href="#litres_trial_promo">1983), see Fig. 1.
Fig. 1: The map of West Africa including Côte d´Ivoire
In Côte d’Ivoire the group Gur is composed of several subgroups of languages and among these subgroups are found the Koulango, the Oti-Volta languages, the Gurunsi languages, the Lobi laguages, the Kirma-Tyurama, and the Senufo languages to which the Fròʔò (Tagbana) belongs to; see Mensah and Tchagbale (1983). According to these authors, the Senufo languages are grouped into subgroups namely the subgroup Senari, the subgroup Tagbana-Djimini, and the ←22 | 23→other languages that constitute a group, the ‘others group’ as the authors called it. The language that is about in this book belongs to this group of languages, the Senufo languages.
Located in the North, in the Badaman valley in Côte d´Ivoire, Tagbana dialects cover a linguistic area from Katiola to Tafiré via Fronan, Niakaramandougou, Timbé, and Tortya localities. This area is limited in the north by the towns of Korhogo and Ferkessédougou, in the south by the town of Bouaké, in the East and the West, respectively, by the towns of Dabakala and Mankono. Tagbana is characterized by a strong dialectal differentiation. Each village has its own tonal and melodic structure that slightly distinguishes it from the others. But they are all intelligible with one another. All speakers of these different languages (dialects) identify themselves as Tagbana speakers which has been proposed by Mensah and Tchagbale (1983) to be constituted by three groups of subdialects: the dialect around Katiola very close to that of Fronan (Fròʔò), the dialect of the region of Niakaramandougou known as (takpɛr) and the group of Tafiré. All these dialects contain subgroups as well, and about 180 000 persons speak the language.
1.3 Social and political organization
The Tagbana society is stratified into seven large families. Each family, with the exception of two which share the same surname, has a surname of its own. The Hala and Haragon share the surname Traore. The Tuo have the Touré surname; the Ouattara correspond to Tiré; Koné correspond to Hili and Camara to Ngongon. The Hili would have the mission of maintenance and organization of the seven families. They have the monopoly of political power. The social hierarchy is similar to most of African societies hierarchies. We have the children, grouped in age classes, the fathers, the heads of families, the head of village (village chief), the tribal chiefs/head, and township chiefs. All these personalities except for the children ensure the political and the social activity within the population.
The traditional social and political functions of the locality are distributed as follows: The township chief is at the top level of the hierarchy. He has unlimited powers. He is the guide of the canton, and his authority is not controversial. In other words, he is the first administrative personality of the canton.
At a lower level, roughly equal to that of the chief of the canton, there is the chief of tribe who is also in charge with some important affairs of his tribe. He is helped by the notables but he cannot substitute for the canton chief whose succession is in his descent.
←23 | 24→
Then comes the tráfɔ́lɔ́ ‘the landlord’ or the land manager. His task is to make worships for the tribe and members of the tribe when necessary and also to organize the religious life given the different beliefs.
His level is followed by that of the village chief kàʔàfɔ̀lɔ́. He is assisted in his duties by the notables who constitute the village chiefdom. He plays the role of a judge, he settles disputes, and takes appropriate measures in agreement with its notables for a better social cohesion.
After his level, a little further down, we have the chief priest of the village whose function is to manage and purify the lands by worships in case of prohibited violations. At the lowest level of the hierarchy we have the head of family called dàlfɔ̀lɔ́ whose duty is to ensure the well-being and the good relationship within the family unit, and manage the heritage in accordance with the rules and customs.
1.4 Habitat, cultural life, economy, and religion
There are two types of agglomerations in Tagbana regions: the kàɉīōːrò ‘the camp’ and the kàːrà ‘the villages’. The first type is the type of agglomerations located far from villages. The sites are preferably chosen along rivers and on fertile land. This type of habitat includes members of the same family on a land that is theirs and on which they grow food, plants, and also breed animals. Some celebration ceremonies can take place in these agglomerations. However, all inhabitants have an apartment in the villages where meeting of major events such as weddings, funerals, large meetings, and making family decisions are held. Nowadays, the villages have been enlarged and that some have become towns.
The cultural life of the populations of Fronan is not in margin with the other Senufo languages’ cultural values. During the periods of celebration, rhythmic melodies such as nã̀gbògō, gbòfé, and sìtā serve to cheer up the population. In addition to these dances, there are other types of dances, such as hɔ̀-jùgò and kũ̀mbūō masks, which are reserved for male initiates and the mask ã̀gblí reserved exclusively for initiated women. All these forms of events are mostly traditional. The practitioners of these dances are more or less professional. They do so only on occasions of weddings, baptisms, funerals, and any other ceremonies. Note that dances from other neighbouring cultures exist as well.
The Tagbana are farmers and they live from agriculture. Their main food are cereal and yams. They also grow peanuts. Some crops are produced in large quantities for trade and export. Commercial crops include cotton, ←24 | 25→cashew nuts, and mango. They also move from the North to the South or West to grow cocoa and coffee. Note that Ivory Coast is the main producer of cacao. They are also breeders and opt for large cattle, especially oxen and pigs. This breeding is indirect. Because they are focused on field work, the livestock are entrusted to shepherds. The Tagbana also practise hunting with instruments such as arrows and local firearms such as the gun powder called gbèŋgéʔè.
Besides animism, Christianity and Islam are practised in the region. Christianity was introduced by the colonizers and Islam by the anti-colonialist Samory Toure.
Fròʔò is a dialect of Tagbana without writing conventions so far. Etymologically, Fròʔò comes from a derivational processes of the verb fùòːró ‘slip’ deverbalized to frò-ʔò ‘a slide’. Fronan could be a composition of fròʔò + nã̄, pronounced frò.ʔò.nã̄, or frònã̄ ‘fronan’. Alternatively, fròʔò ‘slip’ and nã̄ ‘designate the place or the location’, meaning ‘the place where we slide’. Not a physical slide, the way a person slips and falls down. But rather, the kind of slide here concerns the language handling, the speech. In the old days, in the culture of the Tagbana speakers, as in almost all African cultures, messages from one locality to another were sent by messengers. It was said to those who did not have a good handling of the language that they slipped. The handling included not only the speech but also the rules Fròʔò speakers obey when they have to address the elders.
The speakers of the locality of Fronan are called fùòːlò or some would say fòhòbélé. And the language is Fròʔò or Fòmũ̀ for some. According to the last
