Noon language

Noon
Native to	Senegal
Region	Thiès
Ethnicity	Serer-Noon
Native speakers	33,000 (2007)
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Senegambian Cangin Lehar–Noon Noon
Official status
Official language in	Senegal
Language codes
ISO 639-3	snf
Glottolog	noon1242
ELP	Template:Endangered Languages Project
Linguasphere	Template:Infobox language/lingualist
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Noon (Non, None, Serer-Noon, Serer-Non) is a Cangin language of Senegal spoken in the Thiès region (). There is an estimated population of 10,000- 50,000 speakers worldwide, rendering this language to be vulnerable. Ethnologue reports that it is 84% cognate (and 68% intelligible) with Lehar, essentially a divergent dialect, and 68% cognate with the other Cangin languages.

The Noon people identify themselves ethnically as Serer. However, their language, often called Serer-Noon on the assumption that it is a Serer dialect, is not closely related to the principal language of the Serer population, Serer-Sine.

Status

Like many of the local languages in Senegal, the Noon language is officially recognized as one of the national languages of the country.

Phonology

Vowels

In Noon, the vocalic system contains twenty phonemes: 10 short and 10 long vowels.

	Front				Central				Back
	−ATR		+ATR		−ATR		+ATR		−ATR		+ATR
	short	long	short	long	short	long	short	long	short	long	short	long
Close	ɪ ⟨i⟩	ɪː ⟨ii⟩	i ⟨í⟩	iː ⟨íi⟩					ʊ ⟨u⟩	ʊː ⟨uu⟩	u ⟨ú⟩	uː ⟨úu⟩
Close-mid			e ⟨é⟩	eː ⟨ée⟩							o ⟨ó⟩	oː ⟨óo⟩
Open-mid	ɛ ⟨e⟩	ɛː ⟨ee⟩					ə ⟨ë⟩	əː ⟨ëe⟩	ɔ ⟨o⟩	ɔː ⟨oo⟩
Open					ä ⟨a⟩	äː ⟨aa⟩

Consonants

In Noon, the consonantal system contains 27 phonemes.

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n	ɲ ⟨ñ⟩	ŋ
Plosive	voiceless	p	t	c	k	ʔ ⟨'⟩
	voiced	b	d	ɟ ⟨j⟩	g
	prenasal	ᵐb ⟨mb⟩	ⁿd ⟨nd⟩	ᶮɟ ⟨ñj⟩	ᵑɡ ⟨ng⟩
	implosive	ɓ	ɗ	ʄ ⟨ƴ⟩
Fricative		f	s			h
Approximant			l	j	w
Trill			(r)

Orthography

A Latin alphabet was proposed for Noon in 2001 and adopted by the Senegalese government in 2005. The alphabet consists of 47 letters, as listed below.

Letters of the alphabet
A	Aa	B	Ɓ	C	D	Ɗ	E	Ee	É	Ée	Ë	Ëe	F	G	H	I	Ii	Í	Íi	J	K	L	M
a	aa	b	ɓ	c	d	ɗ	e	ee	é	ée	ë	ëe	f	g	h	i	ii	í	íi	j	k	l	m
Mb	N	Ñ	Ŋ	Nd	Ñj	Ŋg	O	Oo	Ó	Óo	P	R	S	T	U	Uu	Ú	Úu	W	Y	Ƴ	ʼ
mb	n	ñ	ŋ	nd	ñj	ŋg	o	oo	ó	óo	p	r	s	t	u	uu	ú	úu	w	y	ƴ	ʼ

Consonants

The Noon alphabet contains 27 consonant letters. Glottal stop is not written at the beginning of the word, and it has no separate form for upper-case letters. The pre-nasalized consonants are written ⟨mb, nd, ñj, ŋg⟩. Geminate consonants are written with double letters, such as ⟨ɓɓ, cc, ff, hh, kk, ll, mm, nn, pp, ss, tt, ww, yy⟩. These are not considered separate letters of the alphabet. The letters ⟨b, d, g, j, ɗ, ƴ, ñ⟩ do not occur doubled.

Vowels

The Noon alphabet contains 20 vowel letters. −ATR vowels are written with the letters: ⟨a, e, i, o, u⟩; the +ATR equivalents are distinguished with a diacritic: ⟨ë, é, í, ó, ú⟩. Long vowels are written double: ⟨aa, ee, ii, oo, uu⟩ and ⟨ëe, ée, íi, óo, úu⟩ (only the first letter carries a diacritic). Long vowels count as distinct letters of the alphabet.

Vowel Chart

A

Aa

E

Ee

É

Ée

Ë

Ëe

I

Ii

Í

Íi

O

Oo

Ó

Óo

U

Uu

Ú

Úu

a

aa

e

ee

é

ée

ë

ëe

i

ii

í

íi

o

oo

ó

óo

u

uu

ú

úu

Capitalization rules

In general, there are three rules regarding capitalization in Noon. Much like other languages, they capitalize letters at the beginning of sentences and names.

1. Rule 1. An uppercase is used at the beginning of each enunciation point, and after each interrogation point (question mark), exclamation point, or the beginning of a quotation after a colon.

   Example: which translates to, 'As soon as they had searched the papers, they gave them to him, and the commander said: "Sit down! Be quiet!"'.

2. Rule 2. The first letter of any personal name, family, country, city, etc. are indicated by an uppercase letter.

   Example: 'Senegal' or 'Thiès'.

