| Siccité | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Burkina Faso,Mali |
| Region | Sikasso Region |
Native speakers | (38,000 cited 1999–2007)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | sep |
| Glottolog | sici1249 |
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TheSucite language orSicite is aSenufo language spoken in southwesternBurkina Faso andMali by approximately 35,000 people. Sucite is a close neighbour of theSupyire language, spoken in southeastern Mali. Sucite is sometimes regarded as the northern extension of the Supyire language. The two dialects are, according to Garber (1987), ‘quite mutually intelligible’. Sometimes speakers of Sucite will even refer to themselves as speaking Supyire. Another closely related lect isMamara (also known as Minyanka).
Some other Senufo groups refers to the Sùcìté people as Tagba, because they live on the Tagouara plateau. There are various ways to spell the dialect names. Variants of Sucite include Sicite, Sipiite, and Sicire. TheSIL language code is SEP.
All vowels can be lengthened andnasalized. The schwa /ə/ is included in brackets because it is found only in two specific environments, where it appears to be incomplementary distribution with some other vowel.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i ĩ | u ũ | |
| Close-mid | e ẽ | (ə) | o õ |
| Open-mid | ɛ ɛ̃ | ɔ ɔ̃ | |
| Open | a ã |
| Labial | Alveolar | (Alveolo-) Palatal | Velar | Labio-velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive/ Affricate | voiceless | p | t | t͡ɕ | k | ʔ | |
| voiced | b | d | d͡ʑ | ɡ͡b | |||
| geminate | bː | dː | d͡ʑː | ɡː | |||
| prenasalized | ⁿb | ⁿd | ⁿd͡ʑ | ⁿɡ | ⁿɡ͡b | ||
| Nasal | m | n | nʲ | ŋ | ŋ͡m | ||
| Fricative | f fʲ | s | x | ||||
| Glide | w wʲ | j | |||||
Geminate voiced stops/affricates are cognate to prenasalized voiceless stops inSupyire,[3] and are indicated orthographically as⟨mp, nt, ...⟩ in Garber (1987).
Sucite is atonal language with three surface tone levels: High, Mid, and Low. Garber (1987) and Carlson (1994) analyse the Northern Senufo system as having two different Mid tones, a strong mid (Ms) and a weak mid (Mw). The Ms tone undergoes substantially less tonal alternations than the Mw tone. Garber (1988) suggests that this peculiarity may have its origin in atonal split.
Glides formed by combining pairs of tones exist, the most common being HL and ML.
Like the other Senufo languages, Sucite employs anoun class system of five genders: three pairings of singular/plural classes and two mass/collective classes.
Nouns take class-specific suffixes for definiteness. For example:
| Gloss | Indef. | Def. | Gender | Class |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 'river' | gba | gba-ŋé | wi | 1 |
| 'rivers' | gba-ála | gba-á-bí | 2 | |
| 'house' | gba-xa | gba-ké | ki | 3 |
| 'houses' | gba-ya | gba-nyɛ́ | 4 | |
| 'forehead' | gba-là | gba-à-ne | li | 5 |
| 'foreheads' | gbà-ʔala | gbà-ʔà-ki | 6 |
Each noun class has its own set of pronouns. These may be general (clitic), emphatic,partitive, interrogative, demonstrative, or relative.
| Class | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clitic | wu | bi | kə | yi | lə | ki | tə | bə |
| Emphatic | wurə̀ | perə̀ | kərə̀ | yirə̀ | lərə̀ | kerə̀ | tərə̀ | pərə̀ |
| Partitive | wà | pì | kà | yà | là | kì | tà | pà |
| Demonstrative | ngə́ | mpí | nkə́ | njí | ndə́ | nkí | ntə́ | mpə́ |
| Interrogative | ngə | mpi | nkə | nji | ndə | nki | ntə | mpə |
