The Morpho-Semantic Implications of English Loan-Words from Africa
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THE MORPHO-SEMANTIC IMPLICATIONS OF ENGLISH LOAN-WORDS FROM AFRICA BY CHILAKA BLESSING CHINWE PG/MA/09/51889 DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH AND LITERARY STUDIES FACULTY OF ARTS, UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA, NSUKKA SEPTEMBER, 2015. 1 TITLE PAGE THE MORPHO-SEMANTIC IMPLICATIONS OF ENGLISH LOAN-WORDS FROM AFRICA BY CHILAKA BLESSING CHINWE PG/MA/09/51889 A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH AND LITERARY STUDIES FACULTY OF ARTS, UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA, NSUKKA IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF MASTER OF ARTS (MA) DEGREE IN ENGLISH SUPERVISOR: PROF. ONUIGBO, SAM. DATE: SEPTEMBER, 2015. 2 APPROVAL PAGE This work has been read and approved as having met the standard required for the award of Master of Arts degree in the Department of English and Literary Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. ____________________ __________________ Prof. Onuigbo, Sam. DATE SUPERVISOR ___________________ ____________________ Prof. Opata, Damian DATE H.O.D 3 CERTIFICATION This is to certify that this project is an independent study carried out by Chilaka, Blessing C. with registration number PG/MA/09/51889 of the Department of English and Literary Studies, Faculty of Arts, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and that this work has not been presented in part or full for the award of any diploma or degree in this or any other institution. ___________________ __________________ SUPERVISOR H.O.D _______________________ ________________ EXTERNAL EXAMINER STUDENT 4 DEDICATION This work is for you, my late grandma, Mrs. Sabina Christopher Ukandu of blessed memory, for not allowing your face to be used for my destruction, and that your soul may continue to enjoy peace in the bosom of our Lord Jesus Christ. 5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My gratitude to you, the almighty God, the one who gives life, sustains it and furnishes it with every requirement, is inexplicable. Thank you dear God for all that you have done. To my dauntless supervisor, Professor Onuigbo, Sam, I shall ever remain grateful to you for perseverance, patience, tolerance and for all the virtues you have lavished on me to see this work through. I cannot thank you enough. My appreciation goes to you, my lecturers in the department, Professor Damian Opata, Rev. Fr. Professor Akwanya, Dr. Ezema, Dr. Onunkwo, and a host of others, for inspiration and for impacting on me. Professor Polycarp Azoma Anyanwu of the Imo State University, Owerri, I am very much indebted to you for the echo of those words of yours to me, which keeps me thriving, even in the Lions’ den. To my dear parents, Nze and Lolo A.B.C Chilaka, I owe you a lot of gratitude for encouragement and support, and for constantly reminding me, that whatever fight I am courageous to embark upon, I should be courageous enough to fight it to the finish. I am forever thankful for having you as mine. Emeka, Uzoamaka, Ifeanyichukwu, Chinedum, Uzochukwu, Amarachukwu and Chinonimem, your constant questions such as, “Nnenne, I mecha be kwa?”, “I ka na-aga Nsukka”, kept me racing to the finish line. I am so grateful. My friend and brother from a different mother, Mr. Fidelix Sunday Joseph, I owe you a lot of gratitude for your encouragement and support. Thank you so much. I very much acknowledge you my good friends; Mr. Kingsley Ugwuanyi, for coming to my aid at the seemingly helpless state, for recommending most material used in this work and for that constant remark, “Blessing, keep pushing, never give up, you must finish this work this time around”. Honestly those words kept me on my toes and spurred me to work harder. May you and your family never lack a helper at your point of need. Mrs. Blossom Amechi Akudo, for being an amiable friend and a sister, Mrs. Agbidi Chioma, for a worthy 6 company, Miss Chukwukere Nkechinyere, for accommodation and encouragement, I am forever grateful to all of you. To all those who contributed positively to the accomplishment of this work and do not have their names mentioned here, I owe you a lot of appreciation and believe you me, your names are indelible in my heart. 