The Senufo languages comprise ca. 15 languages (depending on the method of counting) spoken in the north of Côte d'Ivoire, the southeast of Mali and the southwest of Burkina Faso. An isolated language, Nafaanra, is also spoken in the northwest of Ghana. The Senufo languages belong to the Gur sub-family of Niger-Congo languages. Garber (1987) estimates the total number of speakers of Senufo languages at some 1.5 million. The Senufo languages are bounded to the west by Mande languages, to the south by Kwa languages, and to the north and east by other Gur languages.
The Senufo languages are typical Gur languages in that they have a suffixal noun class system and that verbs are marked for aspect. Most Gur languages to the north of Senufo have a two tone downstep system, but the tonal system of the Senufo languages is mostly analysed as a three level tone system (High, Mid, Low).
The Senufo languages have been influenced by the neighbouring Mande languages in numerous ways. Many words have been borrowed from the Mande languages Bambara and Jula. Carlson (1994:2) notes that ‘it is probable that several grammatical constructions are calques on the corresponding Bambara constructions’. Like Mande languages, the Senufo languages have a Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) constituent order, rather than the SVO order which is more common in Gur.
Subclassification
Early Senufo classifications (e.g. Bendor-Samuel 1971) were mainly geographically motivated, dividing the Senufo languages into Northern, Central, and Southern Senufo. In subsequent years, this terminology was adopted by several linguists working on Senufo languages (Garber 1987; Carlson 1983, 1994). Mensah (1983) and Mills (1984) avoided this geographical terms but used mainly the same grouping, according to Garber 1987. SIL in its Ethnologue subdivides the Senufo languages in six groups. Combining the two classifications results in the grouping below.
Senufo theology is based on Koulotiolo, a powerful god, and Katieleo, a goddess mother, who through the rituals of the Poro society, regenerates the world.
In the central Senufo area they are left standing in the middle of the ceremonial ground, while in the southern Senufo area, they are carried and then pounded on the ground, providing rhythm for the dancers.
Senufo metalworkers produced refined jewelry and ornaments, usually in copper, such as finger rings and foot rings adorned with bovine heads or chameleons, symbolizing their genesis, and small figurative masks and amulets with apotropaic purposes.
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