Susu (endonym: Susu: Sosoxui; French: Soussou) 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
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labial- velar |
Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | ⟨m⟩ | ⟨n⟩ | ⟨ɲ⟩ | ⟨ŋ⟩ | |||
| Plosive | voiceless | ⟨p⟩ | ⟨t⟩ | ⟨k⟩ | |||
| voiced | ⟨b⟩ | ⟨d⟩ | ⟨g⟩ | ⟨gb⟩ | |||
| prenasal | ⟨nd⟩ | ⟨ng⟩ | |||||
| Fricative | ⟨f⟩ | ⟨s⟩ | ⟨x⟩ | ⟨h⟩ | |||
| Trill | ⟨r⟩ | ||||||
| Approximant | ⟨l⟩ | ⟨y⟩ | ⟨w⟩ | ||||
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
man
didi
boy
to
see
ne
PAST
"The/a man saw the/a boy."
Pronouns
n
1sg
taami
bread
don
eat
ma
PRES(generic)
"I eat bread."
i
2sg
taami
bread
don
eat
ma
PRES(generic)
"You (sg) eat bread."
a
3sg
taami
bread
don
eat
ma
PRES(generic)
"He/she/it eats bread."
won
1inc.pl
taami
bread
don
eat
ma
PRES(generic)
"We (including you) eat bread."
mukhu
1exc.pl
taami
bread
don
eat
ma
PRES(generic)
"We (excluding you) eat bread."
wo
2pl
taami
bread
don
eat
ma
PRES(generic)
"You (pl or polite [sg or pl]) eat bread." ("wo" is used as French "vous")
e
3pl
taami
bread
don
eat
ma
PRES(generic)
"They eat bread."
cf.
n
1sg
bankhi
house
to
see
né
PAST
"I saw a/the house."
n
1sg
taami
bread
don
eat
fe
PROG
"I am eating the bread."
Object pronouns have the same form as subject pronouns:
khame
man
n
1sg
to
see
né
PAST
"A/the man saw me."
khame
man
i
2sg
to
see
né
PAST
"A/the man saw you (sg)."
khame
man
a
3sg
to
see
né
PAST
"A/the man saw him/her/it."
khame
man
won
1inc.pl
to
see
né
PAST
"A/the man saw us (including you)."
khame
man
mukhu
1exc.pl
to
see
né
PAST
"A/the man saw us (excluding you)."
khame
man
wo
2pl
to
see
né
PAST
"A/the man saw you (pl)."
khame
man
e
3pl
to
see
né
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
yesterday
n
1sg
fa
arrive
né
PAST
"Yesterday I arrived."
n
1sg
fa
arrive
né
PAST
khoro
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
boy
e
pl
taami
bread
don
eat
ma
PRES
"The/0 boys eat bread."
khamé
boy
taami
bread
e
pl
don
eat
ma
PRES
"The/a boy eats breads."
Numerals
woto
car
keren
one
"one car"
woto
car
firin
two
"two cars"
woto
car
sakhan
three
"three cars"
woto
car
nani
four
"four cars"
woto
car
suli
five
"five cars"
woto
car
senni
six
"six cars"
woto
car
solofere
seven
"seven cars"
woto
car
solomasakhan
eight
"eight cars"
woto
car
solomanani
nine
"nine cars"
woto
car
fu
ten
"ten cars"
woto
car
fu
ten
nun
and
keren
one
"eleven cars"
woto
car
fu
ten
nun
and
firin
two
"twelve cars"
Others
n
1sg
woto
car
nde
indef.D
e
pl
to
see
né
PAST
"I saw several cars"/"J'ai vu des autos."
woto
car
nde
indef.D
"some car"
di
boy
nde
indef.D
"some boy"
bangkhi
house
nde
indef.D
"some house"
khame
man
nde
indef.D
"someone"
se
thing?
nde
indef.D
"something"
nde
who/indef.D
"who/some"
i
you
nde
who
to?
see
"Who did you see?"
i
2sg
munse
what
don
eat
ma?
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.
