UNIVERSITY OF YAOUNDE !! <f:.,;+ e.>, " PA, FACULTY OF LETTERS DEPARTMENT OF 'AFRICIAN AND SOCIAL SCIENCES LANGUAGES AND LINGUISTICS THE NOUN CLASS SYSTEM OF A Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Award of a Post-Graduate Diploma (Maitrise) in Linguistics BY Irene Swiri ASOBO 8. A. Modern Lefters Supervised by Dr. CarL EBOBISSE (Char@ de cours) September 1989 i Dedicated to my parents, bro-them and sisters, with all my love. C. ACKIIOKLEGEMENT I must acknowledge special indebtedness to my supervisor Dr. Cor1 EBOBISSE for his invaluable contribu- tion ot the realisation of this dissertation. His inde- fatigable patience criticisms and unswerving dcvotion were encouraging especially when I was doubting and discouraged. Llithout his potient guidance this work would not have been acheived. My heortfelt'gratitu8e to fioffessor B.S. Chumbow who assisted and advised me during the writing of this work. My special thanks also goes to Dr. Chia Emmanuel otic? 011 my lecturers who were a source of unwmering support to me. Great thankfulness to my parents Prince snii Mrs V.T. ASOBO for the moral and financial ai& they showered on me. I will like to gratefully 3cknowledge Evclyne Monikang for the wonderful and ucfziling encouragomcnt she gnvc me. She was always a pillar to 1em on. Sincere thanks to 311 my classmates whose camoroderie wc?s a11 T neef-ed to spur me on. All. my friends especially Walters Abie who was always ready to help, Po-po who never stopped to say go on and Dora Mbola for being there when I needed her. Finally td Metuge Roggy who spent sleepless nights for the typing of this work. Thank the Lord ... Irene S. Asobo Lisi 1 of Abbreviations and Symbols CL Class NP Nominal prefix NPc Numeral prefix fip Adjective prefix DP Demonstrative prefix PP PossessivL prefix DS Associative prefix DPe Determinative prefix VP Verbal prcfix Morpheme boundary + 1 // Phonological representation ri =onetic representation P1 Plura 1 sg Singu Y.&e - -0 realised as r V vowel C Consonant N Noun B p! (voice bilabial fricative) B @ (voiceless bilabial fricatiee) -1- TABLE OF CONTENTS .. Page Dedication ..... ................................ Acknowledgements. .... , ...... , . ., _.. .... List of symbols and abbreviations .................. CIX'Tj ::1 1 TNTRO UU CT I ON 1.1 Geographical Situation ........................ 3 1.2 Xistory .... ~.. ............~.,, 3 1.3 .Socio-economic background .................. 5 1.4 'I'be Language ...... ... .............. 6 1.4.1 Linguistic Situation .................. 6 1,4.2 Classification ......................... 9 1.4.3 Literature review .......! ............. 10 1.5 Goal and Methodology ....... .,# .... 11 1.6 Gate Sources ......, . ...................... 14 IILP SUPPLEPENT CXAPTE2 2 GENEElSIIAL PHONOLOGY OF DIJ~ 1 2.1 Fhonetic vowels .In...... ..................... 16 2.2 Phonetic conconants ........................... IC 2.3 Syllable and Morpheme structure of noun ..,...- 21 2.4 Tones .... ............................... 23 C%FLWI;R 7 NOUN CLASS SYSTEM 3.1 Noun Class ... ............ ........... 25 3.2 Noun prefixes ................................. 29 3.3 Concord system ................ ..... 55 3.3.1 Numerals ..............................56 ~.. 3.3.2 Adjectives ............................. 63 3.7.3 Demonstratives ..................=~ .... 59 7.3.4 Possessives ............................ 75 3.3.5 Associatives ........... ........... 82 3 3.6 Determinatives .....................85 '3.3-7 Verbal concord . .. '.> .. 38 3.3.8 Analysis of concord system ............. 92 .?- 3.9 Some Noun-phrase Phonological Processes .... 3.b Gender and Semantic Content ............... CHKPTEX 4 CCWCLUSION 4.1 GenEral Conclusion ........................ 4.2 Suggestions for further reading ............. TEXT ...................................... BIBLIOGRAPHY ........ .,...................... -3- CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Geographical Situation I The kslE language is a language spc en in tho South West Province of Cameroon. The speakers of the language occupy six villages along the creeks of the coasf namely, Betika, Njangasa, Bekanje, Ubenikang or Rekumu, Yenda and Barnusso. Barnusso has the native population and is also a sub-divisioual headquarters. According to Brdener (1956:13) these villages are surrounded by Efik fishing &cations and are "bounded on the east by Lundu, by an enclave of the Lsmbi and by the Mboko villages". In addition to the six native villages: there are also a nu%er of fishing settlements,scattered along the coast of Rio del Rey on the Gulf of Guinea in an area now known officially as Ida-Bat0 Sub-district. The surface area is flat and only broken by lagoons. It should be noted that the only means of transport between these villages is by use of a cenoe since each village is surrounded by water and impenetratable swampy mangrove forest. 