A DESCRIPTIVE GRAMMAR OF NOON, A CANGIN LANGUAGE OF SENEGAL by Maria Soukka Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the University of London January 1999 Department of the Languages and Cultures of Africa School of Oriental and African Studies ProQuest Number: 10672968 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 10672968 Published by ProQuest LLC(2017). 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 ABSTRACT Noon is a West-Atlantic language of the Cangin subgroup, spoken by 25 000 people in central Senegal, in and around the town of Thies. The aim of this study is to provide a full grammatical description of Noon, since no such study has been done on the language. We have not followed a specific linguistic model as framework, but rather tried to work from the classical approach of presenting the structures in the grammatical units of the language, from morphology to discourse. All analysis is presented with language examples from data collected in the Thies area over the years 1994-1998. The study is divided into 11 chapters, followed by a short interlinearised text sample with a free translation. The first chapter presents a brief overview of the phonology and the morphophonological processes that take place in affixation. Another important feature described in this section is the restricted regressive vowel harmony process, based on the ATR feature. In chapters 2-3, the nominal system is described, including the noun class system of 6 basic classes with which most nominals are in agreement. There is also a threefold locative distinction present in determined nominals. This locative distinction is further elaborated in the demonstratives. Chapter 4 treats prepositions and adverbs. In chapters 5-6, verbal morphology and the verb phrase are presented. A major feature of the Noon verb is the derivational affixation which, apart from carrying aspectual information, also has bearing on the valency of the verb. The conjugational system is based on affixation, but also on the use of auxiliaries and particles. Chapter 7 deals with conjunctions, particles and interjections, and chapter 8 treats clause structures: independent ones, both verbal and non-verbal, but also dependent clauses. In chapter 9, different simple sentence types are described, followed by the complex sentences, including serial and reduplicative types. Chapter 10 depicts some important features that occur on the discourse level such as the wider use of spatial deixis in temporal and textual references. Finally, in chapter 11 is presented a comparative view of some of the major dialect differences in Noon. 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 11 MAPS 12 Map 1: The Cangin group 12 Map 2: The Noon language area 13 ABBREVIATIONS 14 0. INTRODUCTION 18 0.1 The Noon people 18 0.2. The Noon language 22 0.2.1. Classification and previous studies 22 0.2.2. Language dialects 26 0.2.3. A brief outline of the language 27 0.3. Methodology 28 0.3.1. Fieldwork 28 0.3.2. The Present Study 29 1. PHONOLOGY AND MORPHOPHONOLOGY 32 1.1. Segmental phonology 33 1.1.1. Vowel charts 33 1.1.2. Vowel length 34 1.1.3. Phonemic distribution of vowels 36 1.1.4. Feature matrix of vowels 37 1.1.5. Consonant charts 39 1.1.6. Consonant length 40 1.1.7. The im p lo s iv e s /6 /a n d /y 7 41 1.1.8. The glottal stop 41 1.1.9. Phonemic distribution of consonants 41 1.1.10. Feature matrix of consonants 42 1.1.11. The syllable 45 1.2. Suprasegmental phonology 46 1.2.1. The phonological word 46 1.2.1.1. Stress 46 1.2.1.2. Pitch 47 1.2.1.3. Stress and pitch in suffixation 48 1.2.2. The phonological phrase. Intonation patterns 48 1.3. Morphophonology 51 1.3.1. Affixation patterns 51 1.3.2. Underlying and surface forms of consonants 55 1.3.2.1. Voiced plosives 57 1.3.2.2. Nasals 