Glottolog kiss1245 | ||
Native speakers (530,000 cited 1991–1995) Language family Niger–CongoAtlantic–CongoMelBullom–KissiKissi ISO 639-3 Either:kss – Southern Kissikqs – Northern Kissi Linguasphere 94-BAB-a (Kisi, incl. 94-BAB-aa Kisi-N. & 94-BAB-ab Kisi-S.) | ||
Kissi (or Kisi) is a Mel language of West Africa, closely related to Temne of Sierra Leone. There are two dialects, northern and southern, and both are tonal languages. The northern dialect is spoken in Guinea and in Sierra Leone. In its northern form, it often uses loanwords from the Malinke and the Mende languages. The southern dialect is spoken in Liberia and Sierra Leone. The two dialects are notably different, but are closely related.
Contents
- Letters not in the English alphabet
- Sounds
- Pronouns
- Articles
- Example text a short story Sofl nda sulukuo
- References
In Guinea, the main places Kissi is spoken are the cities of Kissidougou and Guéckédou and their préfectures.
Letters not in the English alphabet
Note that this is the new orthography. The old one was used in the Kissi New Testament (1986) and many documents of the time of Sekou Toure (the first President of Guinea).
Kissidougou dialects preserve a distinction between /r/ and /l/ phonemes that have been merged as allophones in dialects south of Guéckédou. For instance, "la huŋ" means exactly the same as "ra huŋ". Also, "Thank you" is realized as "barika" around Kissidougou and "balika" south of Guéckédou.
Sounds
Gb / gb, the voiced labial-velar plosive IPA: [ɡ͡b] is a sound that doesn't exist in European languages. It is pronounced like a simultaneous [g] (as in go) and a [b] (as in bow). This sound occurs in words such as:
Pronouns
As you can already see from these examples, verbs aren't conjugated like English verbs, but they are inflected by tone.
Articles
Definite and indefinite articles do not exist in Kissi, so "muɛi" means "the knife" as well as "a knife". If an object has to be defined (because there are more than one, for example), "this" is used:
example: muɛi coŋ - this knife
If that is not exact enough, an object is described using adjectives.
yɔŋgu ya muɛi. / k'ya muɛi. - Give me a/the knife.
yɔŋgu ya muɛi bɛndɛi. / k'ya muɛi bɛndɛi. - Give me the big knife.
Example text, a short story: Sofɛlɔ nda sulukuo
Sofɛlɔ dimi ni, a, I yema mi kɔɛnnuŋ yondo niŋ, mi simi tyɛiyo loŋ. Mo kɔa o tyeo kɔli. Mo fɛya nyɔ loŋ.
O koŋ mi sulukuo dimi, a, I yema mi kɔ baŋ tyɛiyo tye. Mo hun, o koloma nɛ sofɛlɔ fɛya a. Mo dimi, a, Fonda ho naŋ. A wɛlɛ, Hala mara ya fɔfɔ mi koloma fonda kɛndɔ. O koŋ mo linda puruo, mo kɔa.
Mi sofɛlɔ hun. Mo dimi, a, Hala tyo ya mara tau. O koŋ mi ndu tam gbilikio. Mo kɔa.
Mi sulukuo hun, mo koloma gbilikio, mo mel Hara baraka. Mo simi tyɛiyo, mo kɔa.
Mi sofɛlɔ hun, mo koloma tyɛiyo isisi, mi ndu mel Hala baraka. Ma tosa haa mi tyɛiyo tyu.
O koŋ mi sulukuo hun ityɔllo nda wɛin ndɔ. Ma hini. O koŋ kɔli, mi sofɛlɔ hun wɛlɛ nda wɛin ndɔ, ma hini. Mi nda gbou a daunuŋ kɔndɔfili tau.
Mi sulukuo dimul sofɛlɔ, a, N kɔ dosoleŋ. Mi sofɛlɔ dimi, a, Ya i nɔra wisio diyɔ re, fɔ le tyua. Mi sulukuo dimi, a, Ya i nɔra tyua re, kɔnɔ i nɔra diyɔ. O koŋ ma bɛnda, ma kɔa. Tuma nda tye wisio o, mi sulukuo di ndu, kɔnɔ o nɔra ndu tyua re. Mi sofɛlɔ kɔ tyua ndu, ma hun tyɛi niŋ.
Idio mi sulukuo dimul wɛin ndɔ, a, Fura, n kɔ, katu laŋgbɔnɔ hɔ nɔra worɔ tau, loŋ o tyua na. Ma fura, ma kɔannuŋ.
O koŋ kɔli wɛlɛ, mi sofɛlɔ dimul wɛin ndɔ, a, N kɔnnuŋ, katu laŋgbɔnɔ ho nɔ yomuaŋ tau, loŋ o di na. Ma fura, ma kɔannuŋ.
O koŋ mi tyɛiyo lo fondo. Wana-wana sora tɔnɔ leniŋ te.