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THE ASSIMILATION OF* LOAN WORDS IN MASAL ITT John Tees Edgar A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of London 1988 - 1 - BIBL. LONDIN. UNIV ProQuest Number: 11010338 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 11010338 Published by ProQuest LLC(2018). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 I ^ 'f /I OJ' i I Dedicat ion For my mother and my sister - 3 - A B S T R A C T "The assimilation of loan words in Masai it" This is a study of the assimilation patterns and processes of Arabic words adopted into the Masai it language. The Masai it, a settled people numbering between one and two hundred thousand, live in Dar Masai it, the western district of Dar Fur, Sudan and in eastern Wadai, Chad. Most are peasant farmers, growing millet as their staple food and keeping goats, sheep and occasionally cows. Their language belongs to the Maba group (belonging to Greenberg's postulated Nilo-Saharan phylum. Many Masalit are bilingual in Masalit and Colloquial Arabic, some do not speak Masalit at all. There is a growing monolingual arabophone population in the region. All of the peoples of Dar Masalit are at least nominally Muslim. Chapter 1 The history of the land of the Masalit is surveyed briefly insofar as it is relevant to the influence of Arabic on Masalit. Chapters 2 and 3 The state of the Arabic language in the land of the Masalit is discussed, the phonologies of classical and colloquial Arabic and Masalit are laid out and Masalit morphology relevant to the processes of loan-word assimilation is described, followed by a description of the methodology involved. Chapter 4 Arabic-Masalit phonetic changes are noted as are additions of Masalit suffixes;adoptives into the verbal system are fewer and are treated separately. Very much fewer of the putative loans are in the 'indirect' category; putative loans via Fur, Fulfulde, Kanuri, Hausa and Maba (a cognate language of Masalit) are suggested and examined. Problematic items and lexemes which have wide spreads of reflexes and 'look-alikes' in the region are also examined, followed by some putative morphological adoptions. The semantic maintenance and change of loan words is catalogued and analyzed. - 4 - CONTENTS page Acknowledgements 9 MAP 10 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND 1.0 Introduction to the study 12 1.1 Sources 14 1.2 Transcription, definitions and abbreviations 14 1.3 The place of Masalit amongst the languages of the Sudan 19 1.4 The phenomenon of lexical adoption 21 1.4.1 Reasons 22 1.4.2 Vehic1es 25 1.4.3 Adaptations of adoptive material and of the target language 27 1.5 Historical and cultural Introduction to the Masalit 31 1.5.1 External influences 33 1.5.2 The immediate area 34 1.5.3 The broader area 37 1.5.4 The colonial period and the independent Sudan Republic 41 1.5.5 Masalit culture and Islamicpractices 42 1.5.6 The advance of Islam 43 1.5.7 Conclusion 46 THE ARABIC AND MASALIT LANGUAGES 2.0 The state of the Arabic language in Dar Masalit 51 2.1 Phonology of Arabic 54 2.2 Phonology of Masalit 58 2.3 Summary of Masalit Morphology 63 2.3.1 Verbal Morphology 63 2.3.1.1 Bases and Prefixes 64 2.3.1.2 Suffixes 69 2.3.1.3 Negative forms of verbs 70 - 5 - page 2.3.1.4 Interrogative forms of verbs 70 2.3.1.5 Nominals derived from verbs 71 2.3.1.6 Copula 74 2.3.1.7 Support verbs 75 2.3.2 Non-verbal morphology 77 2.3.2.1 Plural 1ty-slngularity 77 2.3.2.2 Nominal suffixes 81 2.3.2.3 Nominals derived from nominals 82 2.3.2.4 Adverbs 84 METHODOLOGY 3.0 Methodology 90 3.1 Identification of Adoptives 90 3.2 Delimitation of search for intermediaries of adoptives 92 3.3 Processing of data 92 ANALYSIS 4.0 Analysis of Arabic-Masa1it equivalences 96 4.1 Summary table of Arabic-Masalit equivalences 97 4.2 Examples of Arabic-Masalit equivalences 100 4.2.1 Phonological changes and maintenance 100 4.2. 1.1 Consonants 100 4.2.1.1.1 Bilabial 100 4.2.1.1.2 Labiodental 102 4.2.1.1.3 Dental/alveolar 102 4.2.1.1.4 Palato-alveolar and palatal 108 4. 2. 1. 