Serer language

Serer, often broken into differing regional dialects such as Serer-Sine and Serer saloum, is a language of the kingdoms of Sine and Saloum branch of Niger–Congo spoken by 1.2 million people in Senegal and 30,000 in the Gambia as of 2009.^[2] It is the principal language of the Serer people.

Serer
Seereer
Native to	Senegal, Gambia, Mauritania
Native speakers	1,410,700 (2001-2015)^[1]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Atlantic Senegambian Fula–Serer Serer
Standard forms	Seereer-Siin
Official status
Regulated by	CLAD (Centre de linguistique appliquée de Dakar)
Language codes
ISO 639-2	srr
ISO 639-3	srr
Glottolog	sere1260
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Classification

Serer is one of the Senegambian languages, which are characterized by consonant mutation. The traditional classification of Atlantic is that of Sapir (1971), which found that Serer was closest to Fulani.^[3] However, a widely cited misreading of the data by Wilson (1989) inadvertently exchanged Serer for Wolof. Dialects of Serer are Serer Sine (the prestige dialect), Segum, Fadyut-Palmerin, Dyegueme (Gyegem), and Niominka. They are mutually intelligible except for the Sereer spoken in some of the areas surrounding the city of Thiès.

Not all Serer people speak Serer. About 200,000 speak Cangin languages. Because the speakers are ethnically Serer, they are commonly thought to be Serer dialects. However, they are not closely related, and Serer is significantly closer to Fulani (also called Pulbe, Pulaar, or Fulbe) than it is to Cangin.^{[citation needed]}

Phonology

Consonants

The voiceless implosives are highly unusual sounds.^[4]

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal		Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal		m	n	ɲ		ŋ
Stop	voiceless	p	t	c		k	q	ʔ
	voiced	b	d	ɟ		ɡ
	prenasal	ᵐb	ⁿd	ᶮɟ		ᵑɡ	ᶰɢ
Implosive	voiceless	ɓ̥	ɗ̥	ʄ̊
	voiced	ɓ	ɗ	ʄ
Flap			ɾ
Fricative		f	s			x		h
Approximant			l	j	ˀj	w

Vowels

	Front	Back
Close	i iː	u uː
Mid	e eː	o oː
Open	a aː

Writing system

Serer alphabet

A

B

Ɓ

C

Ƈ

D

Ɗ

E

F

G

H

I

J

Jʼ

K

L

M

N

Ñ

Ŋ

O

P

Ƥ

Q

R

S

T

Ƭ

U

W

X

Y

Ƴ

ʼ

a

b

ɓ

c

ƈ

d

ɗ

e

f

g

h

i

j

ʃ

k

l

m

n

ñ

ŋ

o

p

ƥ

q

r

s

t

ƭ

u

w

x

y

ƴ

ʼ

IPA value

a

b

ɓ

c

ʄ̊

d

ɗ

e

f

ɡ

h

i

ɟ

ʄ

k

l

m

n

ɲ

ŋ

o

p

ɓ̥

q

r

s

t

ɗ̥

u

w

x

j

ˀj

ʔ

Greetings

The following greetings and responses are spoken in most regions of Senegal that have Serer speakers.

• Nam fi'o? ('how are you doing?')
• Mexe meen ('I am here')
• Ta mbind na? ('how is the family' or more literally 'how is the house?')
• Awa maa ('they are good' or more literally 'they are there')

Spatial awareness is very important in Sereer. For example, this exchange is only for when the household in question is not nearby. Certain grammatical changes would occur if the greetings were exchanged in a home that the greeter has just entered:

• Ta mbind ne? ('how is the family/house [which is here]?')
• Awa meen ('they are good' or more literally 'they are here')

In Senegalese Sereer culture like many cultures in that region, greetings are very important. Sometimes, people will spend several minutes greeting each other.

See also

• Cangin languages

Notes

1. "Serer-Sine". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2018-08-25.
2. Lewis, M. Paul (ed.), 2009. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Sixteenth edition. Dallas, Tex.: SIL International, Ethnologue.com. Figures for (2006) The Gambia only.
3. Sapir, David, 1971. "West Atlantic: an inventory of the languages, their noun-class systems and consonant alternation". In Sebeok, ed, Current trends in linguistics, 7: linguistics in sub-Saharan Africa. Mouton, 45–112
4. Mc Laughlin (2005:203)

Bibliography

• Fall, Papa Oumar (2013). "The ethnolinguistic classification of Seereer in question". In Africa: Challenges of Multilingualism, Ds Altmayer, Claus / Wolff, H. Ekkehard, Peter Lang, Frankfurt Am Main, Berlin, Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford: 47–60.
• McLaughlin, Fiona (1994). "Consonant mutation in Seereer-Siin". Studies in African Languages. 23: 279–313.
• McLaughlin, Fiona (2000). "Consonant mutation and reduplication in Seereer-Siin". Phonology. 17 (3): 333–363. doi:10.1017/S0952675701003955.
• Mc Laughlin, Fiona (2005), "Voiceless implosives in Seereer-Siin", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 35 (2): 201–214, doi:10.1017/S0025100305002215
• Crétois, L. (1972). Dictionnaire sereer-français (différents dialects) (in French). Dakar: Centre de Linguistique Appliquée de Dakar.
• Fal, A. (1980). Les nominaux en sereer-siin: Parler de Jaxaaw (in French). Dakar: Nouvelles Editions Africaines.
• Senghor, L. S. (1994). "L'harmonie vocalique en sérère (dialecte du Dyéguème)". Journal de la Société des Linguistes (in French). 14: 17–23.

External links

 

Serer language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator

• Sereer Grammar - Sereer wiki
• Decree No. 2005-990 of 21 October 2005 relating to the spelling and the separation of words in Serer via the website of the Journal officiel (in French)