Mancanha Language

The Mankanya language (; ) is spoken by approximately 86,000 people in Guinea-Bissau, Senegal and Gambia primarily belonging to the ethnic group of the same name. It belongs to the Bak branch of the Atlantic–Congo language family.

Mancanha is spoken east of the Manjak language area and to the north of Bissau Island. It is also called ''Brame''.Wilson, William André Auquier. 2007. ''Guinea Languages of the Atlantic group: description and internal classification''. (Schriften zur Afrikanistik, 12.) Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.

Sociolinguistic situation

The language has status as a national language in Senegal, and an orthography has recently been developed for writing it. Mankanya is known as "Uhula" by the people themselves (the Mankanya people, or "Bahula"). The name 'Mankanya' is thought to have been conferred upon the people and their language by colonialists who mistook the name of their chief at the time of colonisation for the name of the people-group itself.

The language contains many loanwords from Kriol. There is also extensive bilingualism in Mandjak, a closely related language which is largely mutually comprehensible, as well as in other minority languages spoken in the area, such as Mandinka and Jola. Finally, Mankanya speakers in Senegal also know French, and those in Gambia know English.

Literature

There is a translation of the Christian Bible in the Mankanya language, available via the YouVersion app. It includes a spoken recording (audio-bible).

Phonology

* Every non-nasal consonant besides /s/ and /c/ can be prenasalised, however it is possible to analyse these consonants as nasal-consonant sequences instead of distinct phonemes.
* The phoneme /c/ is very rare, occurring only in ideophones and loanwords.
* The phoneme /s/ is only found in loanwords.
* Speakers born in Dakar tend to pronounce /θ/ as
* /ʈ/ tends to be pronounced as an affricate ˆÊ‚word-finally.

*/a/ is in free variation with œin closed syllables.

Stress is placed on the first syllable of the root.
Mankanya is not tonal.

Writing system

Mankanya uses the Latin alphabet. In Senegal, a decree of 2005 provides for an orthography for Mankanya.

Grammar

Mankanya has a noun class system, with 10 classes. Nouns are prefixed with a morpheme that encodes both noun class and number (singular vs plural), and other elements of the clause, such as modifiers to the noun, and the verb if the noun is the subject, are marked to agree with the class and number of the noun. Some noun classes also display a further distinction between a general plural noun class prefix, and a counted plural prefix which is used if the noun is modified by a numeral. Class 1 is used for all people, with many nouns in it being agentives derived from verbs. Class 8 lacks number distinctions, and some nouns may be converted to class 8 to take on a mass-noun like meaning, like converting "stone" to "gravel". Class 9 is used for recent loans, words that lack an inherent class like interrogative pronouns (Though the pronoun "who" triggers class 1 agreement), and a root which may occur with many different prefixes to mean "place", which has a very general meaning. Class 10 is singular only and used for diminutives; no nouns are inherently class 10, all in it are derived from nouns of other classes. A small number of nouns, mostly kin terms, can be possessed through the use of a pronominal suffix for certain possessors. There are 1st and 2nd person pronouns of both numbers, as well as pronouns marked for each noun class and number. Pronouns have subject, object, and possessive forms. Some object forms are verb suffixes, while most are independent. Object and possessive pronouns are mostly identical, there is a class 1 singular object suffix, and a 3rd person possessive suffix, that take different forms.

The noun is the first element in noun phrases, being followed by other elements. Inalienable possessors, used mostly for kin terms, and terms like "body", or "household" directly follow the head noun, while alienable possessors occur later in the noun phrase, after adjectives and numerals, and are preceded by a genitive particle that agrees in noun class and number with the head noun. Adjectives also agree with the head noun, as do lower numerals. Demonstratives follow after these elements and alienable possessors, also agreeing with the head, and display 3 degrees of distance, as well as a fourth form used in narratives. They may co-occur with a discourse anaphoric demonstrative, which does not agree. Demonstratives and adjectives both may head noun phrases, agreeing with an omitted head. Relative clauses occur at the end of the noun phrase, and have two different structures based on whether the noun is the subject of the relative clause or not. Both mark the verb in the relative clause with a "selectional" suffix, while subject relative clauses also prenasalise the first consonant of the verb stem, with non-subject relative clauses being preceded by an agreeing genitive particle instead, like an inalienable possessor. There are three prepositions, expressing "like/similar to", "with", and "until", as well as a set of locatives, locative modifiers, and locative nouns. Locatives precede a noun phrase, marking both inside vs general location at, and distance. They are often accompanied by a locative modifier which occurs after the noun phrase, and display more specific locational meanings. Locative nouns instead function as the head of a noun phrase, being possessed by the noun they relate to, akin to English "the front of the house". Locative phrases are unspecified for directionality, with this being lexically specified by the verb (eg. go vs come),. Proper nouns can serve as locative phrases without locational marking.

