Tondi Songway Kiini (Songhay, Mali)

Only recently discovered by linguistic scholars, Tondi Songway Kiini (TSK) is a refreshingly interesting tonal language spoken in the country of Mali in western Africa.

This reference work provides for researchers an indispensable grammar and dictionary of TSK. Moreover, this book can also serve students of linguistics as a valuable overview of the grammar of a tonal African language.

Unlike the other Songhay languages for which modern reference grammars are available, TSK preserves the lexical and grammatical tones of the proto-language. While archaic in some respects, TSK has developed unique (for Songhay) systems to express focalization and relativization. Of special interest is how TSK's tone system, quite different from more familiar Bantu tone systems, works in grammatical context.

Jeffrey Heath is professor of Linguistics at the University of Michigan.

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9/1/2005