There are about twenty Dogon languages in Mali, West Africa, along with one culturally Dogon group that speak a language isolate, Bangi Me. The researchers intend to eventually document all of them and disseminate the data in a coordinated fashion: reference grammars, texts, and especially a rich comparative lexicon disseminated in an interactive website with photographic and video-clip illustrations. During this period, the researchers intend to complete work on Bangi Me and six Dogon languages in addition to the six covered in the expiring grant period. The main typological interest of Dogon languages is a system of word- ('A') and phrase-level ('B') tone-contour overlays. All stems (nouns, verbs, etc.) have at least one high-tone element with or without low tones. In various positions, these lexical tone contours are overridden by superimposed contours. For example, the noun is tone-dropped in the sequence [noun adjective], but not in the sequence [noun numeral]. In combinations like [possessor noun adjective], as in 'Seydou's big house', there is a conflict between the adjective, which tries to impose contour 'A' on the preceding noun, and the possessor, which seeks to impose a different tone contour,'B' on the following noun-adjective sequence. In this case, the possessor wins, and the [noun adjective] portion ends up with phrase-wide 'B' tone contour.
The researchers have begun writing a number of separate publications on lexical matters, beginning with action verbs (which profile manner/process rather than, as in English, result/function) and adjectives (which show many "deep" syncretisms, as opposed to figurative extensions). The project also supports bringing a phonetician into the field to undertake several focused studies of phonetic issues that have arisen, including the phonetics of liquids {r ,l}, tones, and vowel features.
