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* * THE UNIVERSITY OF YAOUNDE I * UNWEMZTE DE YAOUNDEI *# Faculty of Arts, Letters Department of African *idt and Social Sciences Languages and Linguistics ;x Facuh' des A*, Le- et D&attement de iangues athbines * Sciences Humaines et iingui3tique 6 * *ZL, ;jt i& *P %* BORROWING AND STANDARDIZATION * 35 AGHEM * *1b IN 9* ;fh A Dissertation Submitted in Partial E'ulfilment of the * ;jr: * 8 Requirements for the Award of the "Maitrise" degree in Linguistics. 1 1 1 * * BY * * * 3t LILIAN MBI ATTIA ;x r: 3t * B.A. (Hons)in Linguistics 35 1 DIPEN 11 in English Didactics * 1 1 * The University of Yaounde 1 1 *;slt * ;ji: Supervised by ;fL ibr: * Prof Ngessimo M. MTJTAKA #t * * * September 2004 ;x *$ ;fL* * ;x* *~;brc;jt;lt~;lt8~;fL;lt8~*8;lt8~;lt~~~;lt*;lt~~8~* I II Language has been structured to meet the ever I increasing demands of men and women. So the need for a new words to represent new creations will definitely L arise. f Lilian Attia I 1 Dedication I To: My Parents Mr. Attia John Tegha 0 and Mrs. Attia Emilia Nnam and to my unborn children who constitute the sad mystery of my life. I ... Ill Acknowledgements This study would not have been complete without the assistance sought from some people to whom I am greatly indebted. I will therefore seize this opportunity to thank them sincerely. My profound gratitude goes to my supervisor Professor Mutaka Philip whose constructive criticisms, suggestions, and corrections guided me in this research endeavour. My special thanks go to my parents Mr. Attia John Tegha and Mrs Attia Emilia Nnam for their constant solicitude and encouragements to complete this research study I had abandoned. I am particularly grateful for the assistance you gave me in the execution of my questionnaires in Wum. I must thank the academic support of my lecturers in the Linguistics Department of UNIYAO 1 for the linguistic knowledge imparted on me. i say thank you to: Dr. Ogwana John, Dr. Tamanji Pius, Prof. Biloa Edmond, Dr. Ndamsah Gratiana, and Dr. Sadembouo Etienne. I am extremely grateful for the moral support I got from Mr. and Mrs. Fou-uh Attia, Menyi Mulu, Mr. Kuchah Harry, my brother Arthur Attia who spared no effort in carrying out all the errands I sent him to do with respect to the realisation of this work. I also thank my younger ones Bridget, Walters, Roland, Ethel, Valentine, Evelyne, Armel, Derrick, Donald, and Desmond Attia for the inspiration they gave me. kt:y sincere gratitude goes to ALDEC Wum. Here, I am I* thinking of Tschonghongei Nelson and Fung Angus who helped me iv during the collection of my data. I am also thankful for the assistance I got from Mr. Joseph K. Attia, Mr. Tegha Mbeng Peter, Waffi, Olga, Wilfred and Judith Dzenyagha. Mr. Kang Joseph Chi, Mr. Abang Martin, Mr. Njuh James, Mr. And Mrs Kuchah, Mr. Mvo Johnson, and Chuo Gerald. I also acknowledge the assistance from the authorities of the British Council and SIL libraries. Finally, my gratitude goes to Mrs. Mutaka Jacky for typing my work and, 1 suspect, for encouraging her husband to proofread it. For all these, may the Lord Almighty, whom I sincerely adore, thank, and exult, bless the hearts that have shared in the realisation of this work. V! List of Abbreviations and Symbols. 9 ALAC: Atlas Linguistique de 1’Afrique Centrale ALCAM: Atlas Linguistique du Cameroun 111 ALDEC: Aghem Language Development Committee CERDOTOLA: Centre R6gional de Documentation sur les Traditions a CREA: Centre de Recherches et &Etudes Anthropologiques I DGRST: D616gation G6n6rale 8 la Recherche Scientifique et Ed. : Editors a et De la Recherche Scientifique. ISH: Institut des Sciences Humaines 9 MESIRES: Ministkre de I’Enseignement Superieur de l’lnformatique Orales et les Langues Africaines. SIL: Summer Institute of Linguistics Technique. ‘1 #: word boundary -1 --# : word final position #-: word initial position 0: syllable I I: phonemic transcription I: context/ environment I dr H: High tone [I: phonetic transcription \ or L: Low tone -.- equal to ->: becomeslis realised as 6 or LH rising tone (here as on the vowel a) vi a or HL: falling tone (here as on the vowel a) C: consonant c1 : Initial consonant I G: Glide N: syllabic nasal I 0: zero V: vowel I Vd: voiced VI: voiceless i V-V : intervocalically vii. Table of contents .. Dedication ......................................................... 11 Acknowledgements .............................................. iii List of symbols and abbreviations ............................ V Table of contents ................................................ vii Chapter I Introduction to the study ........................... 1 1. 0 Introduction ....................................... 1 1.1 General Introduction ............................ 1 I 1.2 Location of Aghem ............................... 