The Siamou language, also known as Seme (Sɛmɛ), is a language spoken mainly in

Burkina Faso Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa, bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Ivory Coast to the southwest. It covers an area of 274,223 km2 (105,87 ...

. It is part of the

Kru languages The Kru languages are spoken by the Kru people from the southeast of Liberia to the west of Ivory Coast. Classification According to Güldemann (2018), Kru lacks sufficient lexical resemblances and noun class resemblances to conclude a relatio ...

or unclassified within the proposed

Niger–Congo languages Niger–Congo is a hypothetical language family spoken over the majority of sub-Saharan Africa. It unites the Mande languages, the Atlantic–Congo languages (which share a characteristic noun class system), and possibly several smaller groups ...

. It is also spoken in

Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire and officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital city of Yamoussoukro is located in the centre of the country, while its largest List of ci ...

and

Mali Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east b ...

, and could likely be a

language isolate A language isolate is a language that has no demonstrable genetic relationship with any other languages. Basque in Europe, Ainu and Burushaski in Asia, Sandawe in Africa, Haida and Zuni in North America, Kanoê in South America, and Tiwi ...

. The speakers call themselves ''Seme''. The

Dioula language Dyula (or Jula, Dioula, ''Julakan'' ߖߎ߬ߟߊ߬ߞߊ߲) is a language of the Mande languages, Mande language family spoken mainly in Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast and Mali, and also in some other countries, including Ghana, Guinea and Guinea-Bissa ...

exonym is ''Siamou''.

Classification

Siamou is traditionally classed as Kru. However, according to

Roger Blench Roger Marsh Blench (born August 1, 1953) is a British linguist, ethnomusicologist and development anthropologist. He has an M.A. and a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and is based in Cambridge, England. He researches, publishes, and work ...

(2013) and Pierre Vogler (2015), the language bears little resemblance to Kru.Blench (2013:50) Güldemann (2018) also leaves out Siamou as unrelated to Niger-Congo and considers it a language isolate. Glottolog considers it a language isolate on that basis.

Grammar

Siamou word order is SOV, like the

Senufo languages The Senufo or Senufic languages () comprise around 15 languages spoken by the Senufo people, Senufo in the north of Ivory Coast, the south of Mali and the southwest of Burkina Faso. An isolated language, Nafaanra language, Nafaanra, is also spok ...

, but unlike the SVO Central Gur languages.

Geographical distribution

In 1999, it was spoken by 20,000 people in western

and another 20,000 in the

and

. In Burkina Faso, it is mainly spoken in the province of Kénédougou, around the provincial capital Orodara and the surrounding villages of Bandougou, Didéri, Diéri, Diéridéni, Diossogou, Kotoudéni, Lidara, and Tin.Vogler, Pierre. 2015.
Le sèmè/siamou n’est pas une langue kru
'. Siamou has one major dialect, Bandougou. In addition, there are minor dialectal differences among the Siamou spoken in Orodara and in surrounding villages. It is also spoken in Toussiana Department of Burkina Faso.

Notes

References

* Blench, Roger (2013)
Why Is Africa So Linguistically Undiverse? Exploring Substrates and Isolates
" in ''Mother Tongue'', Issue XVIII, pp. 43–78. Journal of the Association for the Study of Language in Prehistory. {{Niger-Congo branches Kru languages Languages of Burkina Faso Language isolates of Africa

Classification

Grammar

Geographical distribution

See also

Further reading

Notes

References