The Bullom So language, also called Mmani,
[Wilson, William André Auquier. 2007. ''Guinea Languages of the Atlantic group: description and internal classification''. (Schriften zur Afrikanistik, 12.) Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.] Mani, or Mandingi, is an
endangered language
An endangered language or moribund language is a language that is at risk of disappearing as its speakers die out or shift to speaking other languages. Language loss occurs when the language has no more native speakers and becomes a "dead langu ...
currently spoken in a few villages in
Samu region of
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierr ...
's
Kambia District, near the border of
Guinea. It belongs to the
Mel branch of the
Niger–Congo language family and is particularly closely related to the
Bom language. Intermarriage between Bullom So speakers and speakers of
Temne and
Susu is common. As the few remaining speakers of Bullom So are all over 60, the language is considered
moribund
Moribund refers to a literal or figurative state near death.
Moribund may refer to:
* ''Moribund'' (album), a 2006 album by the Norwegian black metal band Koldbrann
* " Le Moribond", a song by Jacques Brel known in English as "Seasons in the Sun ...
.
History
According to Childs, the Mani once occupied an area far greater than where the language is spoken today. At the start of the 18th century, the Mani kingdom stretched from Sierra-Leone to Guinea.
They were later replaced along the coastal region by
Temne-Baga speakers, and later by the
Soso, through war, invasion and acculturation.
Classification
The Bullom So (Mani) language is a
Niger-Congo language of
Mel subgroup. It is closely related to
Kisi,
Sherbro, Kim and
Bom.
Phonology
Prosody
The most common syllable type in Bullom So (Mani) is CV and CVC.
Nasals can also be syllabic, though they are relatively uncommon, much like V only syllables.
Vowels are nasalised when syllable codas contain
nasals
In phonetics, a nasal, also called a nasal occlusive or nasal stop in contrast with an oral stop or nasalized consonant, is an occlusive consonant produced with a lowered velum, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The vast majorit ...
. Here are some examples from Childs (2011: 37):
''Regressive Nasal Assimilation''
* /wàm/
ãmor
ã'ten'
* /tún/
ũ'commit'
* /bìn/
ĩ'plank'
* /nyɛ̀n/
yɛ̃'mouth'
Grammar
Orthography
Written Mani before the Twenty-First Century
Gustavus Reinhold Nyländer translated the Gospel of Matthew into Bullom So, and portions of the Bible were also included in his Book of Common Prayer. These were published by the Church Missionary Society (CMS) in 1816.
Sample Texts in Nyländer's Orthography
= The Lord's Prayer
=
= Excerpt from "A Dialogue between a Christian Missionary and a Native of Bullom"
=
Written Mani in the Twenty-First Century
Sample Texts from the Mani Documentation Project
References
Literature
* Childs, G. Tucker (2011). ''A Grammar of Mani''. (''Mouton Grammar Library''; 54.) Berlin; Boston: De Gruyter Mouton.
* Childs, G. Tucker (2007). ''Hin som sɛk''! ''oma'' si fɔ mfɔ mmani! (A Mani primer). Portland; OR: Real Estate Publishers, Inc.
* Moity, Marcel (1948). Étude sur la langue mmani (unpublished ms). Dakar: IFAN.
* Moity, Marcel (1957). Notes sure les mani (Guinée Française). ''Bulletin de l'Institut Français d'Afrique Noire'' 19:302-307.
* Nyländer, Gustavus Reinhold. 1814. ''Grammar and Vocabulary of the Bullom Language.'' London: Christian Missionary Society.
* Pichl, Walter J. (1980). Mmani. In ''West African Language Data Sheets, vol. 2''. M. E. Kropp Dakubu (ed.), 1–6. Accra and Leiden: West African Linguistic Society and African Studies Centre.
External links
Select Portions of the Book of Common Prayer, according to the Use of the United Church of England and Ireland (1816) translated by
Gustavus Reinhold Nyländer, digitized by Richard Mammana
Mani Documentation Project (2004-2006) Documenting the moribund language Mani, a Southern Atlantic language of Niger-Congo
{{Atlantic languages
Bullom languages
Languages of Sierra Leone
Endangered languages of Africa