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The Ninkyop Language of Central Nigeria and Its Affinities

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The Ninkyop Language of Central Nigeria and Its Affinities The Ninkyop language of Central Nigeria and its affinities [DRAFT CIRCULATED FOR COMMENT -NOT FOR CITATION WITHOUT REFERENCE TO THE AUTHOR Roger Blench Mallam Dendo 8, Guest Road Cambridge CB1 2AL United Kingdom Voice/ Fax. 0044-(0)1223-560687 Mobile worldwide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 printout: January 7, 2006 R.M. Blench Ninkyop Wordlist Circulated for comment TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION ..............................................................................................................................................1 2. LOCATION, HISTORY AND SOCIOLINGUISTIC SITUATION..................................................................1 2.1 Nomenclature ...............................................................................................................................................1 2.2 Location and settlements..............................................................................................................................1 2.3 Language status ............................................................................................................................................1 2.4 Ninkyop culture and history.........................................................................................................................1 2.5 Existing publications ....................................................................................................................................1 3. PHONOLOGY....................................................................................................................................................1 3.1 Vowels..........................................................................................................................................................1 3.2 Consonants....................................................................................................................................................3 3.3 Tones ............................................................................................................................................................4 4. MORPHOLOGY ................................................................................................................................................4 4.1 Nouns............................................................................................................................................................4 5. LEXICAL COMPARISON AND THE CLASSIFICATION OF NINKYOP ...................................................8 6. NINKYOP WORDLIST.....................................................................................................................................9 REFERENCES .....................................................................................................................................................35 TABLES Table 1. Ninkyob nominal plural strategies 4 Table 2. Prosodic alternations in Ninkyob nouns 5 Table 3. Suppletive plurals in Ninkyob 6 i Roger Blench: Ninkyop Wordlist 1. Introduction This is an annotated wordlist of the Ninkyop language based on work by Roger Blench and and Barau Kato with Hauwa Kadima on 3-5th November 2005. It is intended to be a basis for gathering further information on the language. 2. Location, history and sociolinguistic situation 2.1 Nomenclature The Ninkyop language is known in previous literature as Kaningkon, and is generally treated as part of a cluster with Nindem and Kanufi. 2.2 Location and settlements Ninkyop is spoken in eleven villages in Kaduna State, Nigeria including Bakin Kogi, Gerti and Amere. 2.3 Language status 2.4 Ninkyop culture and history Under the name Kaningkon, the Ninkyop are described in 2.5 Existing publications The only document available on Ninkyob is a phonology by Kadima & Jerzyk (n.d.), an unpublished study prepared in the 1990s. Rob Koops (p.c.) apparently prepared a study of morphophonological changes in verbs, but this appears to be lost. Hausa Kadima attended ICAL in Jos in 1999 and a study of noun classes may exist in NBTT records. Two primers were prepared as a result of some of the work with Rob Koops. 3. Phonology Some of the examples of contrast in the phonology of Ninkyop are based on Kadima & Jerzyk (n.d.). 