1. The unusually unstable basic vocabulary of the Joola languages Guillaume Segerer - LLACAN (CNRS – INALCO – USPC) - Paris, Sept. 2, 2016

2. The Joola languages form an homogenous cluster, yet their basic vocabulary shows low cognacy percentages WHY? Is ‘basic’ vocabulary not universally basic? Other reasons, specific to the Joola case? Consequences for Proto-Joola reconstruction 2016-09-022Guillaume Segerer – NC 2016, Paris - The unusually unstable basic vocabulary of the Joola languages

3. The Joola languages 2016-09-023 - A cluster of languages spoken in Lower Casamance, Senegal - ~ 600,000 speakers Dialectal variation is important; mutual understanding is often difficult, sometimes impossible Guillaume Segerer – NC 2016, Paris - The unusually unstable basic vocabulary of the Joola languages

4. Phonology and morphology show few differences Same vowel inventories, same vowel harmony Very similar consonant inventories Very similar paradigms of noun class markers Very similar paradigms of personal pronouns Very similar paradigms of verb extensions Similar verbal systems 2016-09-024 The Joola languages: a homogenous cluster Guillaume Segerer – NC 2016, Paris - The unusually unstable basic vocabulary of the Joola languages

5. The Joola languages: sources for the present study 2016-09-025 More than 70 distinct sources: -mostly wordlists of 40 to 300 words -a few lexicons in published grammars (~1000 words) -a few important dictionaries (2500 to 4800 words) -my own fieldwork on Keeraak (~3000 words) Guillaume Segerer – NC 2016, Paris - The unusually unstable basic vocabulary of the Joola languages

6. The Joola languages: sources for the present study 2016-09-026 From previous work: identification of 8 main dialectal zones. Guillaume Segerer – NC 2016, Paris - The unusually unstable basic vocabulary of the Joola languages

7. 8 dialectal zones 2016-09-027Guillaume Segerer – NC 2016, Paris - The unusually unstable basic vocabulary of the Joola languages

8. The Joola languages: sources for the present study 2016-09-028 8 sources (the best available source for each dialectal zone): Fonyi: Sapir 19704833 words Banjal: Bassène 20061087 words Kasa: Wintz 19093565 words Keeraak: Segerer 20162813 words Ejamat: Barry 1987, Efok variety197 words Mlomp: Barry 1987200 words Karon: Sambou 2007630 words Kwaatay: Payne 1992, 20004504 words Guillaume Segerer – NC 2016, Paris - The unusually unstable basic vocabulary of the Joola languages

9. The Joola languages: cognates counts 2016-09-029Guillaume Segerer – NC 2016, Paris - The unusually unstable basic vocabulary of the Joola languages

10. The Joola languages: cognates counts 2016-09-0210Guillaume Segerer – NC 2016, Paris - The unusually unstable basic vocabulary of the Joola languages

11. The most stable meanings 2016-09-0211Guillaume Segerer – NC 2016, Paris - The unusually unstable basic vocabulary of the Joola languages

12. The most stable meanings 2016-09-0212Guillaume Segerer – NC 2016, Paris - The unusually unstable basic vocabulary of the Joola languages Starostin 2007 Holmann et al. 2008

13. The most unstable meanings 2016-09-0213Guillaume Segerer – NC 2016, Paris - The unusually unstable basic vocabulary of the Joola languages

14. The most unstable meanings 2016-09-0214Guillaume Segerer – NC 2016, Paris - The unusually unstable basic vocabulary of the Joola languages Starostin 2007 Holmann et al. 2008

15. Stable vs unstable meanings 2016-09-0215Guillaume Segerer – NC 2016, Paris - The unusually unstable basic vocabulary of the Joola languages Starostin 2007 Holmann et al. 2008

16. Word ‘loss’ -dramatic sound change (not applicable to Joola) -semantic shift, specialisation -taboo Word replacement -‘synonym’ strategy : different root with related meaning -morphological strategy : word creation from a different root -borrowing strategy Lexical replacement strategies 2016-09-0216Guillaume Segerer – NC 2016, Paris - The unusually unstable basic vocabulary of the Joola languages

