Morphological alternation and event delimitation in Eegimaa

It is rare for a language to be able to use noun class markers in the nominal domain to categorise entities, and at the same time, use these same linguistic markers to categorise events from the verbal domain. Such a system can be found in Eegimaa and some other related Atlantic languages spoken in the Basse-Casamance area of Southern Senegal, where non-finite verbs and the events they refer to are classified using several different noun class prefixes. In these languages, the use of individual noun class markers as nonfinite verb classificatory markers is lexically determined. But, there are also instances where different noun class prefixes can alternate on verbal stems. Whenever these alternations are attested, one of the alternants must be e-, and the other can be any prefix attested on non-finite verbs, including class prefixes ga- and ba- which are studied here. I show that in these alternations, class marker e- is used to express event delimitation by expressing features such as individuation and telicity which, in the typological literature, have been associated with properties of high transitivity. However, when other prefixes like ga- and ba- alternate with e-, they express values of non-individuation and atelicity which are placed on the lower end of the transitivity scale

Elligen Epin ni Gújjolaay Eegimaa - Sifem

Research engagement material produced as part of a research impact output for the "Matches and mismatches" child language acquisition project funded by the ESRC and AHRC (ES/P000304/1)

Syntactic and semantic agreement in Eegimaa (Banjal): an account of lexical hybrids in an African noun class system

Typological research on agreement systems recognises syntactic and semantic agreement as the two main types of agreement, with the former considered to be more canonical. An examination of different manifestations of semantic agreement found in the Gújjolaay Eegimaa1 noun class (non sex based gender) system is proposed in this paper from the perspective of Canonical Typology, and the findings are related to the Agreement Hierarchy predictions. The results show that Eegimaa has hybrid nouns and constructional mismatches which trigger semantically based agreement mismatches, both in gender and number between controller nouns and certain targets. This paper shows that Eegimaa has two main subtypes of semantic agreement: human semantic agreement and locative semantic agreement. The data and the analysis proposed here reveal novel results according to which these two types of semantic agreement behave differently in relation to the Agreement Hierarchy

Why are they named after death? Name giving, name changing and death prevention names in Gújjolaay Eegimaa (Banjal)

This paper advocates the integration of ethnographic information such as anthroponymy in language documentation, by discussing the results of the documentation of personal names among speakers of Gújjolaay Eegimaa. Our study shows that Eegimaa proper names include names that may be termed ‘meaningless names’, because their meanings are virtually impossible to identify, and meaningful names, i.e. names whose meanings are semantically transparent. Two main types of meaningful proper names are identified: those that describe aspects of an individual’s physic or character, and ritual names which are termed death prevention names. Death prevention names include names given to women who undergo the Gaññalen ‘birth ritual’ to help them with pregnancy and birthgiving, and those given to children to fight infant mortality. We provide an analysis of the morphological structures and the meanings of proper names and investigate name changing practices among Eegimaa speakers. Our study shows that, in addition to revealing aspects of individuals’ lives, proper names also reveal important aspects of speakers’ social organisation. As a result, anthroponymy is an area of possible collaborative research with other disciplines including anthropology and philosophy

A typological overview of Eegimaa (Jóola Banjal)

This paper examines some of the most prominent properties of Eegimaa, a Jóola/Diola language spoken in the Basse‑Casamance (Southern Senegal). The phonological features examined include [ATR] vowel harmony, backness harmony, lenition, and Eegimaa’s typologically unusual geminate consonants. The paper focuses primarily on Eegimaa morphology. My analysis of the noun class system separates morphological classes from agreement classes (genders), as suggested in Aronoff (1994), and presents the most important principles of semantic categorization, including shape encoding. I also show that Eegimaa classifies nouns and verbs by the same overt linguistic means, namely, noun class prefixes. I argue that this overt classification of nouns and verbs reflects parallel semantic categorization of entities and events. Other prominent typological features include associative plural marking and nominal TAM marking with the inactualis suffix, which also expresses alienability contrasts