58 1.3.2.3. Implosives 59 1.3.2.4. The vibrant 60 1.3.3. Nasal insertion 61 1.3.4. Rules of the morphophonological changes 63 1.3.5. Vowel deletion in suffixation 65 3 1.3.6. Vowel assimilation in suffixation 67 1.3.7. Vowel harmony 68 1.3.7.1, Vowel harmony in the word root 68 1.3.7.2. Vowel harmony in suffixation 70 1.4. Orthography 73 2. NOMINAL MORPHOLOGY 75 2.1 The noun class system 76 2.1.1. Noun classes 78 2.1.2. Agreement 82 2.1.2.1. The noun class marker 82 2.1.2.2. The agreement marker 82 2.1.2.3. The locative distinction 85 2.2. Nouns 85 2.2.1. Nouns with a noun root 86 2.2.2. Nouns w ith a verb root 89 2.2.3. Compound nouns 92 2.2.4. Derivational affixes 93 2.2.5. Inflectional affixes 96 2.2.5.1. The indefinite form 97 2.2.5.2. The definite form 98 2.2.5.3. Irregular nouns 102 2.2.5.4. The possessive construction 105 2.2.5.5. The relational construction 107 2.2.5.6. The referential suffix 109 2.2.5.7. The vocative suffix 110 2.2.6. Schema of the noun structure 110 2.3. Determiners 111 2.3.1. Demonstratives 111 2.3.2. Adjectives 115 2.3.2.1. Inflectional affixes 115 2.3.2.2. Root adjectives 117 2.3.2.2.1. True adjectives 117 2.3.2.2.2. Adjectives/stative verbs 118 2.3.2.2.3. Incremental adjectives 119 2.3.2.2.4. Alternative adjectives 120 2.3.2.3. Deverbal adjectives 121 2.3.2.4. Ordinal adjectives 123 2.3.3. Quantifiers 124 2.3.3.1. Numeral quantifiers 125 2.3.3.1.1. Cardinal numerals 125 2.3.3.1.2. Ordinal and distributive numerals 127 2.3.3.2. Agreement 128 2.3.3.3. Non-numeral quantifiers 131 2.3.4. Interrogatives 135 2.4. Pronouns 137 2.4.1. Agreement pronouns 137 2.4.1.1. Substitutive pronouns 137 2.4.1.2. Appropriative pronouns 140 2.4.1.3. Determining pronouns 141 4 2.4.1.4. Emphatic pronouns 142 2.4.2. Non-agreement pronouns 144 2.4.2.1. Allocutive pronouns 144 2.4.2.2. Indefinite pronouns 146 2.4.2.3. Relative pronouns 150 2.4.2.4. Negative pronouns 153 2.4.2.5. Interrogative pronouns 155 2.4.3. Bound pronouns 161 3. THE NOUN PHRASE 165 3.1. The simple NP 166 3.2. NP post-modification 166 3.2.1. The genitive construction 168 3.2.1.1. Types of genitive 168 3.2.1.2. The head noun in the genitive construction 170 3.2.1.3. The genitive NP in the genitive construction 172 3.2.1.4. Partitive genitive 175 3.2.2. Determiners 176 3.2.2.1. Demonstratives 177 3.2.2.2. Adjectives and numerals 178 3.2.2.3. Gender and incremental adjectives 179 3.2.2.4. Non-numeral quantifiers 180 3.2.2.5. Interrogatives 182 3.2.3. The relative clause in the NP 183 3.2.4. Emphatic pronouns and particles 184 3.3. The complex NP 185 3.3.1. The complex NP with an appositive NP 185 3.3.2. The complex NP with a co-ordinating expansion 187 4. PREPOSITIONS AND ADVERBS 190 4.1. Prepositions 190 4.1.1. The prepositions na and ga 191 4.1.1.1. Na ’with' 191 4.1.1.2. Ga'at, on, to1 195 4.1.2. Temporal prepositions 197 4.1.3. Locative prepositions 199 4.1.4. The preposition fodii/fodaa 'as' 201 4.1.5. The prepositional phrase 202 4.1.5.1. The simple PP 202 4.1.5.2. The complex PP 204 4.2. Adverbs 205 4.2.1. Temporal adverbs 206 4.2.1.1. Temporal root adverbs 206 4.2.1.2. Temporal denominal adverbs 208 4.2.1.3. Modifications of temporal adverbs 210 4.2.2. Modal adverbs 212 4.2.2.1. Modal root adverbs 212 4.2.2.2. Modal adverbs formed with the prefix db 213 4.2.3. Intensifying adverbs 214 4.2.4. Ideophonic adverbs 215 5 4.2.5. Interrogative adverbs 216 5. VERBAL MORPHOLOGY 218 5.1. The verb root 220 5.1.1. Stative verbs 221 5.1.2. Action verbs 222 5.1.2.1. Intransitive verbs 222 5.1.2.2. Transitive verbs 222 5.1.2.3. Ditransitive verbs 223 5.2. Derivational suffixes 224 5.2.1. Reversive 4s 226 5.2.2. Transitive 4d" 227 5.2.3. Intensive 4s 229 5.2.4. Factitive 4ul< 229 5.2.5. Reflexive gjk 230 5.2.6. 232 5.2.6.1. Pluractional 232 5.2.6.1.1, Durative ^gh 233 5.2.6.1.2.