Morphosyntactic diversity in the Cangin languages (Senegal): noun classes, focus and reduplication
The languages of the Cangin subgroup (Atlantic family, Niger-Congo) display a morphosyntactic heterogeneity that is remarkable for so small a set. At the heart of this diversity lie two phenomena that run through the subgroup in differentiated ways: noun classification and reduplication. This three-part paper examines them on the basis of first-hand data collected on Laalaa, Palor and Noon, situating the internal variation in a typological and contact perspective.
Contribution 1: Noun classes and reduplication in Laalaa and Palor
El Hadji Dieye (Department of Linguistics), Senegal &
Anna Marie Diagne (IFAN Ch. A. Diop) UCAD, Senegal
Laalaa has a system of ten noun classes (7 in the singular, 3 in the plural) whose morphemes govern agreement throughout the clause, a system prototypical of the Atlantic languages (Dieye 2010; 2015). Reduplication is attested there at two levels: emphatic demonstratives reduplicate the class marker to express foregrounding of the referent (structure cl-ii-cl-ii, cl-aa-cl-aa), and verbal derivation yields the suffix -ɖuk (simulative, 'to pretend'), which requires reduplication of the verb base (kaneh-neh-ɖuk 'to pretend to sleep'). This phenomenon, shared with Noon and Wolof (Ndione 2015, Dieye 2015), is an index of convergence at the scale of the subgroup and beyond.
Palor does have nominal affixes (four consonantal markers (-v, -m, -k, -Ø) as well as a vocalic marker), but these markers trigger no agreement pattern. The very notion of noun class in the prototypical sense therefore does not apply to it (Diagne 2015). The absence of agreement leads us to organize the nouns according to their modes of affixation rather than according to agreement properties. This atypical case within Atlantic is most plausibly explained by the advanced erosion of an original classification system, which pressure from contact with Wolof may have accelerated. Reduplication is attested in the verbal domain: verb focus is marked by a copy of the verb base, the reduplicant being postposed and followed by the obligatory suffix -o (waak waak-o 'she really does love'). Reduplication thus functions in Palor as a morphosyntactic marker of verbal focalization, independently of noun classification, two systems which, in Laalaa, are closely intertwined.
Contribution 2: Reduplication and focus constructions in Noon
Augustin Ndione (CLAD) UCAD, Senegal
Noon has a fully functional noun class system. Its markers k- and m- display a remarkable transcategoriality: these morphemes operate in both the nominal and the verbal domain, signalling operations of assertion and focalization. The focus constructions of Noon thus offer a direct point of comparison with the verbal focalization by reduplication observed in Palor: two Cangin languages, two distinct formal strategies for encoding the same enunciative operation.
In Noon, reduplication is a productive mechanism, analysed within the framework of the Theory of Predicative and Enunciative Operations (TPEO). It applies to nouns (values of identity and totality: yaali-yaali), to verbs and numerals (distributivity), and to adverbs (intensification). Verbal reduplication in Noon resonates with the phenomenon observed in Palor and with the derivation found in Laalaa, which shares precisely this mechanism with Noon while developing a wider semantic range.
Datum und Uhrzeit: 28.10.2026, 17:00h - 18:30h
Ort: SR 33.3.211, Merangasse 70, 8010 Graz)
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