Kasem

Kasem is a Mabia language and has roughly 250,000 speakers. It is spoken in the Upper East region of Northern Ghana. There are two dialects, East Kasem and West Kasem. The language is also known as Kasena, Kasim, Kassem, Kasɩm or Kassena.

Linguistic classificiation

• Niger-Congo
  • Atlantic-Congo
    • Mabia
      • Mabia East
        • Kasem

Tone System

Kasem has a three level tone system with a low tone, a high tone and a mid level tone. Tonal changes lead either to lexical or grammatical differences.

Lexical Function

Grammatical Function

Noun Class System¹

Class	SG Suffix	PL Suffix	SG Noun	PL Noun	Gloss
I	-u, -o, -ʊ	-a, -ə	bu	biə	child/children
II	-ɪ, -i, -e, -ɛ	-a, -ə	bɪnɪ	bɪna	year/years
III	-a, -ə, -ga, -gə, -ŋa, -ŋə	-ɪ, -i, -e, -ɛ	naga	nɛ	foot/feet
IV	-ʊ, -u, -o, -ɔ, -gʊ, -gu, -go, -gɔ, -ŋʊ, -ŋu, -ŋo, -ŋɔ	-rʊ, -ru, -nʊ, -nu, -lʊ, -lu	piu	pweeru	mountain/mountains
V	-ŋʊ, -ŋɔ, -rɔ, -ro, -gu, -u	-nɪ, -ni, -m	bʊŋʊ	bʊm	goat/goats

Pronominal System¹

Personal Pronouns/Possessive Pronouns

The table below provides an overview of the personal pronouns in Kasem that are used only for persons. There are special personal pronouns, which are only used in order to refer to particular noun classes. Thus, the system for the personal pronouns in Kasem is divided into two classes of pronouns, namely those refering to persons and those refering to non-human entities. The personal pronouns in Kasem are used to express possession as well, meaning there are no special possessive pronouns.

Number	Person	Subject Function	Gloss	Object Function	Gloss
SG	1st	a	I	-nɪ	me
	2nd	n	you	-m	you
	3rd	o	he/she	-o	him/her
PL	1st	dí	we	-dɪbam	us
	2nd	á	you	abam	you
	3rd	ba	they	-ba	them

The second table below shows the personal pronouns corresponding to the noun class system in Kasem.

Class	SG	PL
I	o	ba
II	dɪ	ya
III	ka	sɪ
IV	kʊ	tɪ
V	kʊ	dɪ

Emphatic Pronouns

Emphasis is expressed by particular emphatic pronouns listed in the following table.

Person	SG	PL	Gloss
1st	amʊ	dcbam	me/we
2nd	nmʊ	abam	you/you
3rd	wʊm/wʊntu	bam/bantʊ	he/she/they

Reciprocal Pronouns

The reciprocal pronoun in Kasem is daanɪ ('each other') as in (4), which can also appear as a prefix da- in (5a) or as a suffix -da in (5b).

Reflexive Pronouns

In Kasem, reflexivity is not expressed by a particular reflexive pronoun, rather the word tɪtɪ or katɪ ('-self') is added to the personal pronoun form.

Person	SG	PL	Reflexive Marker	Gloss
1st	A	Dí	tɪtɪ	myself/ourselves
2nd	N	Á	tɪtɪ	yourself/yourselves
3rd	O	Ba	tɪtɪ	himself,herself/themselves

Relative Pronouns

Relative pronouns are formed by the pronouns of the noun class system, to which the suffix -lʊ is attached to. Interestingly, these relative pronouns correspond to some forms of the indefinite pronouns introduced in the subsection below.

Class	SG	PL
I	wʊlʊ	balʊ
II	dɪlʊ	yalʊ
III	kalʊ	sɪlʊ
IV	kʊlʊ	tɪlʊ
V	kʊlʊ	dɪlʊ

Demonstrative Pronouns

Demonstrative pronouns in Kasem are formed by the pronouns corresponding to the noun class system. Each pronoun takes the prefix of its corresponding noun class
and attaches it to the demonstrative -ntu.

