Kissi language explained

Kissi
States:Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone
Date:2017–2020
Ref:e25
Dia1:Luangkori
Dia2:Tengia
Dia3:Warn
Dia4:Liaro
Dia5:Kama
Dia6:Teng
Dia7:Tung
Script:Latin
Familycolor:Niger-Congo
Fam2:Atlantic–Congo
Fam3:Mel
Fam4:Bullom–Kissi
Lc1:kss
Ld1:Southern Kissi
Lc2:kqs
Ld2:Northern Kissi
Glotto:kiss1245
Glottorefname:Kissi
Lingua:94-BAB-a (Kisi, incl. 94-BAB-aa Kisi-N. & 94-BAB-ab Kisi-S.)
Ethnicity:Kissi people

Kissi (or Kisi) is a Mel language of West Africa, There are two dialects, northern and southern, and both are tonal languages. The northern dialect is spoken in Guinea and in Sierra Leone. The southern dialect is spoken in Liberia and Sierra Leone. The two dialects are notably different, but are closely related.

In Guinea, the main places Kissi is spoken are the cities of Kissidougou and Guéckédou and their préfectures.

Phonology

Vowels

FrontBack
Closeiu
Close-mideo
Open-midɛɔ
Opena
pronounced as //o, e// can also approximate to the sounds pronounced as /[ɪ, ʊ]/.

Consonants

LabialAlveolarPalatalVelarLabial-velarGlottal
Stopvoicelessptkkp
voiced/imp.ɓɗ(gb)
prenasalizedmbnd(ɲɟ)ŋg(ŋmgb)
Affricatet͡ʃ
Fricativefsh
Nasalmnɲŋ
Approximantljw
Kissidougou dialects preserve a distinction between /r/ and /l/ phonemes that have been merged as allophones in dialects south of Guéckédou. For instance, la huŋ means exactly the same as ra huŋ. Also, "thank you" is realized as barika around Kissidougou and balika south of Guéckédou. [r] is considered an allophone of /l/ in Kissidougou.

/w/ can also have an allophone of [v] when preceding front vowel sounds.

The voiced labial-velar stop pronounced as /link/ occurs only in onomatopoeic phrases, and medial gb can be regarded as an allophone of its voiceless counterpart.[1]

Tone

Kissi has four tones: two register and two contour. The two register tones are level and high, and the two contour tones are a rising mid tone and a falling high tone. Kissi also has an extra-high tone, but occurs only sparingly, functioning in only a few grammatical contexts.

Grammar (northern Kissi)

Pronouns

Kissi pronounPronunciationEnglish pronounKissi exampleEnglish translation
y/i/Iy tyo kɔlaŋ loŋ.I'm going there.
apronounced as //a//youa tyo kɔlaŋ loŋ.You're going there.
o/o/he/sheo tyo kɔlaŋ loŋ.He's going there.
n/n/wen tyo kɔlaŋ loŋ.We're going there.
la/la/you (plural)la tyo kɔlaŋ loŋ.You're going there.
aa/aː/theyaa tyo kɔlaŋ loŋ.They're going there.

As you can already see from these examples, verbs aren't conjugated like English verbs, but they are inflected by tone.

Kissi pronounPronunciationEnglish pronounKissi exampleEnglish translation
ya/ja/meo tyo ya lɔ.<br/>yɔŋgu ya ho. / k'ya ho.He's going to beat me.
Give me that.
nɔm/nɔm/youy tyo nɔm lɔ.I'm going to beat you.
ndu/ndu/Hhim /hery tyo ndu lɔ.
o tyo ndu pilɛ lɔ.
}| I'm going to beat him / her.
He's going to beat himself. |-| na| /na/| us| o tyo na lɔ.}}| He's going to beat us.|-| nia| /nia/| you (plural)| o tyo nia lɔ.}}| He's going to beat you.|-| ndaa| /ndaː/| them| o tyo ndaa lɔ.}}| He's going to beat them.|}

Articles

Definite and indefinite articles do not exist in Kissi, so muɛi means "the knife" as well as "a knife".If an object has to be defined (because there are more than one, for example), "this" is used:

example: muɛi coŋ - this knife

If that is not exact enough, an object is described using adjectives.

yɔŋgu ya muɛi. / k'ya muɛi. - Give me a/the knife.

yɔŋgu ya muɛi bɛndɛi. / k'ya muɛi bɛndɛi. - Give me the big knife.

References

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: Childs, G. Tucker. A Grammar of Kisi: A Southern Atlantic Language. 1995-01-01. Walter de Gruyter. 9783110810882. en.