Bangime, an endangered, linguistically unique language spoken in central Mali, will be the focus of this research. The goal of this study is to provide a description, analysis, and the basis of a literacy program for the language. Bangerime, or Bangime, is spoken in seven isolated villages in the Bandiagara area of central-eastern Mali by an estimated 1200 to 3000 speakers. Because the villages are located among the strictly-Dogon-inhabited cliffs, Bangime was previously considered a Dogon language. However, the few researchers who have visited the Bangime-speaking area have noted its idiosyncrasies, and it is now classified as a rare language isolate, related to no known languages. Because Bangime speakers self-identify as Dogon speakers, deciphering their connection with the Dogon people and their language could illuminate the long misunderstood linguistic and historical heritage of both ethnicities.
The data to be collected covers all aspects of the grammar and lexicon, including flora and fauna, with implications for botanical remedies; names for significant socio-cultural practices, such as cloth-making, blacksmithing, and beer-making; local names for geographic landmarks; and concepts of time. This grammatical description and dictionary will provide invaluable new knowledge and resources for linguists and researchers in other disciplines from anthropology to zoology about a previously concealed and unique language and culture. Collaborations are also planned with geneticists who have recently published information concerning the genetic uniformity of the Dogon people. Because of Bangime's broad implications for West African research, its status as either a language isolate or a missing link in the classification of Dogon languages, a complete description must be provided, yet its grammar cannot be properly described without first accurately transcribing and understanding its tones. Surface articulations, the result of intricate of tonal morphemes, are woven with the underlying tone of words to create a complicated puzzle. Solving this puzzle is an essential part of understanding the inner workings of the language.
Bangime is a language isolate,a language with no known living relatives, spoken in an area of Central-Eastern Mali which is almost entirely surrounded by Dogon speakers. Fittingly, the name of the language means ’the hidden, or secret, language’ in a mix of Dogon languages and Bangimeitself. The speakers of the language are the Bangande, ’the hidden people’. Not only are the Bangande geographically hidden from the rest of the world, their language has also been a mystery to outside researchers since anthropologists first visited the area in the1950’s. The outcome of previous research yielded a description of the tonology of Bangime. One of the most salient features that distinguishes Bangime from languages in the area isits lack of segmental morphology. For example, in sentences found in most surrounding Dogon languages, personal pronouns are attached to the end of a verb stem. In a sentence in Bangime, pronouns are either words preceding the verb, or are omitted altogether. Inthe latter case, pronouns are expressed through tonal marking on the verb stem. Not only are the tonal morphemes found in Bangime unattested in surrounding languages, when these tones are combined with the lexical tones of words within the language complexinteractions ensue. These interactions, the environments in which they occur, and the factors which contribute to surface forms were the foci of the dissertation. Additionaloutcomes include a 2283 item lexicon with cultural lexicography (artifacts, crops, andflora-fauna), over 200 pages of interlinearized, glossed, and translated narratives, a draftof the reference grammar, and photographic documentation of structures and paintingsfound in area caves hitherto not made available to the public.
