Serer language
| Serer | |
|---|---|
| Seereer | |
| Native to | Senegal, Gambia, Mauritania |
|
Native speakers
|
1.2 million (2006) |
|
Niger–Congo
|
|
|
Standard forms
|
Seereer-Siin
|
| Official status | |
| Regulated by | CLAD (Centre de linguistique appliquée de Dakar) |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | sere1260 |
Serer, sometimes called Serer-Sine "Serer proper" (Seereer-Siin, etc.) after its prestige dialect, is a language of the Senegambian branch of Niger–Congo spoken by 1.2 million people in Senegal and 30,000 in the Gambia. It is the principal language of the Serer people.
Serer is one of the Senegambian languages, which are characterized by consonant mutation. The traditional classification of Atlantic is that of Sapir (1971), which found that Serer was closest to Fulani. However, a widely cited misreading of the data by Wilson (1989) inadvertently exchanged Serer for Wolof. Dialects of Serer are Serer Sine (the prestige dialect), Segum, Fadyut-Palmerin, Dyegueme (Gyegem), and Niominka. They are mutually intelligible.
Not all Serer people speak Serer. About 200,000 speak Cangin languages. Because the speakers are ethnically Serer, these are commonly thought to be Serer dialects. However, they are not closely related: Serer is significantly closer to Fulani than it is to Cangin.
The voiceless implosives are also written ⟨ƥ ƭ ƈ ⟩; these are highly unusual sounds.
The following greetings and responses are spoken in most regions of Senegal that have Serer speakers.
In Senegalese culture, greetings are very important. Sometimes, people will spend several minutes greeting each other.
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Wikipedia