A grammar of Kuteb A Jukunoid language of East-Central Nigeria Robert Koops African Language monographs I KAY WILLIAMSON EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION Rüdiger Köppe Publishers, Köln KAY WILLIAMSON EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION (KWEF) Preface The Kay Williamson Educational Foundation exists to continue the work of the late Professor Kay Williamson, formerly professor of Nigerian Heritage at the University of Port Harcourt. The Trust, managed by friends and colleagues of Kay, has two main goals; a) To prepare for publication various manuscripts and studies which were left after the death of Professor Williamson b) To encourage new research and publication on Nigerian languages In view of the numbers of manuscripts in limbo for lack of financial support, the Foundation has initiated a publication series in conjunction with the publisher Rüdiger Köppe of Köln. Books of international interest will be printed in Europe in sufficient numbers to be both made available to scholars worldwide and to be sold at a subsidised price within West Africa, in particular to make available these texts to the communities whose language is described. The trustees are pleased to support this, the first publication in the series, a grammar of Kuteb, by Robert Koops. Kuteb, and indeed the whole Jukunoid family remains a poorly-known group of languages and this makes a substantial contribution to expanding our understanding of them. A dictionary of the Kuteb language is also in preparation. This should be the first stage in an extended project of publication, encompassing existing materials and those prepared with Foundation funding. Roger Blench (For the trustees) December 2007 Please visit http://www.rogerblench.info/KWEF/KWEF/KWEF%20opening%20page.htm i Kuteb grammar front matter TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments....................................................................................x Table of Abbreviations ............................................................................xi CHAPTER ONE. INTRODUCTION.............................................................1 1.1 Introduction.....................................................................................................1 1.2 Language, geography, and culture ..................................................................1 1.2.1 Geographical, Social, and Historical Background ...................................2 1.2.2 Culture and Religion ................................................................................7 1.3 Linguistic Classification .................................................................................9 1.4 Dialects and Orthography .............................................................................10 1.5 Theoretical Approach....................................................................................12 1.6 History of Research and Writing in Kuteb....................................................14 1.7 Sources of Data.............................................................................................15 Images of the Kuteb area in the 1970s ..................................................16 CHAPTER TWO. PHONOLOGY PART I: SEGMENTS............................19 2.1 Introduction: vowels, consonants, tones .......................................................19 2.2 Vowels ..........................................................................................................20 2.2.1 Oral Vowels ..........................................................................................20 2.2.1.1 The Phonemic Status of [i].............................................................21 2.2.1.2 The vowel /i/ in noun prefixes .......................................................22 2.2.1.3 The central vowel /i/ in reduplicated syllables...............................22 2.2.2 Nasal Vowels ........................................................................................23 2.2.2.1 Contrasts between oral and nasal vowels:......................................24 2.2.2.2 Contrasts among nasal vowels:......................................................24 2.2.2.3 Description of the Nasal Vowels: ..................................................24 2.2.2.4 Discussion of Nasal Vowels ..........................................................24 2.2.3 Vowel Length.........................................................................................25 2.2.4 Vowel Assimilation and Elision.............................................................25 2.2.4.1 Factors in Vowel Elision................................................................25 2.2.4.2 Elision in verb-object sequences....................................................26 2.2.4.3 Elision in the Associative Construction.........................................26 2.2.4.4 Other Environments for Elision.....................................................27 2.3 Consonants....................................................................................................30 2.3.1 Simple Stops .........................................................................................31 2.3.2 Affricated Stops ....................................................................................33 2.3.3 Fricatives...............................................................................................35 Kuteb grammar front matter ii 2.3.4 Resonants ..............................................................................................36 2.3.5 Flap and Lateral.....................................................................................37 2.3.6 Approximants........................................................................................37 2.3.7 Distribution of Consonants ....................................................................37 2.4 Consonant Clusters .......................................................................................38 2.4.1 Welmers (1948): Complex Obstruents...................................................39 2.4.2 Complex alveopalatal consonants as per Shimizu (1980)......................40 2.4.3 An alternative analysis of complex consonants .....................................40 2.4.4 Modified Consonants and Syllable Structure.........................................41 2.4.4.1 C + approximant as a vowel sequence (CVV)...............................42 2.4.4.2 C + approximant as a modified Single Consonant (C w, C y)..........42 2.4.4.3 C + Semivowel as Consonant Cluster (CC)...................................42 2.4.5 Modified Labials ....................................................................................43 2.4.6 Modified Alveolars: ...............................................................................44 2.4.7 Modified Velars .....................................................................................45 2.4.8 The possibility of CCC Clusters ............................................................45 2.5 The Standard Orthography............................................................................45 CHAPTER THREE. PHONOLOGY PART II: PROSODY.........................47 3.1 Introduction...................................................................................................47 3.2 Tone Patterns.................................................................................................47 3.2.1 Tone Levels............................................................................................47 3.2.2 Tone Sequences......................................................................................49 3.3 Defining the syllable .....................................................................................50 3.3.1 The Role of Tone in defining the Syllable .............................................50 3.3.2 Rhythmic Patterns and the syllable .......................................................51 3.3.3 Grammatical Structure and Syllable Structure......................................51 3.3.4 Recurring Consonant-Vowel Sequences...............................................52 3.3.4.1 The Syllable Nucleus .....................................................................52 3.3.4.2 Syllable Boundaries and Canonical Shapes...................................53 3.3.5 Sonority and Syllabicity.........................................................................54 3.3.6 Ambiguities in syllable Division............................................................54 3.4 Tonal Sandhi (Tone-sequence rules).............................................................55 3.4.1 Tone Spreading ......................................................................................56 3.4.2 Noun Objects after High- and Mid-tone Verbs......................................56 3.4.3 Verbs after Future Marker......................................................................57 3.4.4 Associative-possessive Marker ..............................................................57 3.5 High Tone ‘Up-step’ .....................................................................................58 3.6 Larger Phonological Units ............................................................................59 3.6.1 Phonological Words...............................................................................59 3.6.2 Phonological Phrases .............................................................................59 iii Kuteb grammar front matter CHAPTER FOUR. WORD CLASSES ......................................................61 4.1 Introduction...................................................................................................61