Buli, or Kanjaga, is a Gur language of Ghana primarily spoken in the Builsa District, located in the Upper East Region of the country.
One dialect is Chuchuliga, spoken in the northern part of Ghana close to Navrongo.
[2] This dialect is influenced by Kasem, which is another Gur language spoken in the Upper East Region of northern Ghana and in Burkina Faso.
[2] According to Ethnologue, Buli does not show dialectal variation and is reportedly similar to Konni, which is spoken in the districts of Nangurima and Yikpabongo.
[3] Source:[4] There are three tonal levels in Buli, i.e. high, mid and low, and the tone phenomena are very complex.
The example below shows that the possessive pronoun can either appear as an independent element or it can be clitically bound with the noun.
"[2]Pronouns that refer to entities, independent of a verbal predicate, always have to appear in the strong form.
In these contexts, there is no possible option of cliticalization, because the focus marker ká as the only preceding element does not obligatorily need to be present.
In order to disambiguate the expression, the reciprocal nominal element chāāb can be used in object position.
Bà-nàg3PL.CL1-hitkáFOCbà-dēk.3PL.CL1-REFLBà-nàg ká bà-dēk.3PL.CL1-hit FOC 3PL.CL1-REFL„They hit themselves/each other.“[2]Tì-ɲà1PL-seechāāb.RECTì-ɲà chāāb.1PL-see REC„We saw each of us.“[2]In general, there are two demonstrative pronouns in Buli, dɛ, lá.
[2] Bà-bòrà-ā3PL.CL1-LOC.be.there-IPFVnāghitgɔgtàŋādance.PL:DEFmáástàwàdɛmaster:DEF.therenēCONJdèrìimmediatelytààmpass......Bà-bòrà-ā nāg gɔgtàŋā máástàwàdɛ nē dèrì tààm ...3PL.CL1-LOC.be.there-IPFV hit dance.PL:DEF master:DEF.there CONJ immediately pass ...„While they drummed to the dance, the teacher immediately came ...“[2]For this demonstrative form there exists also a second more complex form, actually.
The basis of the form comes from a noun class pronoun, to which the demonstrative is adjoined as a suffix and the morphem ɲā is optionally prepended.
[2] The singular and plural forms of the first noun class interrogative pronouns (which) are used as the question word for human referents who?.
KáFOCwànàà?CL1.SG.which.INTKá wànàà?FOC CL1.SG.which.INT„Who is that?“[2]In order to express how much/many, the interrogative form of the second class singular dìnà is used.
KáFOCdìnàà?how.much.INTKá dìnàà?FOC how.much.INT„How much/many?“[2]Jà-nàlìŋkàdɛThing-pretty:DEF.hereà&da-kásell-FOCdìnàà?how.much.INTJà-nàlìŋkàdɛ à da-ká dìnàà?Thing-pretty:DEF.here & sell-FOC how.much.INT„How much is this pretty thing?“[2]The interrogative form can also combine with the strong form of the personal pronouns from the noun classes in order to function as an adnominal quantifier of a preceding noun.
KáFOCyí-bɔàsong-whatàtè&:CONJfàà2SG.IPFVwōŋsay.COMPfì-yīī?2SG-sing.INTKá yí-bɔà àtè fàà wōŋ fì-yīī?FOC song-what &:CONJ 2SG.IPFV say.COMP 2SG-sing.INT„What song are you going to sing?“[2]KáFOCbɔànwhatyìīlìsongàtè&:CONJfàà2SG.IPFVwōŋsay.COMPfì-yīī?2SG-sing.INTKá bɔàn yìīlì àtè fàà wōŋ fì-yīī?FOC what song &:CONJ 2SG.IPFV say.COMP 2SG-sing.INT„What song are you going to sing?“[2]The interrogative pronoun for how is sɛ`, that appears in a position preceded by the focus marker ká.
Fí2SGɲɛ-kúdo-CL4.SGkáFOCsɛ?how.INTFí ɲɛ-kú ká sɛ?2SG do-CL4.SG FOC how.INT„How did you do it?“[2]There are two local question words in Buli, lèē and bɛɛ.
Fì-yènní2SG-house:DETlèē?where.INTFì-yènní lèē?2SG-house:DET where.INT„Where is your house?“[2]Fàà2SG.IPFVchēŋgokáFOCbɛɛ?where.INTFàà chēŋ ká bɛɛ?2SG.IPFV go FOC where.INT„Where are you going (to)?“[2]For the temporal interrogative pronoun there exist several forms in Buli.
Mí1SGɲú-kádrink-FOCɲwūlì.quicklyMí ɲú-ká ɲwūlì.1SG drink-FOC quickly„I drank quickly.“[2]NúrúwáPerson:DETkàlìsitmɔātīhimself.next(ká)(FOC)fì.2SGNúrúwá kàlì mɔātī (ká) fì.Person:DET sit himself.next (FOC) 2SG„The man lives next to you.“[2]AsibiAsibiwìensayāyīnCOMPAsoukAsoukdìgìcooklàmmú.meat.DEFAsibi wìen āyīn Asouk dìgì làmmú.Asibi say COMP Asouk cook meat.DEF„Asibi said that Asouk cooked the meat.“[2]The verbal system in Buli is characterized by tonal inflection and relatively simple segmental verb morphology.
Most of the verbs have a single segmental basic form, to which either a preverbal or postverbal particle is added and a specific tone in order to mark different aspects, modes, affirmation as well as negation.
Moreover, predicates marked with this particle are used by speakers as an unexpected or unforeseeable change of situation, occasionally also adverbially translated as 'just now', 'immediately' or 'suddenly'.
Interestingly, the focus marker kà seems to be contained in the morphem ká-, while the morphem -mā seems to be an element with unknown function.1 The emphatic function of this particle is to establish a relation between a truth value of a proposition and an expression from the previous context of the discourse, (i.e. indeed, really).
Mí1SGɲá-wásee-3SG.CL1kámā.AFFMí ɲá-wá kámā.1SG see-3SG.CL1 AFF„I really saw him.“[2]The postverbal particle là is formally identical with the demonstrative pronoun lá and also has an emphatic function.
In Schwarz (2005), the use of this particle is described as the use of emphasis on the subject, which is characterized to a particular degree by the facts predicated on it as standing out from the crowd of potential alternatives.