7 ABSTRACT This research work examines how the English language adopted words of African origin into its vocabulary. It also investigates the morphological and semantic changes that these words go through in order to thrive successfully in the English lexicon. Most speakers of the English language are oblivious of the inherent changes that take place in the language. They are hardly able to identify the fact that the English language borrows extensively from other languages of the world, including the African languages. Many language users do not take cognizance of the adaptability of languages as one language borrows from another at a given period of time, due to a number of language contact phenomena or influence from the language of borrowing. It has been established in this work that English is traditionally quite disposed to accommodate foreign words, and as it has become an international language spoken by people of many cultures and a number of mother tongues, it has absorbed vocabulary from a large number of other sources so much so that it is often suggested that the lexicon of the English language is the largest in the world. This research work therefore, shows some of the English loanwords from different African languages, including Nigerian languages. For instance, the word “`oke`” which means male, is an English loan-word from a language in South Africa which retains its original meaning in the English dictionary as “a boy or man, or simply, a male”. This word is also used in Igbo language and the meaning is the same but I can’t really say how it came into the Igbo language because this investigation does not cover that area. Similarly, the words, “juju”, “zombie”, “okra” and “banana”, among others, are words borrowed from African languages. These have been exposed and examined in this research work. Using the descriptive research method, the work expatiates the morphological as well as semantic changes that come with the adoption of the foreign words. 8 TABLE OF CONTENTS Title page i Approval page ii Certification page iii Dedication iv Acknowledgements v Abstract vii Table of contents viii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background to the Study 1 1.2 Purpose of the Study 3 1.3 Statement of the Problem 3 1.4 Relevance of the Study 4 1.5 Scope of the Study 5 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Related Literature 6 2.2 Languages in Contact 19 CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY 3.0 Research Methodology 29 3.1 Research Design 29 3.2 Area of Study 29 3.3 Method of Data Collection 30 3.4 Method of Data Analysis 30 3.5 Theoretical Framework 33 9 CHAPTER FOUR: DATA PRESENTATION ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 4.0 Introduction 43 4.1 Data Presentation 43 4.2 Data Analysis and Interpretation 49 4.3 Etymological Study of the Loan-Words/The Semantic Implications 57 4.4 Discussion of Findings 72 CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 5.1 Summary 76 5.2 Conclusion 78 5.3 Recommendations 79 GLOSSARY 81 WORKS CITED 88 10 CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background to the Study Languages of the world undergo changes, even though most speakers of the languages are usually oblivious of the inherent changes as they occur. In so far as a linguistic community makes contact with another for one reason or the other, there is the likelihood that people of such linguistic environment share or exchange certain aspects of their being like culture, tradition and language. Nnoje (2003:81) notes that “Language is a spontaneous social activity for expressing thoughts and ideas, emotions, moods, and humours”. Language is a medium by which thoughts are conveyed from person to person and from place to place. Hence, there is hardly a contact between one linguistic environment and another without the transference of some lexical items from one language community to another. However, some linguists noted that one of the most ambiguous terms in the field of morphology is the word, “word” itself. Plag (2003: 4-9) identifies five different ways of defining word. According to him, a word can be seen as a separate written entity (the orthographic); as a distinct sound structure (the phonological); as a meaningful unit (the semantic); as a unit within sentence structure (the syntactic); and as a unit with internal integrity (morphemic). Words tend to mobilize themselves so much so that they are easily moved from one environment to another. From all indications, English is traditionally quite well disposed to accommodate foreign words, and as it has become an international language spoken by people of many cultures and a number of mother tongues, it has absorbed vocabulary from a large number of other sources. English does not acquire words from the western languages alone but also incorporates a good number of words that are of African origin into its lexicon. It is often suggested that the lexicon of the English language is the largest in the world. However, it is practically impossible to either approve or disapprove this statement because we encounter so many obstacles when trying to count the total number of English words. It is hard to decide 11 what counts as a word, as well as decide on what counts as an English word. Regardless of all these difficulties, it seems probable that English has more words than any other comparable world languages and the reason for this is historical. Today, the English language has become one of the major world languages. This world-wide expansion of English means that it is now one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, with over four hundred million native speakers, and with roughly the same number of those who speak it as a second language.