| Kasena | |
|---|---|
| kasɩm | |
| Region | Ghana,Burkina Faso |
| Ethnicity | Kassena |
Native speakers | (250,000 cited 1998–2004)[1] |
| Latin,Goulsse | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | xsm |
| Glottolog | kase1253 |
 The region in which the Kassena people live in Ghana and Burkina Faso | |
Kasena orKassena (Kasem orKassem) is the language of theKassena ethnic group and is aGur language spoken in the Upper East Region of northernGhana and inBurkina Faso.
| Bilabial | Labio dental | Alveolar | Post-alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k | ||||
| voiced | b | d | ɡ | |||||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||||
| Affricate | voiceless | t̠͡ʃ | ||||||
| voiced | d̠͡ʒ | |||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | h | ||||
| voiced | v | z | ||||||
| Approximant | l | j | w | |||||
| Trill | r | |||||||
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Near-close | ɪ | ʊ | |
| Close-mid | e | ə | o |
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɔ | |
| Open | a |
Kasena has threetones, a high tone, a mid level tone and a low tone. Tonal changes either change the lexical meaning of a word or its grammatical function.[2]
Lexical
A
A
„I“
Á
Á
„You (PL)“
Grammatical
Wu
Wu
Negation
Wú
Wú
Futur
| Aa | Ǝǝ | Bb | Cc | Dd | Ee | Ɛɛ | Ff | Gg | Hh |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| /a/ | /ə/ | /b/ | /t̠͡ʃ/ | /d/ | /e/ | /ɛ/ | /f/ | /ɡ/ | /h/ |
| Ii | Ɩɩ | Jj | Kk | Ll | Mm | Nn | Ŋŋ | Oo | Ɔɔ |
| /i/ | /ɪ/ | /d̠͡ʒ/ | /k/ | /l/ | /m/ | /n/ | /ŋ/ | /o/ | /ɔ/ |
| Pp | Rr | Ss | Tt | Uu | Ʋʋ | Vv | Ww | Yy | Zz |
| /p/ | /r/ | /s/ | /t/ | /u/ | /ʊ/ | /v/ | /w/ | /j/ | /z/ |
An independent 30-letter alphabet called theGoulsse alphabet (fromgʋlse, “writing” inMooré) was devised by Burkinabé app developer Wenitte Apiou, Babaguioue Micareme Akouabou and Kassem linguist Fernand Ki in summer of 2021 based on the geometrical patterns found inKassena architecture. The alphabet is also planned to be applicable for the related Mooré language as well.[3]
There are five classes of nouns that can be identified in Kasena. These classes correspond togrammatical genders and are differentiated in terms of number, such that there are five classes for singular nouns and five classes for plural nouns.[2]
| Gender | SG | PL | Gloss |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | bu | biə | child/children |
| 2 | bɪnɪ | bɪna | year(s) |
| 3 | naga | nɛ | foot/feet |
| 4 | piu | pweeru | montain(s) |
| 5 | bʊŋʊ | bʊm | goat(s) |
There are two classes of personal pronouns. One class is referring to humans, whereas the other class is referring to non-human entities. The personal pronouns are also used as possessive pronouns, thus there is no special form for possessive pronouns in Kasena.
Human personal pronouns
| Person | SG | PL | Gloss |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | A | Dí | I/we |
| 2nd | N | Á | You/you |
| 3rd | O | Ba | He/she/They |
Non-human personal pronouns
| Class | SG | PL |
|---|---|---|
| I | O | Ba |
| II | Dɪ | Ya |
| III | Ka | Sɪ |
| IV | Kʊ | Tɪ |
| V | Kʊ | Dɪ |
| Person | SG | PL | Gloss |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | amʊ | dcbam | Me/we |
| 2nd | nmʊ | abam | You/you |
| 3rd | wʊm/wʊntu | bam/bantʊ | He/she/they |
Reciprocity is expressed by the pronoundaanɪ, which sometimes occurs as aprefix orsuffix.
Reflexivity is expressed by a personal pronoun to which eithertɪtɪ orkatɪ ('-self')is added.
Relative pronouns are formed on the basis of the personal pronouns for non-human entities to which the suffix-lʊ is attached.[2]
| Class | SG | PL |
|---|---|---|
| I | wʊlʊ | balʊ |
| II | dɪlʊ | yalʊ |
| III | kalʊ | sɪlʊ |
| IV | kʊlʊ | tɪlʊ |
| V | kʊlʊ | dɪlʊ |
| Class | Number | Certain | Some | Any |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I | SG | wʊdoŋ | --- | wʊlʊ wʊlʊ |
| I | PL | badonnə | badaara | balʊ balʊ |
| II | SG | dɪ doŋ | --- | dɪlʊ dɪlʊ |
| II | PL | yadonnə | yadaara | yalʊ yalʊ |
| III | SG | kadoŋ | --- | kalʊ kalʊ |
| III | PL | sɪdonnə | sɪdaara | sɪlʊ sɪlʊ |
| IV | SG | kudoŋ | --- | kʊlʊ kʊlʊ |
| IV | PL | tɪdonnə | tɪdaara | tɪlʊ tɪlʊ |
| V | SG | kudoŋ | --- | kʊlʊ kʊlʊ |
| V | PL | dɪdonnə | dɪdaara | dɪlʊ dɪlʊ |
| Class | SG | Gloss | PL | Gloss |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I | wuntu | this/that | bantu | these/those |
| II | dɪntu | this/that | yantu | these/those |
| III | kantu | this/that | sɪntu | these/those |
| IV | kuntu | this/that | tɪntu | these/those |
| V | kuntu | this/that | dɪntu | these/those |
| Class | SGwho, what, which | PLwho, what, which | How much |
|---|---|---|---|
| I | wɔɔ | bra | bagra |
| II | dɔɔ | yɔɔ | yagra |
| III | kɔɔ | sɔɔ | sɪgra |
| IV | kɔɔ | tɔɔ | tɪgra |
| V | kɔɔ | dɔɔ | dɪgra |
The Kasena language has a basicSVO word order.
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