2 II 1.2.1 Geographical Location ........................... 2 1.2.2 Historical Location ............................... 6 1.2.3 Linguistic Location .............................. 7 1.3 Aghem ............................................. 9 1 1.3.1 Sounds and Graphemes ........................ 9 1.3.1.1 Vowels ............................................. 9 1.3.1.2 Consonants ....................................... 12 1.3.1.3 Tones ................................................ 15 1.3.2 Syllable and Word Structure ................... 17 I .3. 2.1 Syllable Structure ................................ 17 1.3.2.2 Word Structure ................................... 18 1.4 Aim of Study ...................................... 26 1.5 Scope of Study .................................... 27 1.6 Review of Literature .............................. 28 1.7 Me thodology ....................................... 30 1.8 Outline of Work .................................... 31 vlii Chapter 2 Definition of terms and some major phonological and morphological processes in Aghem ...... 33 2.1 Definition of terms ................................. 33 2.1.1 Borrowing ............................................. 33 2.1.2 Types of borrowing .................................. 34 2.1.3 Borrowing and its synonyms ....................... 35 2.2 Conditions for borrowing ........................... 38 2.3 Borrowing and standardization .................... 39 1 2.4 Some major phonological and morphological processes in Aghem ................................. 41 a 2.4.1 Reduplication ......................................... 41 2.4.2 Labialization .......................................... 43 1 .. 2.4.3 Aspiration ............................................. 44 Velarization ........................................... 45 2.4. 5 Apocope ................................................ 46 2.4.6 Consonant Alternations ............................. 47 2.4.7 Vowel alternations ................................... 49 2.4.8 Assimilation .......................................... 50 2.4.9 Vowel lengthening .................................... 50 2.4.10 Final Consonant Sequence ......................... 51 2.4.1 1 Nasal Assimilation ................................. 52 2.4.12 Tone Rules .......................................... 54 2.5 Summary ............................................. 56 I Chapter 3 The Rehabilitation of Phonological and morpho- logical processes of borrowings in Aghem ... 57 i I 3.1 Processes involved in Aghem borrowed words ... 57 3.1.1 Reduplication ....................................... 58 I 3.1.2 Labialization ....................................... 59 3.1.3 Apocope ............................................. 60 ~ I 3.1.4 Consonant Alternations ........................... 61 I 3.1.5 Substitution of Consonants ........................ 62 3.1.6 Prothesis ............................................. 65 ~ 3.1.7 Anaptyxis ............................................. 67 i 3.1.8 Vowel Lowering .................................... 69 I 3.1.9 Vowel Simplification .............................. 71 3.1.10 Vowel Shortening ................................... 72 3.1.11 Glide Formation ..................................... 72 3.1.12 Nasal Assimilation .................................. 74 3.1.13 Tonal patterns of borrowed words ............... 76 3.1.13.1 On stressed words ................................... 77 3.1.13.2 Distribution of tones ................................ 78 3.2 Survival of borrowings in Aghem ............... 80 3.3 Summary ............................................. 84 X Chapter 4 Borrowing and Standardization ........................ 86 4.1 Attitudes towards the spoken form ............... 88 4.2 Attitudes toward the written form ............... 90 4.3 Problems encountered .............................. 94 9 4.4 Suggestions.......................................... 96 ! References ......................................................... 98 Appendix ............................................................ 102 9 Questionnaire ...................................................... 102 Borrowed nouns from other languages ....................... 104 I Borrowed verbs .................................................. 121 Borrowed adjectives ............................................. 122 1 Reduplication ...................................................... 123 I Chapter 1 : Introduction 1.1 General Introduction An apt introduction to the contents of this dissertation is a quotation from Bloomfield (1935:445): “Every speech commirnity learns from its neighbours. Objects, both natural and manufactured, pass from one community to the other, and so do patterns of action, such as technical procedures, war like practices,

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