17. Word loss: semantic shift, specialisation *JOOLA *-ŋar ‘to take’ Karon -ŋal ‘to graze cattle’ (r/l is a regular correspondance) Karon replacement word: -cɔɔp ( = ‘to embark’) *JOOLA *-lɔb ‘to speak’Keeraak ɛ-lɔb-ay ‘story; problem’ Keeraak replacement word : -sankɛn (cf. Fonyi, Kasa, Keeraak -sanken ‘speech; language’) *JOOLA *-di ‘to eat’Keeraak mʊ-rɩaay-am ‘food’ Keeraak replacement word : -ɲɔɔfɔ (cf. Kasa ‘to devour’) 2016-09-0217Guillaume Segerer – NC 2016, Paris - The unusually unstable basic vocabulary of the Joola languages

18. Word loss: taboo Tendeng (2007: 6): « (...) chez les joola, avec la mort, l'individu rentre dans l'oubli total. On ne dit plus son nom et tous ceux qui portent le même prénom que lui doivent automatiquement changer de prénom. Peu à peu, tout ce qui a fait sa personne rentre également dans l'oubli total. » “... among the Joolas, with death, a person falls into complete oblivion. One cannot say their name, and all those who wear the same name have to change it. Gradually, everything that has built his personality also falls into complete oblivion.” 2016-09-0218Guillaume Segerer – NC 2016, Paris - The unusually unstable basic vocabulary of the Joola languages

19. Word replacement: ‘synonymy’ *JOOLA *-ŋar ‘to take’ Karon: -cɔɔp ( = ‘to embark’) *JOOLA *-lɔb ‘to speak’Keeraak : -sankɛn (cf. Fonyi, Kasa, Keeraak -sanken ‘speech; language’) *JOOLA *-lʊb ‘rain’Fonyi, Keeraak ɛ-mɩt (= ‘sky; God; year’) *JOOLA *-ar ‘belly’Mlomp -nɔw (= ‘guts’) ‘water’ : 2 main roots: -mɛl (Fonyi, Kasa, Keeraak), -al (Banjal, Mlomp, Karon) Ejamat -ij (cf. Kasa, Banjal ‘to draw water’) Kwaatay -huj (cf. Keeraak -hɔj ‘brine’) 2016-09-0219Guillaume Segerer – NC 2016, Paris - The unusually unstable basic vocabulary of the Joola languages

20. Word replacement: morphology 2016-09-0220Guillaume Segerer – NC 2016, Paris - The unusually unstable basic vocabulary of the Joola languages *JOOLA *-kil ‘eye’ - Keeraak ɛ-jʊk-ay from -jʊk ‘to see’ *JOOLA *-juul ‘knee’ - Keeraak hu-tiijenum-əh, INSTR from -tiijen ‘to kneel’ *JOOLA *-ɲend ‘nose’ - Keeraak e-juɬum-əy, INSTR from -juɬ ‘to blow one’s nose’

21. Word replacement: borrowing 2016-09-0221Guillaume Segerer – NC 2016, Paris - The unusually unstable basic vocabulary of the Joola languages *JOOLA *-tɔf ‘fat’ - Banjal -fat from Baynunk (not Joola) - some Fonyi varieties have -fɛl, from Karon ‘dog’: two main roots: -yɛn (Fonyi, Karon, Mlomp), -jɔba (Banjal, Kasa) - Keeraak -jagʊm < Manding ɲankuma ‘cat’ ? - Ejamat -jaŋgi < Manding ɲankuma ‘cat’ ? - Kwaatay -kʊrʊk < ???

