The Susu language (endonym: ; ) is the language of the Susu or Soso people of Guinea and Sierra Leone, West Africa. It is in the Mande language family, and its closest relative is Yalunka. It is one of the national languages of Guinea and spoken mainly in the coastal region of the country.

History

The language was also used by people in the coastal regions of Guinea and Sierra Leone as a trade language. The first literature in Susu was a translation of the first seven chapters of the Gospel of Matthew, translated by John Godfrey Wilhelm of the Church Mission Society. This was published in London as "Lingjili Matthew" in 1816. J.G. Wilhelm translated a considerable portion of the New Testament, but only this small part appears to have been printed.

Phonology

Grammatical sketch

Susu is an SOV language, Poss-N, N-D, generally suffixing, non-pro-drop, wh-in-situ, with no agreement affixes on the verb, no noun classes, no gender, and with a clitic plural marker which attaches to the last element of the NP (N or D, typically), but does not co-occur with numerals. It has no definite or indefinite articles. Sentential negation is expressed with a particle, mu, whose distribution is unclear (with adjectival predicates it seems to sometimes infix, but with transitive verbs it comes before the object). Examples: khame didi to ne man boy see PAST "The/a man saw the/a boy."

Pronouns

n taami don ma 1sg bread eat PRES(generic) "I eat bread." i taami don ma 2sg bread eat PRES(generic) "You (sg) eat bread." a taami don ma 3sg bread eat PRES(generic) "He/she/it eats bread." won taami don ma 1inc.pl bread eat PRES(generic) "We (including you) eat bread." mukhu taami don ma 1exc.pl bread eat PRES(generic) "We (excluding you) eat bread." wo taami don ma 2pl bread eat PRES(generic) "You (pl or polite [sg or pl]) eat bread." ("wo" is used as French "vous") e taami don ma 3pl bread eat PRES(generic) "They eat bread." cf. n bankhi to né 1sg house see PAST "I saw a/the house." n taami don fe 1sg bread eat PROG "I am eating the bread." Object pronouns have the same form as subject pronouns: khame n to né man 1sg see PAST "A/the man saw me." khame i to né man 2sg see PAST "A/the man saw you (sg)." khame a to né man 3sg see PAST "A/the man saw him/her/it." khame won to né man 1inc.pl see PAST "A/the man saw us (including you)." khame mukhu to né man 1exc.pl see PAST "A/the man saw us (excluding you)." khame wo to né man 2pl see PAST "A/the man saw you (pl)." khame e to né man 3pl see PAST "A/the man saw them." Possessive affixes precede the noun: baba "father": m baba "my father" i baba "your (sg) father" a baba "his/her/its father" wom baba "our father" wo baba "your (pl) father" e baba "their father"

Adverbs

Adverbs can precede the subject or follow the verb: khoro n fa né yesterday 1sg arrive PAST "Yesterday I arrived." n fa né khoro 1sg arrive PAST yesterday "I arrived yesterday."

Grammatical number

NPs come in a variety of forms: khamé "boy (sg)", khame e "boys (pl) taami "bread (sg)", taami e "breads (pl)" khame e taami don ma boy pl bread eat PRES "The/0 boys eat bread." khamé taami e don ma boy bread pl eat PRES "The/a boy eats breads."

Numerals

n woto nde e to né 1sg car indef.D pl see PAST "I saw several cars"/"J'ai vu des autos." woto nde "some car" di nde "some boy" bangkhi nde "some house" khame nde "someone" se nde "something" nde "who/some" i nde to? you who see "Who did you see?" i munse don ma? 2sg what eat PRES "What will you eat?"

Orthography

Susu has been written with a variety of writing systems, including the Ajami variant of the Arabic script (perhaps introduced during the time of the Imamate of Futa Jallon), various Latin script orthographies (formalized with the adoption of the Guinean languages alphabet under the government of Ahmed Sékou Touré and adapted in 1989 to adhere closer to the African reference alphabet), and the N'ko and Adlam scripts. Additionally, an alphabetic script known as Koré Sèbèli or Wakara, developed by sociologist Mohamed Bentoura Bangoura based on traditional symbols used by secret societies, has been adopted by a small community of users since its introduction in 2009.

Other

Sosoxui is closely related to the Yalunka language.