The Susu language (

endonym An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, ...

: sus, Sosoxui; french: Soussou) is the language of the Susu or ''Soso'' people of

Guinea Guinea ( ),, fuf, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫, italic=no, Gine, wo, Gine, nqo, ߖߌ߬ߣߍ߫, bm, Gine officially the Republic of Guinea (french: République de Guinée), is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the we ...

and

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 , Sierra ...

, West Africa, West

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

. It is in the

Mande language The Mande languages are spoken in several countries in West Africa by the Mandé peoples and include Maninka, Mandinka, Soninke, Bambara, Kpelle, Dioula, Bozo, Mende, Susu, and Vai. There are "60 to 75 languages spoken by 30 to 40 million ...

family. It is one of the

national language A national language is a language (or language variant, e.g. dialect) that has some connection—de facto or de jure—with a nation. There is little consistency in the use of this term. One or more languages spoken as first languages in the te ...

s of

and spoken mainly in the coastal region of the country.

History

The language was also used by people in the coastal regions of Guinea and Sierra Leone as a

trade language A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, vehicular language, or link language, is a language systematically used to make communication possible between groups ...

. The first literature in Susu was a translation of the first seven chapters of the Gospel of Matthew, translated by John Godfrey Wilhelm of the

Church Mission Society The Church Mission Society (CMS), formerly known as the Church Missionary Society, is a British mission society working with the Christians around the world. Founded in 1799, CMS has attracted over nine thousand men and women to serve as mission ...

. This was published in London as "Lingjili Matthew" in 1816. J.G. Wilhelm translated a considerable portion of the New Testament, but only this small part appears to have been printed.

Phonology

Grammatical sketch

Susu is an SOV language, Poss-N, N-D, generally suffixing, non-pro-drop, wh-in-situ, with no agreement affixes on the verb, no noun classes, no gender, and with a clitic plural marker which attaches to the last element of the NP (N or D, typically), but does not co-occur with numerals. It has no definite or indefinite articles. Sentential negation is expressed with a particle, mu, whose distribution is unclear (with adjectival predicates it seems to sometimes infix, but with transitive verbs it comes before the object). Examples:

Pronouns

cf. Object pronouns have the same form as subject pronouns: Possessive affixes precede the noun: baba "father": m baba "my father" i baba "your (sg) father" a baba "his/her/its father" wom baba "our father" wo baba "your (pl) father" e baba "their father"

Adverbs

Adverbs can precede the subject or follow the verb:

Grammatical number

NPs come in a variety of forms: khamé "boy (sg)", khame e "boys (pl) taami "bread (sg)", taami e "breads (pl)"

Numerials

# woto keren car one "one car" # woto firin car two "two cars" # woto sakhan "three cars" # woto nani "four cars" # woto suli "five cars" # woto senni "six cars" # woto solofere "seven cars" # woto solomasakhan "eight cars" # woto solomanani "nine cars" # woto fu "ten cars" # woto fu nun keren "eleven cars" # woto fu nun firin "twelve cars" n woto nde e to né 1sg car indef.D pl see PAST "I saw several cars"/"J'ai vu des autos." woto nde "some car" di nde "some boy" bangkhi nde "some house" khame nde "someone" se nde "something" nde "who/some" i nde to? you who see "Who did you see?" i munse don ma? 2sg what eat PRES "What will you eat?"

Other

Sosoxui is closely related to the Yalunka language.

References

External links

Portions of the Book of Common Prayer in Susu and English
1861 translation
PanAfrican L10n page on Susu

Susu alphabet and phonology

Peace Corps Susu language manual
{{Authority control Mande languages Languages of Guinea Languages of Sierra Leone Languages of Guinea-Bissau