Formation of Verbs in U̱t‑Maꞌin
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The Status of the East Kainji Languages of Central Nigeria: Recent Research
The status of the East Kainji languages of Central Nigeria: recent research Version submitted for proceedings of the Hamburg meeting, March 2004, to mark the retirement of Professor Ludwig Gerhardt Roger Blench Mallam Dendo 8, Guest Road Cambridge CB1 2AL United Kingdom Voice/Answerphone/Fax. 0044-(0)1223-560687 E-mail [email protected] http://homepage.ntlworld.com/roger_blench/RBOP.htm Cambridge, Saturday, 02 October 2004 TABLE OF CONTENTS FIGURES..........................................................................................................................................................I 1. INTRODUCTION: THE IDENTIFICATION OF AN EAST KAINJI GROUP.................................. 2 2. EAST KAINJI LANGUAGES TODAY.................................................................................................... 2 3. LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF EAST KAINJI........................................................................................ 3 3.1 Phonology............................................................................................................................................... 3 Consonants................................................................................................................................................... 4 Tones............................................................................................................................................................. 5 3.2 Nominal morphology............................................................................................................................ -
Prospecting Proto- Plateau
Prospecting Proto- Plateau [DRAFT CIRCULATED FOR COMMENT -NOT FOR CITATION WITHOUT REFERENCE TO THE AUTHOR Roger Blench Kay Williamson Educational Foundation 8, Guest Road Cambridge CB1 2AL United Kingdom Voice/ Fax. 0044-(0)1223-560687 Mobile worldwide (00-44)-(0)7967-696804 E-mail [email protected] http://www.rogerblench.info/RBOP.htm This version: Cambridge, April 24, 2008 R.M. Blench Prospecting proto-Plateau. Circulated for comment TABLE OF CONTENTS FIGURES.........................................................................................................................................................ii 1. Introduction................................................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 The Plateau languages............................................................................................................................. 1 1.2 Existing subclassification of Plateau languages...................................................................................... 2 1.3 Reconstructing Plateau: methodological assumptions ............................................................................ 3 1.4 Language status and language endangerment ......................................................................................... 4 1.5 Plateau languages in education and the media ........................................................................................ 4 1.6 Plateau languages in politics; issues of administrative delineation.........................................................6 -
Reconstructing Benue-Congo Person Marking II
Kirill Babaev Russian State University for the Humanities Reconstructing Benue-Congo person marking II This paper is the second and last part of a comparative analysis of person marking systems in Benue-Congo (BC) languages, started in (Babaev 2008, available online for reference). The first part of the paper containing sections 1–2 gave an overview of the linguistic studies on the issue to date and presented a tentative reconstruction of person marking in the Proto- Bantoid language. In the second part of the paper, this work is continued by collecting data from all the other branches of BC and making the first step towards a reconstruction of the Proto-BC system of person marking. Keywords: Niger-Congo, Benue-Congo, personal pronouns, comparative research, recon- struction, person marking. The comparative outlook of person marking systems in the language families lying to the west of the Bantoid-speaking area is a challenge. These language stocks (the East BC families of Cross River, Plateau, Kainji and Jukunoid, and the West BC including Edoid, Nupoid, Defoid, Idomoid, Igboid and a few genetically isolated languages of Nigeria) are still far from being sufficiently studied or even described, and the amount of linguistic data for many of them re- mains quite scarce. In comparison with the Bantu family which has enjoyed much attention from comparative linguists within the last decades, there are very few papers researching the other subfamilies of BC from a comparative standpoint. This is especially true for studies in morphology, including person marking. The aim here is therefore to make the very first step towards the comparative analysis and reconstruction of person markers in BC. -
NOMINAL AFFIXING in the KAINJI LANGUAGES of NORTHWESTERN