22. Word replacement: unknown 2016-09-0222Guillaume Segerer – NC 2016, Paris - The unusually unstable basic vocabulary of the Joola languages *JOOLA *-kɛt ‘to die’, widely attested in all zones only Keeraak -raag-ɔ < ??? *JOOLA -iɲ ‘liver’, widely attested in all zones (a solid *ATL root) 4 distant villages have -bɩrɩk: Djinaki, Kanyobone (Fonyi zone, center/north) Diogué (Kasa zone, center/west) Efok (Ejamat zone, extreme south)

23. Word replacement: unknown 2016-09-0223Guillaume Segerer – NC 2016, Paris - The unusually unstable basic vocabulary of the Joola languages *JOOLA *-rʊm ‘to bite’ (a very nice NC retention) Kasa -ɲaŋ, related to *NC -ɲaam ? Kwaatay -tak < ??? *JOOLA *-tum ‘mouth’ (attested everywhere) Ejamat -ɲum < ???

24. ‘heart’: the whole picture 2016-09-0224Guillaume Segerer – NC 2016, Paris - The unusually unstable basic vocabulary of the Joola languages

25. REFERENCES Barry, Abdoulaye (1987). The Joola languages: subgrouping and reconstruction. School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London (PhD thesis). Bassène, Alain-Christian (2007). Morphosyntaxe du jóola banjal ; Langue atlantique du Sénégal. Köln : Rüdiger Köppe. XVI + 304 pp. Dyen, Isidore, Joseph B. Kruskal & Paul Black (1992). An Indoeuropean Classification: A Lexicostatistical Experiment. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, New Series, Vol. 82, No. 5, pp. iii-132 Holman, Eric W., Soren Wichmann, Cecil H. Brown, Viveka Velupillai, Andre Muller & Dik Bakker (2008). Explorations in automated language classification. Folia Linguistica. Vol. 42 Issue 2, p331-354. Kennedy, Alistair M. (1961). Dialectes de diola : listes de mots. (ms.) Payne, Stephen (2000). Kaadiksiyoneer - lexique kwatay-français. Dakar: SIL. Sambou, Pierre (2007). Morphosyntaxe du joola karon. Dakar : Université Cheikh Anta Diop (Thèse de doctorat de 3e cycle). Sambou, Pierre-Marie (1979). Diola kasa esuulaalur : phonologie, morphophonologie et morphologie. Thèse de doctorat de troisième cycle. Dakar : Université de Dakar. Sapir, J. David (1993 [1970]). Dictionnaire Jóola Kujamutay. Online at http://people.virginia.edu/~ds8s/Kujamaat-Joola/DIC/Joola-Dic.html Segerer Guillaume & Sébastien Flavier (2011-2016). RefLex: Reference Lexicon of Africa, Version 1.1. Paris, Lyon. http://reflex.cnrs.fr/ Starostin 2007a — Sergei STAROSTIN. Opredelenije ustojčivosti bazisnoj leksiki [Defining the Stability of Basic Lexicon] // S. STAROSTIN. Trudy po jazykoznaniju [Works in Linguistics]. Moscow, Jazyki slav’anskix kul’tur, pp. 825–839. Tendeng, Odile (2007). Le Gusiilay: Un essai de systématisation – une contribution à l’étude du jóola. Frankfurt: Peter Lang. Weiss, [P.] Henri (1939). Grammaire et lexique diola du Fogny (Casamance). Bulletin de l’IFAN (Institut Français de l’Afrique Noire) 1-2/3., pp. 412-578. Wintz, [R.P.] Ed. (1909 [reprint 1968]). Dictionnaire français-dyola et dyola-français, précédé dʼun essai de grammaire. Elinkine (Sénégal) : Mission catholique. 2016-09-0225Guillaume Segerer – NC 2016, Paris - The unusually unstable basic vocabulary of the Joola languages Thank you !

26. Assumptions behind the notion of ‘basic’ vocabulary 2016-09-0226 ‘Basic’ vocabulary is more resistant to borrowing ‘Basic’ vocabulary is more resistant to replacement in general > Shared ‘basic’ vocabulary is a good marker of common ancestry Guillaume Segerer – NC 2016, Paris - The unusually unstable basic vocabulary of the Joola languages