3.1 Vowels Ninkyop has seven phonemic vowels; 1 Roger Blench: Ninkyop Wordlist Front Central Back Close i u Close-Mid e o Open-Mid ɛ ɔ Open a Examples contrasting open and close mid-vowels ɛ/e gɛd show off ged tooth decay ɔ/o sɔ drink so bathe Ninkyop has long and short vowels, represented by doubling the vowel. For example; The orthography used in the existing primers uses ‘oo’ for /o/ and ‘ee’ for /e/. This convention is not adopted here. Ninkyop has five corresponding nasalised vowels; Front Central Back Close ĩ ũ Open-Mid ɛ ̃ ɔ̃ Open ã Examples of contrast as follows; i/ĩ Si rat Sĩ small u/ũ su treetop sũ be full ɛ/ɛ̃ rɛ stomach rɛ̃ talk against ɔ/ɔ̃ vɔ rain vɔ̃ buzzing sound a/ã sa brag sã accustomed to Nasal vowels are much rarer than their oral counterparts, while VN sequences are common. Either nasal vowels are developing from such sequences or they are gradually being lost. Although this vowel system is identical to that of Mada, the other language in the Ninzic group to have lost its nominal affix system, no regular correspondences have been found and it is likely that these developments are independent. 2 Roger Blench: Ninkyop Wordlist 3.2 Consonants Ninkyop consonants are as follows: Bilabial Labio- Alve- Alveop Palat Velar Labial- Glottal dental olar alatal al velar Plosive p b t d c j k g kp gb Nasal m, ᶆ n ¯ ŋ Fricative ɸ f v s z ʃ ʒ ɣ h Approximant y w Tap r Trill rr Lateral Approximant l /rr/ represents a rolled ‘r’. These only occur in morpheme-final position. Nonetheless they appear to contrast with the tap /r/. /ᶆ/ represents an explosive bilabial nasal. The lips open with an audible pop when it is articulated. It occurs in the following words; Ground ᶆwǐ Joy ᶆwârr Swallow ᶆwér Inside ᶆyìŋ // represents a /w/ with frication. The earlier analysis posited a voicing contrast between /x/ and /ɣ/; while /ɣ/ certainly occurs, it may // corresponds to /x/. // is rare and only occurs in; Fire ɔ̂r cf. Bu wuru, Ce uwù Rain ìɔr cf. Ce àwç̀rɔ̀, Bu iwulu Ten órr One piece of evidence that this has developed from /w/ rather than being a reduction of /x/ is that it corresponds to /w/ in other Ninzic languages (see cognates above). The plosives are non-contrastive in final position and in medial position in some compounds; p/b t/d k/g These are consistently transcribed as the voiced b/d/g in this list. However, existing materials are somewhat inconsistent and the name of the people, for example, is usually written Ninkyop. In addition, usual orthographic traditions in this region for neighbouring languages tend to prefer p/t/k. 3 Roger Blench: Ninkyop Wordlist 3.3 Tones The tone system of Ninkyop is complex due to morphophonemic alterantions. The underlying system has three tone heights, e.g. zíg row of ridges zig knife zìŋ giving gift There is also a rising tone; yǔŋ love ᶆwǐ ground ɣwǒm old person and a falling tone; ᶆwârr joy nʒôr¯ horn ngû feather The falling tone is much rarer than the rising tone. A low-mid tone that occurs only in words of two syllables or more. Examples; ǹjɔr evening nshid tick nyúŋZyɛ animal 4. Morphology 4.1 Nouns The analysis of Ninkyob noun morphology depends on what view is taken of its history. The number of processes that occur in singular/plural alternation are as follows; Table 1. Ninkyob nominal plural strategies Prefixing typically i-, N- (homorganic nasal) Prosody change palatalisation added, deleted, alternates Tone change Consonant alternation root-initial and final Reduplication of initial CV morpheme Morpheme alternation only for persons Typically, these also occur in both nominalisations of verbs and in verbal plurals. 4 Roger Blench: Ninkyop Wordlist Prefixing The range of prefixes in Ninkyob is very limited and it is most likely these were recent additions to the language, although they are clearly an old feature in Plateau as a whole. Singular/plural alternations can be made both by addition and deletion of prefixes. Gloss s. pl. +i- compound baŋ ìbyaŋ hole in ground du ìdyu -i- toad ìjarg járg snake (generic) ìɣwyǎ ɣwyá +N- place sóŋ ǹsoŋ chief tum ǹtùm -N- earthworm njar¯ jár¯ Prosody change Typical processes in prosodic change are addition or deletion of –y-, loss of –w (rare and only where a nasal is added in the plural) and alternation of w/y (Table 2); Table 2. Prosodic alternations in Ninkyob nouns Gloss s. pl. +y Friend ɣwɛ́ɛ́ ɣwyɛ́ɛ́ Wing mgba m̀gbyà -y Grave tyókpàg tókpág Head tyó tó Shoulder m̀gbyà mgba -w Bow twa ǹta Man nirwóm niróm w/y Firewood kwón kyón Nail (Finger/toe) ǹfwàb ǹfyàb Grindstone (lower) nwa ìnya In one intriguing example, w/y alternate directly, and could be analysed as eroded prefix alternations, but probably represent the erosion of prefixes. dust pl. haze wud yúd External parallels in the Ninzic group (Ninzo ìhúr, Ce ìhut) suggest that the root was originally h- initial (and this is generally derived from k- or x-) although reduction may already have taken place (cf. also Bu iwuru). The examples are chosen to illustrate minimal prosodic alternation, but it is noticeable that many nouns adding –y-, also add an i- prefix; 5 Roger Blench: Ninkyop Wordlist quiver gyɔ́rr igyɔ́rr rope rìg ìryǐg grindstone (lower) nwa ìnya stomach rɛ̃́ ìryɛ This is here interpreted as a copying of the vowel
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