3. Rule 3. For franchise or business names beginning with , the letter after the prefix is often uppercase while the prefix itself is lowercase. Although, there is an exception if the prefix appears in the beginning of a phrase or enunciation point.

   Example: 'this year'; Whereas, if the phrase was in the beginning of an enunciation point, it would be rendered to mean 'This year...'.

Grammar

In Noon, the division of words is based on grammatical rules that are inherent in the language. The language undergoes many morphological changes, thus the language treats certain morphemes as being part of a single or key word, making them dependent. These morphemes are treated as prefixes that do not carry any independent meaning in itself, but are used for grammatical context.

The infinitive is prefixed to the subject of the verb. Examples:

'to eat'

'to give'

'to be born'

'to be sick'

The adverb is prefixed. However, when is used as a conjunction, it is written separately. Example:

Adverb: 'he is much better'

Conjunction: 'he is much better'

Class Markers

Class Markers such as , etc. are prefixed to the subject of the adjective. Examples:

'a new house'

'a new owner'

'a beautiful room'

Object Pronouns

Object pronouns are suffixed to a verb due to morphological changes that appear with most personal object pronouns (with the exception of the 3rd person plural), where the initial consonant of morpheme is adapted to the final consonant of the verb. Similarly, other object pronouns are also linked as suffixes when they appear with a preposition. However, there is an exception with the preposition which is never suffixed to the verb. Examples:

'he sees me'

'he sees you' (informal)

'he sees him (a man)'

'he sees us (but not you)'

'he sees us (you included)'

'he sees you' (formal or plural)

'he sees them (the men)'

'he sees it (the house)'

'he sees them (the houses)'

preposition exception:

'Eat it!'

'the following'

Furthermore, the same object pronouns are suffixed to prepositions. Example:

'I will go with you.'

Possessive Pronouns

The possessive pronouns in Noon are suffixed to a name that appears after the definite article. The decision to treat these pronouns as suffixes, and not as an independent words that are formed by the preposition followed by the object pronoun, has been made so that the possessive pronouns possess a complementary distribution. This means, that the names are determined by relational possessive pronouns, or by possessive pronouns, depending on the character's name. Another reason for this suffix is the first person singular form of (used in contraction with ) which appears only in cases of possessive pronouns, and never with the preposition . Examples:

'my child'

'your child' (informal)

'his/her child'

'our child'

'our child'

'your child' (formal or plural)

'their child'

'their fruits'

Note that the preposition is not suffixed to a word. Also note, that when or is used in the 1st person singular, it changes the form. Example:

'They liked the party.'

'I liked the party.'

Possessive pronouns that are relational are suffixed to the noted topic because of morphophonological changes that concern the assimilation of the initial consonant of the pronoun to the final consonant of the name (in the 1st person singular tense or the 1st and 2nd person plural tense). Examples:

'my big brother'

'your big brother' (informal)

'his big brother'

'our big brother'

'our big brother'

'your big brother' (formal or plural)

'their big brother'

Definite Articles

The definite articles and are suffixed, in conjunction with a class marker, to an indicative name or place. Examples:

'the door (here)'

'the child (there)'

'the child (there)'

'the goat (there)'

'the headscarf (near to you)'

'the bongos (here)'

Additionally, definite articles are suffixed to adjectives in the same manner that names are suffixed in Noon. Examples:

'the new room (there)'

'the beautiful home (here)'

'the black puppy (here)'

'the large trees (there)'

Subordinate Clauses

In Noon, the suffix is indicative of a subordinate clause and is indicative of a relative subordinate clause. The reasons for treating these morphemes as suffixes are due to morphophonological changes to , and their grammatical functions in words for both and . The insertion of a nasal vowel in a word placed at the ending of a proposal indicates that the morpheme is a phonological word with the word that it precedes. We also see glottalized consonants and certain nasal consonants change in subordinate clauses. Both morphemes and carry grammatical meaning rather than lexical meaning as they indicate the entire proposition, describing its function in the sentence. Examples:

'We will eat, when you come' (worded in the form: 'When you come, we will eat.')

'If you see his son, tell him to come.'

However, unlike , which is a morpheme indicative of a proposal, there is an adverb which can translate to 'alone' or 'like this/that'. You can note the difference between the two forms, as the adverb is always separated, since it carries an independent lexical meaning. Example:

'The mangoes are eaten alone'

Interrogative Clauses

In Noon, the suffix is used to indicate general interrogative clauses. Examples:

'Are you coming tomorrow?'

'Have you seen my child?'

For an alternative interrogative clause, the suffix is used. Examples:

'Would you like to drink water or milk?'

'Are you outside or inside?'

In vocative cases, the suffix is suffixed to a name.

Example: 'Hell!'

Vocabulary

Numerals

Noon has a quinary-decimal system. The alternative form for 'one', , is only used in the counting process. Actually, it is very common for the Noon to use pure Wolof or French when counting above the number from 100 onwards.

1.	21.
2.	22.
3.	23.
4.	24.
5.	25.
6. (5 + 1)	26.
7. (5 + 2)	27.
8. (5 + 3)	28.
9. (5 + 4)	29.
10.	30.
11.	40.
12.	50.
13.	60.
14.	70.
15.	80.
16.	90.
17.	100. < Wolof
18.	200.
19.	1000. < Wolof
20.	2000.

Further reading

• Wane, Mohamadou Hamine (2017). La grammaire du noon (in français). LOT Publications. ISBN 978-94-6093-246-5.