| Kasena | |
| Region: | Ghana, Burkina Faso |
| Ethnicity: | Kassena |
| Speakers: | 250,000 |
| Date: | 1998–2004 |
| Ref: | e18 |
| Familycolor: | Niger-Congo |
| Fam2: | Atlantic–Congo |
| Fam3: | Gur |
| Fam4: | Southern |
| Fam5: | Gurunsi |
| Fam6: | Northern |
| Script: | Latin, Goulsse |
| Iso3: | xsm |
| Glotto: | kase1253 |
| Glottorefname: | Kasem |
| Map: | Kasena region zoomed in.png |
| Mapcaption: | The region in which the Kassena people live in Ghana and Burkina Faso |
Kasena or Kassena (Kasem or Kassem) is the language of the Kassena ethnic group and is a Gur language spoken in the Upper East Region of northern Ghana and in Burkina Faso.
| Aa | Ǝǝ | Bb | Cc | Dd | Ee | Ɛɛ | Ff | Gg | Hh | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| /a/ | /ə/ | /b/ | /t̠͡ʃ/ | /d/ | /e/ | /ɛ/ | /f/ | /ɡ/ | /h/ | |
| Ii | Ɩɩ | Jj | Kk | Ll | Mm | Nn | Ŋŋ | Oo | Ɔɔ | |
| /i/ | /ɪ/ | /d̠͡ʒ/ | /k/ | /l/ | /m/ | /n/ | /ŋ/ | /o/ | /ɔ/ | |
| Pp | Rr | Ss | Tt | Uu | Ʋʋ | Vv | Ww | Yy | Zz | |
| /p/ | /r/ | /s/ | /t/ | /u/ | /ʊ/ | /v/ | /w/ | /j/ | /z/ | |
| Bilabial | Labio dental | Alveolar | Post-alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| Affricate | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| Trill | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||||
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Near-close | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Close-mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| Open-mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Open | pronounced as /link/ |
Kasena has three tones, a high tone, a mid level tone and a low tone. Tonal changes either change the lexical meaning of a word or its grammatical function.[2]
Lexical
Grammatical
There are five classes of nouns that can be identified in Kasena. These classes correspond to grammatical genders and are differentiated in terms of number, such that there are five classes for singular nouns and five classes for plural nouns.
| 1 | bu | biə | child/children | |
| 2 | bɪnɪ | bɪna | year(s) | |
| 3 | naga | nɛ | foot/feet | |
| 4 | piu | pweeru | montain(s) | |
| 5 | bʊŋʊ | bʊm | goat(s) |
There are two classes of personal pronouns. One class is referring to humans, whereas the other class is referring to non-human entities. The personal pronouns are also used as possessive pronouns, thus there is no special form for possessive pronouns in Kasena.
Human personal pronouns
| 1st | A | Dí | I/we | |
| 2nd | N | Á | You/you | |
| 3rd | O | Ba | He/she/They |
Non-human personal pronouns
| I | O | Ba | |
| II | Dɪ | Ya | |
| III | Ka | Sɪ | |
| IV | Kʊ | Tɪ | |
| V | Kʊ | Dɪ |
| 1st | amʊ | dcbam | Me/we | |
| 2nd | nmʊ | abam | You/you | |
| 3rd | wʊm/wʊntu | bam/bantʊ | He/she/they |
Reciprocity is expressed by the pronoun daanɪ, which sometimes occurs as a prefix or suffix.
Reflexivity is expressed by a personal pronoun to which either tɪtɪ or katɪ ('-self')is added.
Relative pronouns are formed on the basis of the personal pronouns for non-human entities to which the suffix -lʊ is attached.
| I | wʊlʊ | balʊ | |
| II | dɪlʊ | yalʊ | |
| III | kalʊ | sɪlʊ | |
| IV | kʊlʊ | tɪlʊ | |
| V | kʊlʊ | dɪlʊ |
| I | SG | wʊdoŋ | --- | wʊlʊ wʊlʊ | |
| I | PL | badonnə | badaara | balʊ balʊ | |
| II | SG | dɪ doŋ | --- | dɪlʊ dɪlʊ | |
| II | PL | yadonnə | yadaara | yalʊ yalʊ | |
| III | SG | kadoŋ | --- | kalʊ kalʊ | |
| III | PL | sɪdonnə | sɪdaara | sɪlʊ sɪlʊ | |
| IV | SG | kudoŋ | --- | kʊlʊ kʊlʊ | |
| IV | PL | tɪdonnə | tɪdaara | tɪlʊ tɪlʊ | |
| V | SG | kudoŋ | --- | kʊlʊ kʊlʊ | |
| V | PL | dɪdonnə | dɪdaara | dɪlʊ dɪlʊ |
| I | wuntu | this/that | bantu | these/those | |
| II | dɪntu | this/that | yantu | these/those | |
| III | kantu | this/that | sɪntu | these/those | |
| IV | kuntu | this/that | tɪntu | these/those | |
| V | kuntu | this/that | dɪntu | these/those |
| I | wɔɔ | bra | bagra | |
| II | dɔɔ | yɔɔ | yagra | |
| III | kɔɔ | sɔɔ | sɪgra | |
| IV | kɔɔ | tɔɔ | tɪgra | |
| V | kɔɔ | dɔɔ | dɪgra |
The Kasena language has a basic SVO word order.