Verbs are marked to agree with their subject, either in person/number, or noun class/number, whether expressed by a noun phrase or not. The first person subject marker takes different allomorphs in some situations, notably an allomorph that triggers prenasalisation on the initial consonant of the verb stem in some subordinate clauses. There is a serial prefix used for non-first verbs in sequences when the subject remains the same, which replaces the subject prefix. Verbs (and clauses) are marked for negation by prenasalising the initial consonant of the stem, and lengthening the vowel of the subject prefix, along with a distinct intonation, though relative clauses are instead negated with a copula taking the relative clause morphology, along with negative nasalisation, followed by the lexical verb which takes subject agreement. The selectional suffix is used in relative clauses, as mentioned previously, as well as structures likely derived from them and triggers irregular allomorphy/fusion with some other suffixes. There are derivational suffixes including a benefactive applicative and reciprocal which are homophonous for most verb roots, being distinguished by context., two causative suffixes, an instrumental applicative, a middle voice suffix which functions like a reflexive when used alone but like a passive when combined with the reciprocal, as well as reduplication which can indicated continuity or completeness, along with recent past with past marked verbs. Inflectional suffixes are not repeated on the reduplicant, while derivational ones are. There is an infinitive prefix that is required in some subordinate clauses, auxiliary constructions, and can function as an action nominal on its own, while a participle suffix can derive nouns or adjectives from verbs.

Tense, aspect, and mood marked in clauses partially by verb morphology, along with a number of different auxiliary verbs. A perfective vs imperfective distinction is unmarked in neutral sentences, while a prefix marks the imperfective in relative, serial, and negated clauses. There is also a completive suffix that marks a present resulting state for change of state verbs, such as turning "grow" into "be big". The imperative is marked with a suffix, and the verb does not take a subject prefix if the subject is singular. The auxiliary verbs may also function as lexical verbs in other contexts. They take subject agreement prefixes, along with negation or selectional markers, and trigger different morphology on the lexical verb following them. Past tense is expressed with auxiliary "come", and the lexical verb is a bare stem.; "come" can also be used, to mark the future, though "go", and another verb that may be derived from "look for", can also be used. Whichever of the three is used in the future construction, the lexical verb is marked with the imperfective and serial prefixes. Other examples include (but are not limited to) auxiliary "say" used for the habitual, while "still be" or stay" can be used for the persistive, and continuative, both similar to English "still", the first focusing more on the fact that the event has not ended, while the latter with more focus on the extended duration. The progressive uses the copula, followed by the proximal interior locative particle, and the lexical verb takes a nominal prefix. This is similar to the origin of the English continuous, "be at VERB-ing". In terms of modal meanings, the obligative mood uses the copula, followed by the genitive particle, and a lexical verb marked serial imperfective. If the lexical verb is marked with the infinitive instead, it is the epistemic mood. Both can be translated into English as "should", with the former being deontic "they should help out (because it's the right thing to do).", and the latter because of given knowledge "they should help out (because they said they would).". Auxiliaries can be combined in some cases, the combination of the ingressive, built from "make/do" - elsewhere meaning "until" - and the past, yield a past "already" meaning, continuing to present if the lexical verb is marked serial imperfective.

Basic clausal word order is subject, verb, object. Subjects may be dropped when clear from context, and independent subject pronouns are typically only used for purposes of focus. Ditransitive clauses show no difference in marking between the direct and indirect objects, with the theme most commonly preceding the recipient. The verb "have" can be used without a subject to predicate the existence of its object. A copula verb is used to predicate some adjectives, noun phrases, genitive phrases to express possession, and locative phrases. Adjectives may be underlyingly derived from verbs, or stem unspecified for part of speech, in which case they take the completive suffix when used as a predicate, while nominal derive adjectives do not, and use the copula. Adjectives do not agree in person, if their subject is a speech act participant, they agree as though their subject were a class 1 noun. There is a verbless presentative construction, as in "here is X". Some sentences mark the verb with the selectional suffix, elsewhere seen in relative clauses. This is akin to a cleft construction like English "The dog is what I saw", but this construction doesn't use the copula. This construction allows the object to precede the subject and verb. It is commonly used with content interrogative words, though they may remain in situ. Typically negation on the verb is sufficient to negate the clause, but for selectional suffix main clauses, and verbless clauses, the anaphoric demonstrative occurs at the start to negate them. Typically, the presence of a content interrogative word is sufficient to mark a clause as interrogative, though an optional content interrogative particle may occur at the end. Polar interrogatives are marked by the presence of a different final particle. Imperative clauses are marked by a verbal suffix as mentioned prior.

Both independent words, and bound verbal morphology can serve to link clauses together. Relative clauses use both a selectional suffix, along with either prenasalisation of the verb stem, or a preceding genitive particle, depending on whether the head is the subject of the relative clause or not. There are independent words with meaning "or", "so that", "because", and "but", that occur after the main clause to add an additional clause. There are also words meaning "like/because", and "in order to" that require the added clause to take the selectional prefix or the infinitive prefix, respectively. There are also conditional clause introducing words, meaning either "if" or "when", and an additional counterfactual adverb is used if the condition refers to a past event that did not come to be. Chains of serial marked verbs can follow an initial subject marked verbs to indicate multiple actions by the same subject, while a clause initial subject switch marker can occur if the subject changes. In addition to the grammaticalised auxiliaries discussed prior, like the obligative, verbs meaning "begin", "stop", "make" (to form causatives), "know", "see", "hear", "think", and "say", can introduce complement clauses, with either complementisers, or infinitive or serial marking on the verb in the complement clause. The verb "say" must be used to introduce a speech complement, sometimes following after other verbs of speech, marked serial. There are adverbial clause introducers meaning "until", "before", "when", and "like".

References

Further reading

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Papel languages