located halfway between the Búluf and the Kaasa areas. It is suggested, even by those from Bandial, that the language of the people from Mof-Ávvi is called Gújjolaay/ Gújjoloay Eegimaa.
The problem in using the term 'Bandial' or ‘Banjal’ for Gújjolaay Eegimaa is that the variety spoken in the village of Banjal stands out with more phonological and lexical differences compared to other villages where the language is spoken. Because of these differences, native speakers of Eegimaa from other villages of Mof-Ávvi restrict the term Banjal (Gubanjalay) to the dialect that is peculiar to the village of Bandial.
Like all languages, Bandial can be phonologically described by the vowels and consonants present in its language and by the way Bandial combines phonemes to produce syllables. The following are characterizations of Bandial vowels, consonants, and syllables. [7]
Bandial has ten vowels.
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
High | i | u | |
ɪ | ʊ | ||
Mid-high | e | o | |
Mid-low | ԑ | ɔ | |
ɐ | |||
Low | a |
Bandial has seventeen singleton consonants.
Bilabial | Labia-Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Stop | p b | t d | c ɟ | k g | ʔ | |
Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||
Fricative | f | |||||
Approximant | w | j | ||||
Trill | ||||||
Lateral | l |
Bandial allows five types of syllables and the following syllable combinations
Syllables | Meaning |
---|---|
V | Vowel |
CV | Consonant+Vowel |
VC | Vowel+Consonant |
CVC | Consonant+Vowel+Consonant |
CVCC | Consonant+Vowel+Consonant+Consonant |
2nd Syllable | 2nd Syllable | 2nd Syllable | 2nd Syllable | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
CVC | VC | CV | V | ||
1st Syllable | CVC | - | - | - | - |
1st Syllable | VC | - | - | - | - |
1st Syllable | CV | + | + | + | + |
1st Syllable | V | + | + | + | + |
Bandial is often written in the Latin alphabet as linguists attempt to create an appropriate alphabet to capture the phonological regularities of the language. Often this is some combination of the alphabet of the recording linguists native tongue and IPA. [8] Common romanizations of Bandial are based on French orthography since it is a major language of Senegal.
a | á | b | bb | ĉ | c | d | e | é | f | g | h | i | í | j | k | l | m | mb |
n | ñ | ŋ | nd | nj | ng | o | ó | ᵽ | p | r | s | t | u | ú | v | w | y |
Bandial is classified as an agglutinative language. Various morphemes combine to form words.
Bandial sentence | Gloss | English translation |
---|---|---|
ԑ-ȶԑβ | CM-carry | to carry |
ʊ-ȶԑj-ԑn-a | CM-run-CAUS-AGENT | drivers |
a-ȶԑβ-ԑn-ԑn-a-ɪl | CM-carry-CAUS-PAST-AGENT-POSS | their former promoter |
Bandial is a pro-drop language. Subject pronouns are omitted since an affix can be attached to the verb to indicate the pronoun subject. Pronouns are only included in sentences for emphasis. Also articles and other nominal modifiers come after the noun, which is common in other Senegalese languages. [7]
One of the most important morphological features of Bandial is its elaborate classifications of nouns. Often prefixes are attached to root morphemes in Bandial to indicate the lexical and semantic classification of the word. These prefixes will be referred to as class markers. The exact number of Bandial noun classes is often a topic of debate among linguists.
Class marker in IPA | Functions |
---|---|
ø- ~ a- | Human (singular) |
bʊɡ- | Human (plural) |
ɲɪ- ~ ɲʊ- | Abstract nouns |
ba- | Abstract nouns, collective nouns |
fa- | Collective noun, mass nouns |
ma- | Abstract nouns |
ɟa- | Irregular infinitive, mass nouns |
w- | Mass nouns, plural |
tɪ- | Place nouns |
nɪ- | Temporal adverb marker |
Bandial has a Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) word ordering.
When a noun phrase is the subject of the sentence, it is positioned before the verb and has agreement with verbs such as in intransitive clauses. [4] In monotransitive clauses, the object follows the verb without showing any agreement. When there a double object construction such as with ditransitive clauses, the ordering of the two objects are not fixed. Rather they are ordered according to animacy. [4] [7]
(ɪnɟԑ)
(S)
nɪ-ssaf-ɪ
SM-V-OBJ
I greet you.
bɪ-llɛmʊɲa
CM-lemon tree
baβu
CM.DEF.ART
bu-ffɐnum-e
CM-old-PERF
The lemon tree is old.
a-ccɛ
CM-INDEF
na-vvɔɣ-ɔm
SM-call-1.SG.OBJ
Someone called me.
