Documentation of Mbre and Tiefo-D Languages of West Africa

FAIN: PD-255909-17

Regents of the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1015)
Jeffrey Heath (Project Director: September 2016 to October 2022)

Production of full grammar-lexicon-texts trilogies on two genetically isolated endangered languages of Burkina Faso and Côte d'Ivoire. Mbre in Côte d'Ivoire and Tiefo-D, one of two Tiefo languages in Burkina Faso, are endangered (less than 50 speakers each). Mbre is an outlier, likely Niger-Congo but not belonging to any recognized family such as Mande, Kwa, or Gur. Tiefo is one of five languages or language pairs in SW Burkina that have been previously classified as Gur, but they too are now being peeled away from Gur into Niger-Congo outlier status.

(edited by staff) We plan to produce full grammar-lexicon-texts trilogies on two genetically isolated endangered languages of Burkina Faso and Côte d'Ivoire, and on one language of the un(der)-described Bozo family in Mali.  Pilot studies have begun on all three.  Mbre in Côte d'Ivoire and Tiefo-D, one of two Tiefo languages in Burkina Faso, are endangered (< 50 speakers each).  Mbre is an outlier, likely Niger-Congo but not belonging to any recognized family such as Mande, Kwa, or Gur. Tiefo is one of five languages or language pairs in SW Burkina that have been previously classified as Gur, but they too are now being peeled away from Gur into Niger-Congo outlier status.  The small Bozo family of Mali (four languages, one of which has many dialects) is largely undescribed.  This sub-project will focus on Jenaama, aka Sorogaama (code: bze).