NOMINAL AFFIXING IN THE KAINJI LANGUAGES of NORTHWESTERN and CENTRAL NIGERIA Paper prepared for a volume edited by John Watters DECEMBER 2014 VERSION CIRCULATION DRAFT ONLY Roger Blench Kay Williamson Educational Foundation 8, Guest Road Cambridge CB1 2AL United Kingdom Voice/ Ans 0044-(0)1223-560687 Mobile worldwide (00-44)-(0)7847-495590 E-mail [email protected] http://www.rogerblench.info/RBOP.htm Kainji nominal affixes: front matter Roger Blench Circulation draft TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLES...............................................................................................................................................................I FIGURES........................................................................................................................................................... II MAPS................................................................................................................................................................. II 1. INTRODUCTION: THE KAINJI LANGUAGES ..................................................................................... 1 2. NOMINAL AFFIXES: OVERVIEW........................................................................................................... 4 3. NOMINAL AFFIXES BY SUBGROUP...................................................................................................... 5 3.1 Reshe ........................................................................................................................................................ -
Language Documentation and Description
Language Documentation and Description ISSN 1740-6234 ___________________________________________ This article appears in: Language Documentation and Description, vol 11. Editors: Stuart McGill & Peter K. Austin Documentation, development, and ideology in the northwestern Kainji languages STUART MCGILL, ROGER BLENCH Cite this article: Stuart McGill, Roger Blench (2012). Documentation, development, and ideology in the northwestern Kainji languages. In Stuart McGill & Peter K. Austin (eds) Language Documentation and Description, vol 11. London: SOAS. pp. 90-135 Link to this article: http://www.elpublishing.org/PID/130 This electronic version first published: July 2014 __________________________________________________ This article is published under a Creative Commons License CC-BY-NC (Attribution-NonCommercial). The licence permits users to use, reproduce, disseminate or display the article provided that the author is attributed as the original creator and that the reuse is restricted to non-commercial purposes i.e. research or educational use. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ ______________________________________________________ EL Publishing For more EL Publishing articles and services: Website: http://www.elpublishing.org Terms of use: http://www.elpublishing.org/terms Submissions: http://www.elpublishing.org/submissions Documentation, development, and ideology in the northwestern Kainji languages Stuart McGill School of Oriental and African Studies & Roger Blench Kay Williamson Educational Foundation 1. Introduction The Kainji languages of north-central Nigeria, which constitute a major branch of the Benue-Congo language subgroup (Gerhardt 1989, Williamson & Blench 2000), have been largely ignored by academic linguists. The group includes approximately 60 languages divided geographically into three main areas. The Eastern Kainji languages are spoken north and west of Jos, while the Basa subgroup is found at the Niger-Benue confluence. -
East Benue-Congo
East Benue-Congo Nouns, pronouns, and verbs Edited by John R. Watters language Niger-Congo Comparative Studies 1 science press Niger-Congo Comparative Studies Chief Editor: Valentin Vydrin (INALCO – LLACAN, CNRS, Paris) Editors: Larry Hyman (University of California, Berkeley), Konstantin Pozdniakov (INALCO – LLACAN, CNRS, Paris), Guillaume Segerer (LLACAN, CNRS, Paris), John Watters (SIL International, Dallas, Texas). In this series: 1. Watters, John R. (ed.). East Benue-Congo: Nouns, pronouns, and verbs. 2. Pozdniakov, Konstantin. The numeral system of Proto-Niger-Congo: A step-by-step reconstruction. East Benue-Congo Nouns, pronouns, and verbs Edited by John R. Watters language science press John R. Watters (ed.). 2018. East Benue-Congo: Nouns, pronouns, and verbs (Niger-Congo Comparative Studies 1). Berlin: Language Science Press. This title can be downloaded at: http://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/190 © 2018, the authors Published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Licence (CC BY 4.0): http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ISBN: 978-3-96110-100-9 (Digital) 978-3-96110-101-6 (Hardcover) DOI:10.5281/zenodo.1314306 Source code available from www.github.com/langsci/190 Collaborative reading: paperhive.org/documents/remote?type=langsci&id=190 Cover and concept of design: Ulrike Harbort Typesetting: Sebastian Nordhoff, John R. Watters Illustration: Sebastian Nordhoff Proofreading: Ahmet Bilal Özdemir, Andrew Spencer, Felix Hoberg, Jeroen van de Weijer, Jean Nitzke, Kate Bellamy, Martin Haspelmath, Prisca Jerono, Richard Griscom, Steven Kaye, Sune Gregersen, Fonts: Linux Libertine, Libertinus Math, Arimo, DejaVu Sans Mono Typesetting software:Ǝ X LATEX Language Science Press Unter den Linden 6 10099 Berlin, Germany langsci-press.org Storage and cataloguing done by FU Berlin Contents Preface iii 1 East Benue-Congo John R. -