1.2 History According to informed sources, the people believe they have the same origin as the Dualas. As the story -4- goes, the clan came from Piti. The Chief of Piti had two * sons, Ngasse Mbongo end Mbedi Mbongo. Mbedi Mbongo had the following sons, Kolle Mbedi, Duala Mbedi and Bojongo Mbedi who in turn had their own sons and daughters. Duala Mbedi decided to merry ene of his relatives but the other brothers disagreed. This led to fighting amongst themselves, especially as their father and grand- father had died, Rojongo begged for peace but to no avail, so he gathered his own clansmen an2 they took off in the night. They went their own way and the result today is the village of Bojongo in Fako Division. After their brother deserted them, Duala and Kolle stopped fighting and left Piti. Thcy then decided to separate as their brother was no longer on their side, Mbedi Kolle to& his clan and move3 along the mast stopping first at Poka, then travelled further to Eyenge (a place near peesent-day Idenau). He decided to settle there hecease of its accessibility to the Eea, for fishing was his main occupation. But due to very strong waves, he left Eyenge for Bekanje, another fishing settlement along the coast of Idenau, where he had the same problems. So he left again, leaving behind some of his follow&rs. He reached Mbowa 'e ndene but food was lacking since they were basically a fishing tribe. Zolle eventually abandoned the open sea and moved up the creeks where he built on a large island,which is present-day -5- BamUSSO, known then as Dibanpe (bald head), because it was seen as trees surrounded by water. It is also held that Mr. Clause, a white, visited the area and asked to know its name. The chief said it was called "bato ba mosso" meaning "people of the creeks." The chief then sailed around the creegs, discovering and staking ownership on the smaller islands, until he reached the sea again. Such is the reason why the speakers of the Kslc language am not united under one big village but are scattered amongst the creeks in < la5 2..21 1 fishi-rig settlements. kr<entx;;halso records the same history. 1.3 Socio-economic Background -- I_._1--c Socially, the Ksl~peQple are of a heterogenous nature, living in their various settlements with their chief at Bamusso. They interact mainly with the liigerians,such as the Efiks, the Ibibios, the Ibos and the Ijaws, *The natives themselves are outnumbered in their own villages. They number about four hundred, meanwhile immigrants from other tribes (both from Cameroon and Nigeria) number above five thousands, thus putting the overall population between five thousand and ten thousand, according to Alcam. They share cultural aspects with their hinterland neighbours, namely the Balundus, the Barombis, the Bsmbokos and the c -6- Bakweris with whom they share the elephant cisnce and wrestling. At the economic level, the Kale people are basically fishing orientated. All their efforts are bent on fishing which they barter on the Ekondo Titi beach at specific dates for foodstuffs such as plantain, coco- yams 2tc. Bishing here is dona by men, women and children alike. Since the bulk of trade in this area is with Xigeria, the currency much used is the Naira, rat;hm than the fiancs. They buy clothes household utensils, tinned food, bathing materials etc. directly from Nigeria. 1.4 The Language 1.4.1 LinguistiySituatinn Since the Ka1.c language is of the same origin as the Duala language, there is a degree of intelligibility between them. There is also a degree of intelligibility between the Kal~people and the Barombis, Bimbias, Bakweris, Balundus and the Botas. It is a common occurence to find 8 k31.c speaker expressing a great degree of multilingualism by speakXns efik, ibibio, balundu and the duala languages. The Kale people, eventhough they understand the other afore listed languages, speak to them in their I ovm respective languages. -7- Below is a chart comparing kslc to the duala and the bakweri languages, which proves the point thet there is gcnetc qpmtr) between them. " " dls6 . dlsj : llhzd : eye gb$mG bw6m : gb&mt : goodness r The kslr language has various I?ames ran by various tribes. The Efiks call it -usem irambi 'language of ir:,mbe", the Lundus call it motako qwa bosama "language of bosama", the kweris call it nbssi ja banako "language of banaks" end the kolr themselves . call it mbasi ja ban:, "lenguage of banal'. The appela- tion kalr is derived from the leader or founder of the clan whose name was T'olle. The kalr longuoge is spoken in all the six fishing settlements (Bekanje, Ubenikang, Betika, Njangasa, Eekumu, Yenda and Barnusso), but it is not the lingua franca. The reason for this is because the imigrants -8- who make up more than half of the population tend to speak their own respective languages such as efik, ibo; ibibio and balundu. The whole community is a melsiige of all these languages and the people, both indigenes and immigrants speak them interchangeably. The lingua franca is pidgin English. Both the indigenes and the lmruigrantv use it for wider communication, thus it is a bridjic aC23ss ethnic groups.