1.5 Velar 109 4.2.1.1.6 Uvular 109 4.2. 1.1.7 Pharyngeal 113 4.2.1.1.8 Glottal 115 4.2.1.1.9 Semi-vowels 116 4.2.1.1.10 Simplification of geminates 117 4.2.1.1.11 Metathesis 118 - 6 - page 4.2. 1.2 Vowels 119 4.2. 1.2. 1 Front 120 4.2.1.2.2 Central 121 4.2.1.2.3 Back 123 4.2.1.2.4 Shortening 123 4.2.1.2.5 Epithesis 124 4.2.1.2.6 Epenthesis 126 4.2.1.2.7 Diphthong simplification 127 4.2.2 Morphemic additions 128 4.2.2.1 Singular suffixes 128 4.2.2.2 Plural suffix 130 4.2.2.3 Adverbial suffixes 131 4.2.2.4 Suffixes identical with the 3S copula 131 4.2.2.5 Suffixes of undetermined morphemic arid semantic value 1 32 4.2.3 Me tana lysis 134 4.2.4 Putative adoptives in the Masalit verbal system 136 4.2.5 Putative adoptives in Masalit nominal morphology 137 4.3 Putative indirect adoptives 138 4.3.1 Putative adoptives via Fur 139 4.3.2 Putative adoptives via Fulfulde 142 4.3.3 Putative adoptives via Kanuri 144 4.3.4 Putative adoptives via Hausa 146 4.3.5 Putative adoptives via Maba 149 4.3.6 Putative adoptives via other languages 155 4.4 Lexemes which are part of wider areal spreads 156 4.5 Semantic discrepancies 161 4.5.1 Meaning maintenance 162 4.5.2 Meaning shift 162 4.5.3 Meaning contraction 163 4.5.4 Meaning extension 164 4.5.5 Synonyms 164 4.5.6 Loan translation 165 - 7 - page 4.5.7 Loan blend 166 4.6 Percentages and semantic areas of adoptives 167 CONCLUSION 5.0 Summary and conclusion 172 5.1 Forms adopted 172 5.1.1 Forms of Arabic adopted 172 5.1.2 Forms of etyma adopted 175 5.2 Expectations 175 5.3 Strategies of assimilation 176 5.3.1 Grammatical categories to which adoptives are assimilated 176 5.3.2 Phonological assimilation 176 5.3.3 Assimilation to Masalit wordpatterns 178 5.4 Putative intermediaries 179 5.5 Semantics 180 APPENDICES Appendix A Maba group equivalents 182 Appendix B List of Masalit cIans/1ineages 186 Appendix C Fundamental colours in the Maba group languages 188 Appendix D Doornbos1 Masalit word-1ists 189 Appendix E Short lexicon of Masalit nominals 193 Appendix F Areai Spreads 214 Appendix G Phoneme tables of Fur, Fulfulde, Kanuri, Hausa and Maba 218 Appendix H Masalit personal names 220 Appendix I Arabic adoptives in Maba 221 BIBLIOGRAPHY General, Historical and Cultural 224 Linguistic/Languages 229 - 8 - ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Over a period of two years (1979-80 and 1982-83) spent in Geneina, Dar Masalit, Sudan, working as a teacher, I learned the fundamentals of the Masalit language and took copious notes and wordlists from my Masalit students and friends. Most of our conversations and interviews were conducted in Arabic, which of course has a bearing on some of the grammatical interpretations I might make - especially with regard to verbal tense/aspect dist inct ions. On my return to London in 1983, when I showed my notebooks to Prof. Hazel Carter (then of S.O.A.S.) she helped me to develop what I had started and encouraged me to use the material to write a thesis. I would like to thank her for that initial stimulus and all her help as Adviser since then. I would also like to express my thanks to M. Claude Gouff6 of I.N.A.L.C.0., Paris for his interest and his stimulating lessons, and to Prof. Herrmann Jungraithmayr of the Afrikanische Sprachwissenschaften at Frankfurt University for all his help and interest in my various projects on Masalit and the Maba group. Finally I would like to thank Dr. Thea Bynon andDr. Dick Hayward of S.O.A.S. for their good advice in revising the thesis and to Dr. Graham Furniss, also of S.O.A.S., for guiding me through the burocracy. - 9 - MAP 500 k Red Se ARABIA BEJA Arab teachers to Funj kingdom ward BURKS laves^6^. settled Arabs (19th C. ) ' ssionar ies. \book NUBA ^ - ^ A r a b Bedw mlgrat ions DI after the fall of Nubia AN BE T\ \\ \\ \ Natronosai tj mines N 0 E l f a s h e r B INGA D -*S / M FUR KARA (( A BAQQAARA si aves B D ARABS DAJU I TAMA GULA C ZAGHAWA MASALIT ♦-to Benghaz i MABA A IK I U slaves^ B B Senousslyya mi ss i onar i es =$• R Abeche L .

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