The Kainji Languages
The Kainji languages Stuart McGill, School of Oriental and African Studies, 30th August 2012 1 Background The Kainji languages of north-central Nigeria are a major branch of Benue-Congo. The group includes approximately 60 languages divided geographically into three main areas: • the Eastern Kainji languages, which are spoken north and west of Jos in central Nigeria • the Basa subgroup found further to the south at the Niger-Benue confluence • the remainder (called the ‘Western’ languages here), which are spread across northwest Nigeria, around Lake Kainji It has previously been thought that the Eastern Kainji languages constituted a primary division of Kainji, but the linguistic evidence for this is uncertain and its place within the overall group remains unclear. The Eastern Kainji group, which has perhaps about 20-30 languages, is severely endangered and underdocumented. An exception is Amo (autonym Timap) which is described in Di Luzio (1972) and Anderson (1980). Compared to their Western Kainji relatives, the Eastern languages are fairly homogeneous both lexically and morphologically (e.g. Longtau 2012: 69-71). Recent fieldwork has concentrated on the Western languages and this report does the same. 1.1 Endangerment status Kainji languages vary in size from Tsuvaɗi with perhaps 150,000-200,000 speakers and virtually extinct languages such as Damakawa with only a few rememberers. The three groups identified above differ from each other in their endangerment status. The Eastern Kainji and Basa languages are mostly moribund or declining due to shift to Hausa, but the Western languages are remarkably robust, at least in rural areas, and recent language development efforts have been met with enthusiasm from both Muslims and Christians. -
Nominal Affixes and Number Marking in the Plateau Languages of Central Nigeria Roger M
Chapter 4 Nominal affixes and number marking in the Plateau languages of Central Nigeria Roger M. Blench McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge The Plateau branch of East Benue-Congo consists of between sixty and eighty lan- guages spoken in central Nigeria, spreading from Lake Shiroro to the banks of the Benue River. Proto-Plateau is usually considered to have a system of alternating nominal affixes marking number combined with alliterative concord. Thepaper presents an overall internal classification and then reviews the evidence for affix systems by subgroup, taking a specific language as an exemplar, with a view to link- ing these to broader hypotheses about Niger-Congo nominal classes. It appears that Plateau has undergone extensive affix renewal, and thus only fragments of any more coherent system are still present. Plateau languages originally had a rich noun class system with CV- and V- prefixes and alliterative concord, but a wave of renewal and analogical re-alignment led to many of the CV- prefixes disappearing or becoming unproductive and replaced by a much smaller set of V- prefixes. 1 Introduction: Plateau languages The Plateau branch of East Benue-Congo consists of between sixty and eighty languages spoken in central Nigeria, spreading from Lake Shiroro to the banks of the Benue River (Figure 1). Although most Plateau populations are small (2-10,000 speakers), there are probably more than a million speakers of Plateau languages, with the bulk of the numbers made up from large groups such as Berom and Eggon. Some Plateau languages, such as Sambe and Yangkam, are moribund and others are severely threatened, such as Ayu. -
Nasal Vowel Patterns in West Africa” 1 [email protected]
UC Berkeley Phonology Lab Annual Report (2013) Nicholas Rolle UC Berkeley 1 “Nasal vowel patterns in West Africa” [email protected] 1. INTRODUCTION Nasal vowels are a common feature of West African phonologies, and have received a significant amount of attention concerning their (suprasegmental) representation, their interaction with nasal consonants, and their phonetic realization. Numerous authors have presented surveys of varying degrees of (targeted) depth which address the distribution of contrastive nasal vowels in (West) Africa, including Hyman (1972), Williamson (1973), Ruhlen (1978), Maddieson (1984, 2007), Clements (2000), Clements & Rialland (2006), and Hajek (2011). Building on this literature, this present study provides a more extensive survey on contrastive nasal vowels in West Africa, and specifically studies the types of systematic gaps found. For example, the language Togo-Remnant language Bowili has a 7 oral vowel inventory canonical of West Africa /i e ɛ a ɔ o u/, as well as a full set of nasal counterparts /ĩ ẽ ɛ ̃ ã ɔ̃ õ ũ/ (Williamson 1973). In contrast, the Gur language Bariba has the same 7 oral vowel inventory, though a more limited nasal set /ĩ ɛ ̃ ã ɔ̃ ũ/, missing mid-high vowels */ẽ õ/ (Hyman 1972:201). Using this as a starting point, this paper addresses the following questions: . What are the recurring patterns one finds in West African nasal vowel systems and inventories? o What restrictions are there on mid vowels in the nasal inventory? . In which families/areal zones do we find these patterns? . To which factors can we attribute these patterns? o Genetic – Vertical inheritance o Areal – Horizontal spread o Universal Phonetic – Parallel Developments . -
