PROFILPELAJAR.COM

Siamou
Siamou
Sɛmɛ
Native to	Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Mali
Native speakers	(40,000 cited ca. 1999)
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic-Congo Kru? Siamou; ; ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	sif
Glottolog	siam1242

The Siamou language, also known as Seme (Sɛmɛ), is a language spoken mainly in Burkina Faso. It is part of the Kru languages or unclassified within the proposed Niger–Congo languages. It is also spoken in Ivory Coast and Mali, and could likely be a language isolate.

The speakers call themselves Seme. The Dioula language exonym is Siamou.^[2]

Classification

Siamou is traditionally classed as Kru. However, according to Roger Blench (2013) and Pierre Vogler (2015), the language bears little resemblance to Kru.^[3]^[2] Güldemann (2018) also leaves out Siamou as unrelated to Niger-Congo and considers it a language isolate.^[4] Glottolog considers it a language isolate on that basis.

Siamou word order is SOV, like the Senufo languages, but unlike the SVO Central Gur languages.^[4]

Geographical distribution

In 1999, it was spoken by 20,000 people in western Burkina Faso and another 20,000 in the Ivory Coast and Mali.^[1] In Burkina Faso, it is mainly spoken in the province of Kénédougou, around the provincial capital Orodara and the surrounding villages of Bandougou, Didéri, Diéri, Diéridéni, Diossogou, Kotoudéni, Lidara, and Tin.^[2] Siamou has one major dialect, Bandougou. In addition, there are minor dialectal differences among the Siamou spoken in Orodara and in surrounding villages. It is also spoken in Toussiana Department of Burkina Faso.

Notes

^ ^a ^b Siamou at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^ ^a ^b ^c Vogler, Pierre. 2015. Le sèmè/siamou n’est pas une langue kru.
^ Blench (2013:50)
^ ^a ^b Güldemann, Tom (2018). "Historical linguistics and genealogical language classification in Africa". In Güldemann, Tom (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of Africa. The World of Linguistics series. Vol. 11. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 58–444. doi:10.1515/9783110421668-002. ISBN 978-3-11-042606-9. S2CID 133888593.

References

Blench, Roger (2013) "Why Is Africa So Linguistically Undiverse? Exploring Substrates and Isolates." in Mother Tongue, Issue XVIII, pp. 43–78. Journal of the Association for the Study of Language in Prehistory.