Documenting ethnobotanical knowledge among Gújjolaay Eegimaa speakers

The goal of this paper is to provide an account of the documentation of the ethnobotanical knowledge and classification among the speakers of Gújjolaay Eegimaa, an endangered Atlantic and Niger-Congo language spoken by less than 10,000 speakers in Southern Senegal. The assumption made here is that language documentation seeks, among other things, to capture the individual and collective theoretical and practical knowledge and experience of a people about their environment. Such knowledge is, as argued in the literature, encoded in language e.g., in noun class systems where plant names and other nouns are grouped into classes (Coelho, 2006, Foley, 1997, Messineo and Cúneo, 2011) reflecting the way speakers categorise entities which make up their world (D'Andrade, 1995). The paper discusses the strengths and limitations of the research techniques used during the documentation of the Eegimaa speakers’ ethnobotanical knowledge. These techniques include native speaker intuition, elicitation, participant observation, collaborative work with a native speaker botanist and a woodworker. Additionally, I will examine the classification of plant names in the Eegimaa noun class system. I will argue that in Eegimaa, the grammatical classification of plant names reflects a conceptual categorisation of plants. This means that plants are not assigned to classes on the basis of taxonomic criteria, but based on their physical properties like shape and also culture-specific criteria. For example, plants having a round shape fu-ttara ‘bambu’ and fi-ssisit ‘kind of grass’, are assigned to class 7 fu- which includes prototypically round objects. On the other hand, plants in class 12 ñu- are those that constitute private property and play and central role in the economy and social organisation of Eegimaa people. Further evidence that plants are not arbitrarily assigned to noun classes comes from the formation of collectives (Author 2011, 2012), where class 3 e- functions as a collective class for plants that grow in colonies i.e. those like é-gabal ‘lily plants (colony)’, e-rarah ‘colony of Ipomea asarifolia’, that tend to choke other plants that grow in the same area. This paper shows that the classification of plant names and other nouns is more semantically based then is generally assumed in the literature (Richardson, 1967, Schadeberg, 2001). It also emphasises the importance of interdisciplinary collaborative research and the use of various data collection methods to provide a comprehensive documentation of the knowledge speakers have of their environment

Formal and semantic properties of the Gujjolaay Eegimaa (a.k.a. Banjal) nominal classification system.

Gujjolaay Eegimaa (G.E.), an Atlantic language of the Niger-Congo phylum spoken in the Basse-Casamance area in Senegal, exhibits a system of nominal classification known as a "gender/ noun class system". In this type of nominal classification system which is prevalent in Niger-Congo languages, there is controversy as to whether the obligatory classification of all nouns into a finite number of classes has semantic motivations. In addition to the disputed issue of the semantic basis of the nominal classification, the formal criteria for assigning nouns into classes are also disputed in Joola languages and in G.E. In this PhD thesis, I propose an investigation of the formal and semantic properties of the nominal classification system of Gujjolaay Eegimaa (G.E). Based on cross-linguistic and language-specific research, I propose formal criteria whose application led to the discovery of fifteen noun classes in G.E. Here, I argue that the G.E. noun class system has semantic motivations. I show that some nouns in this language may be classified or categorized on the basis of shared properties as stipulated in the classical theory of categorization. However, most of the classification of the G.E. nouns is based on prototypicality and extension of such prototypes by family resemblance, chaining process, metaphor and metonymy, as argued in the prototype theory from cognitive semantics. The parameters of categorization that fruitfully account for the semantic basis of the G.E. nominal classification system are both universal and cultural-specific. Primary data constitutes the material used in this research and include lexical (including loanwords), textual as well as experimental data using picture stimuli. The collected data comprise different types of communicative events recorded in audio and video formats and also in written format through participant observation

Acquisition of Eegimaa (Atlantic family, Niger-Congo) in a polyadic environment : A commentary on Kidd and Garcia (2022)

Research on lesser-studied languages is vital for the advancement of theories of language acquisition. We discuss two areas where data from Eegimaa has the potential to produce innovative research: (1) language typology, with an overview of the complex demonstratives found in this language, and (2) learning environment and input speech. Here, we show that Eegimaa children learn to speak in a polyadic environment, where they receive input from multiple caregivers, siblings, and other members of their community

The acquisition of demonstratives in a complex noun class system

We present an exploratory study of 2 to 3-year-old children’s acquisition of the demonstrative system of Eegimaa (ISO 369-3 bqj), an endangered language belonging to the Jóola cluster of the Atlantic family of the Niger-Congo phylum, spoken by about 13,000 speakers in southwestern Senegal. Eegimaa demonstratives express distance from speaker (proximal, medial and distal) and the agreement categories of number and gender, as well as having four morphological types that create an additional dimension of complexity for children to learn. These demonstrative types are each associated with a range of syntactic functions with partial overlaps

Molecular diagnosis of COVID-19 in Burkina Faso: successful challenge

COVID-19 has worsened the health situation in Burkina Faso. In fact, the country has known a peak of the second wave, which began in November, and ended around January 2021. Biological diagnosis has played a key role in the management of COVID-19. The aim of this review paper is to address the practical aspects that laboratories have faced in order to meet the challenge of SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis in Burkina Faso. According to international requirements, Burkina Faso has used real-time Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (rRT-PCR) as the “gold standard” for the diagnosis of COVID-19. From March 9, 2020 to July 31, 2021, in Burkina Faso, laboratories involved in COVID-19 diagnosis analyzed 226,189 samples by molecular tests and 2, 352 samples by rapid antigenic tests, whose peak was in January 2021 with 35,984 samples analyzed. The daily average rate of samples analysis was 456.02 tests. The majority of the individuals requesting COVID-19 tests were travelers (62.00%), followed by contact cases (18.42%), suspected cases (7.95%), voluntary screening (7.57%), and 4.06% of other applicants consisting of health care personnel and at-risk patients. In terms of prevention, vaccines are being administered to the general population. However, some efforts must be made to provide automated sample analysis equipment and complete sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 remains among the challenges