Kissi (language)
| Kissi | ||
|---|---|---|
|
Spoken in |
Guinea , Liberia , Sierra Leone ( West Africa ) | |
| speaker | ~ 500,000 | |
| Linguistic classification |
|
|
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-3 |
kss (South Kissi) |
|
Kissi (or Kisi ) is a West Atlantic tonal language that has two standard varieties: North Kissi and South Kissi.
The northern dialect is spoken in Guinea and Sierra Leone . In its northern form, it often uses loanwords from the Malinke and the Mende language , and lately also increasingly words from French and English , since French is the only official language of Guinea and English as a world language is given great importance, especially in the technological field .
The southern dialect is spoken in Liberia and Sierra Leone. The two dialects are remarkably different but closely related. There are almost 155,000 native speakers in Sierra Leone (as of 2015).
In Guinea, the main places where the Kissi is spoken are the cities of Kissidougou and Guéckédou and their respective prefectures.
literature
- Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (ed.), 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Fifteenth edition. Dallas, Tex .: SIL International. Online version .
- G. Tucker Childs. A Grammar of Kisi, A Southern Atlantic Language. 1995. 370 pp.
- G. Tucker Childs: A Dictionary of the Kisi Language. With an English-Kisi Index
- Denise Paulme. Les Gens du Riz: Les Kissi de Haute-Guinée. Paris. Librairie Plon. 1954, 1970. 324 pp.
Web links
- Online version ( Memento from July 9, 2000 in the Internet Archive )
- Linguist List article KQS Kissi-Northern
- Linguist List article KSS Kisi-Southern
- Ethnologue article KQS Kissi-Northern
- Ethnologue article KSS Kisi-Southern
- UCLA Phonetics Lab Archive - Sound Files Kissi-Northern
- Sound Files - KQS Kissi-Northern at globalrecordings.net
- Sound Files - KSS Kisi-Southern (Gissi) at globalrecordings.net
- Sound Files - The complete New Testament in Kisi (Select language "Kisi Southern")
- Sample text at language-museum.com