Class	SG	Gloss	PL	Gloss
I	wuntu	this/that	bantu	these/those
II	dɪntu	this/that	yantu	these/those
III	kantu	this/that	sɪntu	these/those
IV	kuntu	this/that	tɪntu	these/those
V	kuntu	this/that	dɪntu	these/those

Indefinite Pronouns

There exist several indefinite pronouns. A few of those are presented in the table below.

Class	Number	Certain	Some	Any
I	SG	wʊdoŋ	---	wʊlʊ wʊlʊ
I	PL	badonnə	badaara	balʊ balʊ
II	SG	dɪ doŋ	---	dɪlʊ dɪlʊ
II	PL	yadonnə	yadaara	yalʊ yalʊ
III	SG	kadoŋ	---	kalʊ kalʊ
III	PL	sɪdonnə	sɪdaara	sɪlʊ sɪlʊ
IV	SG	kudoŋ	---	kʊlʊ kʊlʊ
IV	PL	tɪdonnə	tɪdaara	tɪlʊ tɪlʊ
V	SG	kudoŋ	---	kʊlʊ kʊlʊ
V	PL	dɪdonnə	dɪdaara	dɪlʊ dɪlʊ

Interrogative Pronouns

In Kasem, interrogative pronouns can either occur clause-initially or clause-finally, respectively. Compare (a) and (b). These pronouns are also formed on the basis of the pronouns corresponding to the noun class system.

Class	SG who, what, which	PL who, what, which	How much
I	wɔɔ	bra	bagra
II	dɔɔ	yɔɔ	yagra
III	kɔɔ	sɔɔ	sɪgra
IV	kɔɔ	tɔɔ	tɪgra
V	kɔɔ	dɔɔ	dɪgra

Word Order

Kasem has a basic SVO word order. This is shown below for an intransitive, a transitive and a ditransitive each involving an adverb.

Verb System

Negation

In general, negation in Kasem is expressed by particles, which occur between the subject and the predicate. The particle wu is used to negate accomplished actions or event, while the particle ba is used for actions and event that are not accomplished. Thus, the former is used in the imperfective, while the latter is used in the perfective aspect. Negation in imperatives and involving future is expressed by the particles yɪ and bá, respectively.

Verbal Negation

There are particular verbs that have a specific morphological form for the affirmative as well as for negation. The verb yɪ ('be') for instance has the negative counterpart daɪ ('not be'), but note that the verb is homophone with the negative particle used in imperatives. The verb wu ('be') also has two morphological forms, whereby the affirmative and negative form are illustrated below. Whereas the verb in (11) is a state verb, the verb in (12) corresponds more to a motion verb.

Negation of a declarative

The negative particle precedes the predicate and follows the subject, as shown in the contrast between the affirmative in (13a) and the negative in (13b).

Negation in an interrogative

In interrogative clauses, the negative particle is also wu preceding the predicate.

Negation involving future

If negation refers to an action or event that takes place in the future, thus in the imperfective form, the particle bá is used to negate the expression. The same particle, however, is also used in the present tense, if the action or event is not accomplished yet, but it changes its tone to mid low, ba.

Negation of an imperative

Similar to other Mabia languages, Kasem has a particular preverbal negative particle yɪ that is only used in imperatives. The negative particle wu can not be used in imperative contexts. In some cases, the particle na is attached as a suffix to the verb, which stresses the interdiction and can be translated by the referent making sure that the hearer understood the imperative expression.

Question Formation

In Kasem, it is possible for the question word to occupy several positions in the clause. It can appear ex situ, in situ as well as embedded.

Ex situ

In ex situ questions, the question word occurs clause-initially.

In situ

In situ questions exhibit the question word either as the clause-final element or in a position somewhere higher than the VP.

Multiple Questions

In Kasem, multiple questions correspond more to echo questions. In general, questions involving more than one question word are more acceptable, if one is a coordination as shown below.