Guere

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Guere (wee)

Spoken in

Ivory Coast ( Dix-Huit Montagnes , Moyen-Cavally )
speaker 317,000 (1998-1999)
Linguistic
classification

Niger-Congo

Language codes
ISO 639-3

gxx (Zentral-Gere / Südliches Wee)
wec (Neyo / Westliches Wee)

Guere (Gere), also called Wee (Wè), is a Krus language spoken by over 300,000 people from the Weh ethnic group in the Dix-Huit Montagnes and Moyen-Cavally regions in the Ivory Coast .

Phonology

The phonology of Guere (here the Zagna dialect of Zentral-Guere / Südliches Wee) is typical of the Niger-Congo language family .

Consonants

The consonant phonemes are as follows:

  Bilabial Labiodental Labiovelar Alveolar Palatal Velar Labialized velar
Plosives ​p​ ​b​   k͡p ɡ͡b ​t​ ​d​ ​c​ ​ɟ​ ​k​ ​ɡ​ kʷ ɡʷ
Implosive   ​ɓ​            
Nasals   ​m​       ​n​   ​ɲ​    
Fricatives   ​f​ ​v​   ​s​ ​z​      
Lateral approximant         ​l​      
Approximante           ​j​     ​w​

Allophones of some of these phonemes are:

  • [k͡m] is an allophone of / k͡p / before nasal vowels
  • [ŋ͡m] is an allophone of / ɡ͡b / before nasal vowels
  • [n] is an allophone of/ ⁠ w ⁠ /front nasal vowels
  • [⁠ Ɗ ⁠] is an allophone of / ⁠ l ⁠ / in word-initial positions
  • [⁠ r ⁠] an allophone from is / ⁠ l ⁠ / for a coronal consonants (or alveolar palatal)

Vowels

Like many West African languages, the Guere makes a distinction between vowels with the so-called advanced tongue root and those with retracted tongue root . In addition, nasal vowels are in phonemic contrast to oral vowels .

  Orally nasal
front Back front Back
Closed (ATR) ​i​ ​u​ ​ĩ​ ​ũ​
Closed (RTR) ​ɪ​ ​ʊ​ ɪ̃ ʊ̃
Middle (ATR) ​e​ ​O​   ​O​
Middle (RTR) ​ɛ​ ​ɔ​ ɛ̃ ɔ̃
Open (RTR)   ​a​   ​ã​

Pitches

Guere is a tonal language and distinguishes ten different tones:

Tone level IPA example gloss
Deep  ​˩​ ɡ͡ba˩ "blow apart"
center  ​˧​ ɡ͡ba˧ "to destroy"
High  ​˦​ mɛ˦ "to die"
Higher  ​˥​ ji˥ "full"
Rising low-high  ˩˦ bla "Cap"
Rising lower-higher  ˩˥ k͡plɔ̃˩˥ "Banana"
Medium-high rising  ˧˦ ɓlo˧˦ "Wall"
Rising higher-higher  ˦˥ de˦˥ "Younger brother"
Falling high-low  ˦˩ ɡ͡ba˩a˦˩ "goat"
Medium-low falling  ˧˩ sre˧˩ "Penis"

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Carole Paradis: Description phonologique du guéré . Institut de Linguistique Appliquée, Université d'Abidjan, Abidjan 1983.