Gender and Person Agreement in Cicipu Discourse
Gender and person agreement in Cicipu discourse A dissertation submitted to the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Stuart John McGill September 2009 I, Stuart John McGill, confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. Abstract The Cicipu language (Kainji, Benue-Congo) of northwest Nigeria has the kind of robust noun class system characteristic of Benue-Congo languages – GENDER agreement is found on a great many agreement targets inside and outside the noun phrase. For a number of these targets, gender agreement is in competition with a separate paradigm, that of PERSON agreement. The dissertation focuses on the distribution of this alternation with respect to subject prefixes, object enclitics, and pronouns, based on a corpus of 12,000 clauses of spoken language. The alternation proves to be complex to describe, involving a constellation of lexical, phonological, morphosyntactic, semantic and discourse-pragmatic factors. In particular, both animacy and topicality are CONDITIONS (Corbett 2006) on agreement. While inanimate or animal participants normally trigger gender agreement, if they are topics then they may trigger person agreement. Likewise while human nouns typically trigger person agreement, this is not always the case, and gender agreement is more likely if the referent is of incidental importance to the discourse. Furthermore it is argued that this alternation is sensitive to discourse topic (e.g. Dooley 2007) rather than sentence topic (e.g. -
Africa Nigeria 100580000
1 Ethnologue: Areas: Africa Nigeria 100,580,000 (1995). Federal Republic of Nigeria. Literacy rate 42% to 51%. Information mainly from Hansford, Bendor-Samuel, and Stanford 1976; J. Bendor-Samuel, ed., 1989; CAPRO 1992; Crozier and Blench 1992. Locations for some languages indicate new Local Government Area (LGA) names, but the older Division and District names are given if the new names are not yet known. Also includes Lebanese, European. Data accuracy estimate: A2, B. Also includes Pulaar Fulfulde, Lebanese, European. Christian, Muslim, traditional religion. Blind population 800,000 (1982 WCE). Deaf institutions: 22. The number of languages listed for Nigeria is 478. Of those, 470 are living languages, 1 is a second language without mother tongue speakers, and 7 are extinct. ABINSI (JUKUN ABINSI, RIVER JUKUN) [JUB] Gongola State, Wukari LGA, at Sufa and Kwantan Sufa; Benue State, Makurdi Division, Iharev District at Abinsi. Niger-Congo, Atlantic-Congo, Volta-Congo, Benue-Congo, Platoid, Benue, Jukunoid, Central, Jukun-Mbembe-Wurbo, Kororofa. In Kororofa language cluster. Traditional religion. Survey needed. ABONG (ABON, ABO) [ABO] 1,000 (1973 SIL). Taraba State, Sardauna LGA, Abong town. Niger-Congo, Atlantic-Congo, Volta-Congo, Benue-Congo, Bantoid, Southern, Tivoid. Survey needed. ABUA (ABUAN) [ABN] 25,000 (1989 Faraclas). Rivers State, Degema and Ahoada LGA's. Niger-Congo, Atlantic-Congo, Volta-Congo, Benue-Congo, Cross River, Delta Cross, Central Delta, Abua-Odual. Dialects: CENTRAL ABUAN, EMUGHAN, OTABHA (OTAPHA), OKPEDEN. The central dialect is understood by all others. Odual is the most closely related language, about 70% lexical similarity. NT 1978. Bible portions 1973. ACIPA, EASTERN (ACIPANCI, ACHIPA) [AWA] 5,000 (1993). -
ACAL 45 Abstract Booklet FINAL
45th Annual Conference on African Linguistics Africa’s Endangered Languages: Documentary and Theoretical Approaches University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas April 17-19, 2014 Conference Organizers Jason Kandybowicz Harold Torrence Conference Committee Ibrahima Ba Travis Major Khady Tamba Mfon Udoinyang Graphic Design Carlos M Nash Sponsors National Science Foundation University of Kansas College of Liberal Arts and Sciences University of Kansas Office of the Provost University of Kansas Department of Linguistics Kansas Africa Studies Center ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The 45th Annual Conference on African Linguistics could not have been organized without the talent of numerous individuals and the generosity of many organizations. We wish to thank the following for their sponsorship, time, logistical support, and technical expertise: • The National Science Foundation (NSF-DEL grant 1360823) • University of Kansas College of Liberal Arts and Sciences • University of Kansas Office of the Provost • Kansas African Studies Center • Department of African and African-American Studies • Department of Linguistics • Ibrahima Ba • Corinna Johnson • Allard Jongman • Elizabeth MacGonagle • Travis Major • Carlos Nash • Peter Ojiambo • Khady Tamba • Mfon Udoinyang 17 45th Annual Conference on African Linguistics Thursday Morning April 17, 2014 Registration 8:00 Kansas Union, 4th Floor Lobby Opening Remarks: Sara Thomas Rosen, Senior Vice Provost 8:30 Alderson Room Workshop: Main Session Africa’s Endangered Languages Session 1: Divine Nine Room Session 2: Alderson