Goo : présentation d’une langue

Abstract

Up to now, Goo (spoken in a dozen of villages to the north of Man, western Côte d’Ivoire) was mentioned, if at all, as either a dialect of Tura, or a “mixture of Dan and Tura”. It turns out that Goo is a separate language: in Swadesh-100 list it has 86% of common vocabulary with Tura and 80% with Dan. Goo has 4 level tones, its vocalism is yet to be clarified (it probably has 4 degrees of aperture and, besides, a ±ATR contrast). Goo has several series of subject pronouns, there are some indications of the beginning of transformation of subject pronouns into personal predicative markers. Of special interest is the progressive construction which results from two cycles of grammaticalization.

Keywords

• Goo Language
• South Mande Languages
• Mande Languages