Various morphemes attach to a verb in a clause of sentence in Bandial. Some morphemes which do so are subject markers, object markers, verb tense, verb aspect, and modality.
In Bandial adjectives behave like verbs. They take most of the morphemes used with verbs. According to Welmers, [10] many languages within the Niger-Congo family have a very small set of 'pure' adjectives. These words tend to either behave like verbs or cannot really be distinguished from nouns.
Bandial demonstratives make a three-way distinction. There are proximal, medial, and distal demonstratives which indicate close to the speaker, relatively away from the speaker, and further away from the speaker respectively. [7]
Numerals are formed on a system base five. The basic numbers of Bandial are one through five and ten, fifteen and twenty with which other numbers are expressed. The number system is dactylonomic. The literal translation of the Bandial word for ten is 'hands' for fifteen it is 'foot' (you add your five toes to ten fingers) and it is 'king' for twenty.
Cardinals | English | Ordinals | English |
---|---|---|---|
-anʊr | 'one' | -tinar | 'first' |
-uβa | 'two' | -utten | 'second' |
-ffɐʝi | 'three' | -ffɐtten | 'third' |
-bbaɣɪr | 'four' | -barɪɣɛn | 'fourth' |
fʊ-ȶɔx | 'five' | -tɔɣɛn | 'fifth' |
ɡu-ɲɛn | 'ten' | ||
ɡa-aȶ | 'fifteen' | ||
ɐ-vvi | 'twenty' | ||
e-ȶemel | 'one hundred' | ||
e-uli | 'one thousand' | ||
ɛmɪlɪɔŋ | 'one million' |
The following are excerpts from an interview by Sagna [4] and Abass Sory Bassène about the traditional religion of the Gújjolaay Eegimaa people:
ter
whether
a-vvasen-a,
NC1-libation-AGT
ter
whether
aw
2SG
n-ú-ttubi-ttubi,
LOC-2SG-convert to Islam-DUP
ter
whether
aw
2SG
a-jangara
NC1-Christian.
'Whether you are an Animist, or you have converted to Islam, or you are a Christian.'
pan
FUT
a-ag-i
CD1.3SG-say-2SG.DO
aw
2SG
an
person
bu?
how
'They will say to you, what kind of person are you?'
pan
FUT
a-ag-i
CD1.3SG-say-2SG.DO
ñer
so
aw
2SG
bu-lago-i
NC5A-pathway-2SG.POSS
b-ay
CD5-INT
n-i-roren-e
LOC-1SG-ask-PFV
maa.
like this
'He will say to you, so what I am asking now is what your religion is'
w-o
CD6-PRO
mati
NEG.FUT
ú-ju
2SG-can
u-jux.
2SG-see
bare
but
waf
NC6.thing
w-a-bab-baj.
CD6-REL-have-DUP
‘But in our faith, it is said that there are many things that you cannot see. But those things exist'
baj-ut
have-NEG
búox
COMPL
min
COMPL
a-nnax
CD1.3SG-wait
ala-é-mit
of-NC3-sky
'It is out of the question that he waits for God'
Mbula is an Austronesian language spoken by around 2,500 people on Umboi Island and Sakar Island in the Morobe Province of Papua New Guinea. Its basic word order is subject–verb–object; it has a nominative–accusative case-marking strategy.
Vaeakau-Taumako is a Polynesian language spoken in some of the Reef Islands as well as in the Taumako Islands in the Temotu province of Solomon Islands.
The Inuit languages, like other Eskimo–Aleut languages, exhibit a regular agglutinative and heavily suffixing morphology. The languages are rich in suffixes, making words very long and potentially unique. For example, in Nunavut Inuktitut:
Dameli (دَميلي), also Damia, Damɛ̃ḍī, Dāmia bāṣa or Gidoj, is an Indo-Aryan language of the Dardic subgroup spoken by approximately 5,000 people in the Domel Town, in the Chitral District of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.
Tamambo, or Malo, is an Oceanic language spoken by 4,000 people on Malo and nearby islands in Vanuatu. It is one of the most conservative Southern Oceanic languages.
