5 Soussou Learning Websites List (Annotated)

1. Susu (Sosoxui): Omniglot Website [https://omniglot.com/writing/susu.htm]

This is an okay introductory website. As opposed to many other omniglot pages, this one contains simply the letters commonly used in certain transcriptions of the alphabet, as well as some background and language videos. The language videos are particularly important for getting a sense of how Soussou is spoken. They would be useful tools for learning the correct sounds of how to pronounce the language.

2. Counting in Susu: Of Languages and Numbers [https://www.languagesandnumbers.com/how-to-count-in-susu/en/sus/]

This is an excellent website with practice lessons on how to count. The numbers from 1-1000 are written out. Although the orthography of the written language is somewhat different than the one that I tend to use, I think that they have done a very good job (for non-Soussou speakers) of coming up with good exercises and phonetic renderings of the numbers. This would be a great website for practice learning the numbers and making sure that they are well memorized. Furthermore, their rules on numbers, which seem to be derived from other works (likely Soussou grammar books) provide good insights into the reasons why the numbers advance the ways that they do–including those from 30 and above. Their use of patterns makes this a very handy resource for language learning.

3. Quelques rudiments de Soussou: Club du Parrainage du college Paul Bert [http://parrainagepaulbert.free.fr/spip.php?article134]

This website has a native Soussou speaker from Tanènè share some of the important greetings and phrases in Soussou. As with some of the other websites there is some inconsistency with the spelling, but this website gives an excellent overview of the language basics. Especially for French speaking students (the website is entirely in French) this is a very good resource. Through some of the more “phonetic” style spelling that is used, it is somewhat easier to pronounce some of the words that have been listed here, which is a distinct advantage.

4. Guide de voyage, Guinée: petit futé [https://www.petitfute.com/p120-guinee/guide-touristique/c119293-lexique.html]

This is another excellent website for French-speaking Soussou learners. Although a good chunk of its contents finds parallel in the Club du Parrainage website, there are a number of distinct advantages to the “petit futé” site. One major addition that is added is there is a section on orientation or space, which covers a lot of common orienting expressions such as “here,” “there,” “where,” as well as some specific place names in Soussou. Additionally, there is a section about some important words to use in a restaurant setting or in a market setting. Short phrases such as “how much” and “I’m finished” are listed alongside important proper nouns such as “cooked rice,” “water,” and “bread.” Overall it is a good comprehensive guide to some important introductory terms.

5. B01 SUSU BASIC COURSE: Center for Language Technology, Indiana University [https://celt.indiana.edu/portal/Susu/b01.html]

This website is an excellent online resource for Soussou learners who are trying to find short, manageable recorded content to practice their pronunciation. One advantage of this platform is that there are a number of audio recordings that are well pronounced. Much of the description of the material recorded is in both French and English, but usually the theme is simply stated and then the section of dialogue begins. There is no direct translation. However, as a language learning resource especially for pronunciation for beginning learners, this would be a good way to practice the sounds of the language. It is one of the only collected sites that has resources that help non-native speakers specifically think about pronunciation of the language.