Cerma language

Cerma
Gouin
Kirma
Region	Burkina Faso, a few in Ivory Coast
Native speakers	53,600 (2009)
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Gur Southern Gur Kirma–Tyurama Cerma
Language codes
ISO 639-3	cme
Glottolog	cerm1238

Cerma (Kirma) is a Gur language of Burkina Faso. It is spoken by the Gouin people (sometimes called Ciramba or Gouin (Gwe, Gwen)).

Phonology

Consonants

Consonants

		Labial	Dental	Palatal	Dorsal/ Laryngeal	Labial- velar
Plosive/Affricate	voiceless	p	t̪	c	k	kp
	voiced	b	d̪	ɟ	g	gb
Nasal		m	n̪
Continuant	voiceless	f	s̪		h
	voiced	v	(z̪)	j	w
Lateral			l̪
Trill			r̪
Archiphoneme			N

• Although /w/ is phonetically a labial-velar consonant, Lauber includes it in the dorsal/laryngeal column because its distribution is more like /k/ or /h/ than the labials or labial-velars.
• Lauber excludes /l̪/, /r̪/, and //N// from the continuant section because their distributions are different.
• /l̪/ is nasalized [l̃] "in a nasal context" and a voiceless alveolar lateral [l̥] at the end of an utterance.
• /r̪/ is a nasal tap [ɾ̪̃] "in a nasal context" and a voiceless tap [ɾ̥] at the end of an utterance.
• The archiphoneme //N// has the following allophones:
  • [m] before /b/, /p/, and /m/
  • [ɱ] before /f/ and /v/
  • [n̪] before /t̪/, /d̪/, /s̪/, and /n̪/
  • [ɲ] before /ɟ/, /c/, and front vowels
  • [ŋ] before /k/, /g/, /h/, /w/, and the central and back vowels
  • [ŋ͡m] before /k͡p/ and /g͡b/
• /Nj/ also becomes [ɲ].
• Hürlimann and Pike (1985) note that the palatals are affricates, using the symbols ⟨č⟩ and ⟨j⟩.

Vowels

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e		o
Open-mid	ɛ		ɔ
Open		a

• Lauber treats nasalization as a feature of the syllable, not the vowel.
• In closed syllables, /i, u/ become near-close [ɪ, ʊ].
• In the last syllable of the nuclear element of the phonological word before /r/, /e, ɔ, o/ are lengthened [eː, ɔː, oː].

References

• Lauber, Ed (November 2006) [1980]. Weber, Maya; Hürlimann, Ruth; Karama, Daniel (eds.). Ébauche d'une description de la phonologie du cerma (PDF) (Report) (in French). Archived (PDF) from the original on 6 March 2021. Retrieved 30 August 2024.
• Hürlimann, Ruth; Pike, Eunice V. (1985). "A note on tone and stress in Cerman". Journal of West African Languages. 15 (2): 56–60. Archived from the original on 31 August 2024. Retrieved 31 August 2024.