Apurinã, or Ipurina, is a Southern Maipurean language spoken by the Apurinã people of the Amazon basin. It has an active–stative syntax. Apurinã is a Portuguese word used to describe the Popikariwakori people and their language. Apurinã indigenous communities are predominantly found along the Purus River, in the Northwestern Amazon region in Brazil, in the Amazonas state. Its population is currently spread over twenty-seven different indigenous lands along the Purus River. with an estimated total population of 9,500 people. It is predicted, however, that fewer than 30% of the Apurinã population can speak the language fluently. A definite number of speakers cannot be firmly determined because of the regional scattered presence of its people. The spread of Apurinã speakers to different regions was initially caused by conflict or disease, which has consequently led natives to lose the ability to speak the language for lack of practice and also because of interactions with other communities.
Apma is the language of central Pentecost island in Vanuatu. Apma is an Oceanic language. Within Vanuatu it sits between North Vanuatu and Central Vanuatu languages, and combines features of both groups.
Numbami is an Austronesian language spoken by about 200 people with ties to a single village in Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea. It is spoken in Siboma village, Paiawa ward, Morobe Rural LLG.
Wagiman, also spelt Wageman, Wakiman, Wogeman, and other variants, is a near-extinct Aboriginal Australian language spoken by a small number of Wagiman people in and around Pine Creek, in the Katherine Region of the Northern Territory.
Hoava is an Oceanic language spoken by 1000–1500 people on New Georgia Island, Solomon Islands. Speakers of Hoava are multilingual and usually also speak Roviana, Marovo, Solomon Islands Pijin, English.
Roviana is a member of the North West Solomonic branch of Oceanic languages. It is spoken around Roviana and Vonavona lagoons at the north central New Georgia in the Solomon Islands. It has 10,000 first-language speakers and an additional 16,000 people mostly over 30 years old speak it as a second language. In the past, Roviana was widely used as a trade language and further used as a lingua franca, especially for church purposes in the Western Province, but now it is being replaced by the Solomon Islands Pijin. Published studies on Roviana include: Ray (1926), Waterhouse (1949) and Todd (1978) contain the syntax of Roviana. Corston-Oliver discuss ergativity in Roviana. Todd (2000) and Ross (1988) discuss the clause structure in Roviana. Schuelke (2020) discusses grammatical relations and syntactic ergativity in Roviana.
Erromangan, or Sie (Sye), is the primary language spoken on the island Erromango in the Tafea region of the Vanuatu islands. The other Erromanga languages are either moribund or extinct. Although the island is quite large (887 km2), the total number of speakers of Erromango is estimated at 1900.
Uyghur is a Turkic language spoken mostly in the west of China.
Farefare or Frafra, also known by the regional name of Gurenne (Gurene), is a Niger–Congo language spoken by the Frafra people of northern Ghana, particularly the Upper East Region, and southern Burkina Faso. It is a national language of Ghana, and is closely related to Dagbani and other languages of Northern Ghana, and also related to Mossi, also known as Mooré, the national language of Burkina Faso.
Mavea is an Oceanic language spoken on Mavea Island in Vanuatu, off the eastern coast of Espiritu Santo. It belongs to the North–Central Vanuatu linkage of Southern Oceanic. The total population of the island is approximately 172, with only 34 fluent speakers of the Mavea language reported in 2008.
Dom is a Trans–New Guinea language of the Eastern Group of the Chimbu family, spoken in the Gumine and Sinasina Districts of Chimbu Province and in some other isolated settlements in the western highlands of Papua New Guinea.
Toʼabaita, also known as Toqabaqita, Toʼambaita, Malu and Maluʼu, is a language spoken by the people living at the north-western tip of Malaita Island, of South Eastern Solomon Islands. Toʼabaita is an Austronesian language.
Lengo or informally known as "Doku" is an Oceanic language spoken on the island of Guadalcanal. It belongs to the Southeast Solomonic language family.
Longgu (Logu) is a Southeast Solomonic language of Guadalcanal, but originally from Malaita.
Karipúna French Creole, also known as Amapá French Creole and Lanc-Patuá, is a French-based creole language spoken by the Karipúna community, which lives in the Uaçá Indian Reservation in the Brazilian state of Amapá, on the Curipi and Oyapock rivers. It is mostly French-lexified except for flora and fauna terms, with a complex mix of substratum languages—most notably the Arawakan Karipúna language.