# Tiefo language

Tyefo, also spelled Cɛfɔ, Tiéfo, Kiefo, Tyeforo, is a pair of languages of Burkina Faso. It may be a peripheral member of the Gur languages, but it is of uncertain affiliation.

## Classification

Güldemann (2018) considers Tiefo to be of uncertain affiliation within Niger-Congo.

## Varieties

The two extant languages are provisionally called Tiefo-N (Tiefo of Numudara / Niafogo) and Tiefo-D (Tiefo of Daramandugu). They are mutually unintelligible. Tiefo-D is spoken in parts of the village cluster Daramandougou (Dramandougou, Daramandugu) of Comoé Province. Its phonology, morphology, some basic grammar, and lexicon were described in Kerstin Winkelmann's 1998 doctoral dissertation (in German). A full grammar by Heath and Ouattara was published online in 2021. Tiefo-N covers the extinct variety spoken in Noumoudara [fr] (Numudara) village of Houet Province, and the closely related and nearly extinct variety of Nyafogo (Gnanfogo) village. A short Tiefo-N grammar by Heath, Ouattara, and Hantgan, based on salvage fieldwork with the last two known competent speakers from Nyafogo, was published in 2017. Winkelmann's dissertation includes limited data from both Tiefo-N varieties.
Tiefo varieties were formerly spoken over a much wider area. They have been steadily declining ever since Tiefo military power was broken in an 1897 battle. Jula (Dioula) is now the dominant spoken language throughout southwestern Burkina Faso.

## Villages

Tiefo villages:
| Official name | Village | Person | People | Notes |
| Nyafogo | ɲáɣáfɔ̀ɣɔ̀ⁿ | ɲáɣáfɔ̀ɣɔ̀ⁿ | ɲáɣáfɔ̀ɣɔ̀ | Tiefo-N |
| Noumoudara | tə́ráʕāⁿ | tə́ráʕāⁿ | tə́ráʕā | Tiefo-N |
| Daramandougou | káɣà(-lě) | káɣà | káɣà | Tiefo-D |
| Me | mɛ̀ɛ́ | màɣá | màɣá | formerly Tiefo-speaking |
| Maturku | mátòò ~ mátyòò | mát(y)òò | mát(y)òò | formerly Tiefo-speaking |
| Samogan | — | — | — | formerly Tiefo-speaking |
| Tien | — | — | — | formerly Tiefo-speaking |
| Kodala | — | — | — | formerly Tiefo-speaking |
| Koumandara | ʃíyɛ̀yⁿ | ʃíyɔ̀ⁿ | ʃíyɔ̀ | formerly Tiefo-speaking |
| Dege-dege | dègèdègè | dègèdègè-ɲɔⁿ́ | -by-ó | formerly Tiefo-speaking |
| Derege | dɛ̀rɛ̀gbɛ̀ | dɛ̀rɛ̀gbɛ̀ | dɛ̀rɛ̀gbɔ̀ | formerly Tiefo-speaking |
| Laranfiera | làɣàⁿfyɛ̀lá | làɣàⁿfyɛ̀ | làɣàⁿfyɔ̀ | formerly Tiefo-speaking |
| Musubadugu | ʃíkìyàʕà | — | — | formerly Tiefo-speaking |
| Sidéradougou | — | — | — | formerly Tiefo-speaking; partially Tiefo |

## Phonology

Consonants :
| | Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labiovelar | Pharyngeal | Glottal |
| Plosive | p b | t d | tʃ dʒ | k g | kp gb | | (ʔ) |
| Fricative | f | s | | ɣ | | ʕ | (h) |
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ŋm | | |
| Approximant | w w̃ | l, r | j j̃ | | | | |
* /n/ is heard as [ɾ̃] intervocalically.
* /g/ is pronounced [ɣ] between two instances of the vowels [a] or [ɔ].
* /ʔ/ only occurs word-finally in a verbal clitic.
* /h/ is only attested in loanwords and sometimes in syllable boundaries between vowels.
Vowels :
| | Front | Central | Back |
| High | i iː ĩ ĩː | | u uː ũ ũː |
| Mid-high | e eː | | o oː |
| Mid-low | ɛ ɛː ɛ̃ ɛ̃ː | | ɔ ɔː ɔ̃ ɔ̃ː |
| Low | | a aː ã ãː | |
Tiefo also has three tones; high, mid, and low.

## Grammar

One notable feature of Tiefo languages is a vocalic morpheme that precedes nouns under some conditions. In Tiefo-D it is ē, and it appears chiefly in postpausal position. Tiefo-N has à, è, and ò, constituting a noun-class system with a partial semantic basis. These prenominal markers are apparently unrelated to the original Gur system of noun-class suffixes. Traces of old noun-class suffixes, now frozen to stems and no longer synchronically segmentable, have been discussed by Winkelmann and other Gur specialists.
Verb phrases in Tiefo languages consist of two (Tiefo-N) or three (Tiefo-D) forms of the verb stem, plus preverbal inflectional particles marking aspect and negation. Verbs show no further morphological variation. The two Tiefo-N verb forms are called perfective and imperfective, but their distribution among clause-level inflectional categories is more complex than this suggests. Tiefo-D verbs have at most three distinct forms called perfective, imperfective, and base, but some verbs merge imperfective and base. In both languages, the forms of a given verb are morphophonologically related to each other by some combination of vocalic mutation, tonal shift, and/or suffixation.