Cerma language explained
| Cerma |
| Also Known As: | Gouin |
| Nativename: | Kirma |
| Region: | Burkina Faso, a few in Ivory Coast |
| Speakers: | 53,600 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| Ref: | e25 |
| Familycolor: | Niger-Congo |
| Fam2: | Atlantic–Congo |
| Fam3: | Gur |
| Fam4: | Southern Gur |
| Fam5: | Kirma–Tyurama |
| Iso3: | cme |
| Glotto: | cerm1238 |
| Glottorefname: | Cerma |
Cerma (Kirma) is a Gur language of Burkina Faso. It is spoken by the Gouin people (sometimes called Ciramba or Gouin (Gwe, Gwen)).
Phonology
Consonants
!! Labial !! Dental !! Palatal !! Dorsal/
Laryngeal !! Labial-
velar | voiceless | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ |
|---|
| voiced | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ |
|---|
| Nasal | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | | | |
|---|
| voiceless | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | | pronounced as /ink/ | |
|---|
| voiced | pronounced as /ink/ | (pronounced as /ink/) | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |
|---|
| Lateral | | pronounced as /ink/ | | | |
|---|
| Trill | | pronounced as /ink/ | | | |
|---|
| Archiphoneme | | N | | | | |
|---|
- Although pronounced as /link/ is phonetically a labial-velar consonant, Lauber includes it in the dorsal/laryngeal column because its distribution is more like pronounced as /link/ or pronounced as /link/ than the labials or labial-velars.
- Lauber excludes pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, and //N// from the continuant section because their distributions are different.
- pronounced as /link/ is nasalized pronounced as /link/ "in a nasal context" and a voiceless alveolar lateral pronounced as /link/ at the end of an utterance.
- pronounced as /link/ is a nasal tap pronounced as /link/ "in a nasal context" and a voiceless tap pronounced as /link/ at the end of an utterance.
- The archiphoneme //N// has the following allophones:
- pronounced as /link/ before pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, and pronounced as /link/
- pronounced as /link/ before pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/
- pronounced as /link/ before pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, and pronounced as /link/
- pronounced as /link/ before pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, and front vowels
- pronounced as /link/ before pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, and the central and back vowels
- pronounced as /link/ before pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/
- pronounced as //Nj// also becomes pronounced as /link/.
- Hürlimann and Pike (1985) note that the palatals are affricates, using the symbols and .
Vowels
| Back |
| Close | pronounced as /ink/ | | pronounced as /ink/ |
|---|
| Mid | pronounced as /ink/ | | pronounced as /ink/ |
|---|
| Open-mid | pronounced as /ink/ | | pronounced as /ink/ |
|---|
| Open | | pronounced as /ink/ | | |
|---|
- Lauber treats nasalization as a feature of the syllable, not the vowel.
- In closed syllables, pronounced as //i, u// become near-close pronounced as /[ɪ, ʊ]/.
- In the last syllable of the nuclear element of the phonological word before pronounced as /link/, pronounced as //e, ɔ, o// are lengthened pronounced as /[eː, ɔː, oː]/.
References
- Ébauche d'une description de la phonologie du cerma . Lauber . Ed . November 2006 . 2024-08-30 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210306142725/http://sil-burkina.org/sites/default/files/Lauber%20Phonologie%20Cerma.pdf . 2021-03-06 . live . fr . 1980 . Weber . Maya . Hürlimann . Ruth . Karama . Daniel.
- Hürlimann . Ruth . Pike . Eunice V. . 1985 . A note on tone and stress in Cerman . live . Journal of West African Languages . 15 . 2 . 56–60 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240831031135/https://journalofwestafricanlanguages.org/downloads?task=download.send&id=190&catid=43&m=0 . 2024-08-31 . 2024-08-31.
