University of North Dakota UND Scholarly Commons Theses and Dissertations Theses, Dissertations, and Senior Projects January 2019 Phonology And Morphology Of Bolgo Katie Ann Tikka Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.und.edu/theses Recommended Citation Tikka, Katie Ann, "Phonology And Morphology Of Bolgo" (2019). Theses and Dissertations. 2869. https://commons.und.edu/theses/2869 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, and Senior Projects at UND Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of UND Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. PHONOLOGY AND MORPHOLOGY OF BOLGO by Katie Ann Tikka Bachelor of Arts, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2013 A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the University of North Dakota in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Grand Forks, North Dakota December 2019 © 2019 Katie Ann Tikka ii This thesis, submitted by Katie Ann Tikka in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts from the University of North Dakota, has been read by the Faculty Advisory Committee under whom the work has been done and is hereby approved. ___________________________________________________________________ James S. Roberts, Chair ___________________________________________________________________ J. Albert Bickford ___________________________________________________________________ Mark E. Karan This thesis is being submitted by the appointed advisory committee as having met all of the requirements of the School of Graduate Studies at the University of North Dakota and is hereby approved. _______________________________________________ Chris Nelson, Associate Dean School of Graduate Studies _______________________________________________ Date iii PERMISSION Title Phonology and Morphology of Bolgo Department Linguistics Degree Master of Arts In presenting this thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a graduate degree from the University of North Dakota, I agree that the library of this University shall make it freely available for inspection. I further agree that permission for extensive copying for scholarly purposes may be granted by the professor who supervised my thesis work or, in his absence, by the chairperson of the department or the dean of the School of Graduate Studies. It is understood that any copying or publication or other use of this thesis or part thereof for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. It is also understood that due recognition shall be given to me and to the University of North Dakota in any scholarly use which may be made of any material in my thesis. Signature ___Katie Ann Tikka________________ Date ___3 December, 2019______________ iv TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES viii LIST OF TABLES ix ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xi ABBREVIATIONS xii ABSTRACT xiii CHAPTER 1 THE BOLGO PEOPLE AND THEIR LANGUAGE 1 1.1 Population, location, and culture 1 1.1.1 Population and dialects 1 1.1.2 Location 3 1.1.3 Language contact and education 6 1.1.4 Culture 8 1.2 Language classification 9 1.3 Previous Bolgo research 11 1.4 This current study 12 1.5 Overview of the thesis 15 2 OVERVIEW OF THE PHONOLOGY 16 2.1 Consonants 16 2.1.1 Stops 17 2.1.2 Fricatives 22 2.1.3 Nasals 23 2.1.4 Liquids 24 2.1.5 Glides 28 2.1.6 Geminate consonants 28 2.1.7 Palatalization and labialization 29 2.1.8 Consonants in loan words 30 v 2.2 Vowels 31 2.2.1 ATR vowel harmony 35 2.2.2 Vowel length 38 2.2.3 Nasal vowels 39 2.3 Syllable structure 43 2.4 Tone 44 3 NOUN AND ADJECTIVE PHONOLOGY AND MORPHOLOGY 46 3.1 Word shapes in nouns 47 3.2 Tone in nouns 49 3.3 Dominant and recessive suffixes 52 3.4 Plural formation 56 3.4.1 Plurals with floating [+ATR] suprafix 58 3.4.2 Plurals with /-ɡi/ 60 3.4.3 Plurals with /-ti/ 61 3.4.4 Plurals with /-dɪ/ 63 3.4.5 Plurals with /-i/ and /-ɪ/ 65 3.4.6 Plurals with /-Ri/ and /-Rɪ/ 69 3.4.7 Plurals designating human beings 73 3.4.8 Nouns with no distinct plural form 75 3.4.9 Other methods of plural formation 76 3.4.10 Plural formation in loan words 78 3.4.11 Summary of plural suffixes 79 3.5 Nouns derived from verbs 81 3.6 Agentive suffix 82 3.7 Reduplicated elements in noun roots 85 3.8 Adjectives 86 4 VERB PHONOLOGY AND MORPHOLOGY 88 vi 4.1 Verb stem and finite form 88 4.2 Word shapes in verbs 89 4.3 Tone in verbs 92 4.4 Subject pronouns and pronominal suffixes 93 4.5 Reduplication in verbs 100 4.5.1 Partial reduplication 101 4.5.2 Full reduplication 104 4.6 Auxiliary verbs and verbal particles 106 4.6.1 Mood auxiliaries 106 4.6.2 Motion verb auxiliaries 108 4.6.3 Verbal particles 111 5 CONTRIBUTIONS OF THIS THESIS 113 APPENDICES A NOUN DATA: SINGULAR AND PLURAL FORMS 117 B ADJECTIVE DATA: SINGULAR AND PLURAL FORMS 138 C VERB DATA: STEM AND REDUPLICATED FORMS 141 REFERENCES 153 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page Figure 1. Language map of the Guera region……………………………………....... 4 Figure 2. −ATR root with recessive suffix………………………………………….. 55 Figure 3. +ATR root with recessive suffix………………………………………….. 55 Figure 4. +ATR root with dominant suffix………………………….…………....… 56 Figure 5. −ATR root with dominant suffix………………………………………….. 56 Figure 6. Autosegmental example of floating [+ATR] suprafix…………………... 59 Figure 7. Partial reduplication with CVCV verb……………………………..…….. 102 Figure 8. Partial reduplication with CVCCV verb……………………………..….... 102 Figure 9. Partial reduplication with glottal stop onset………………………..…… 103 viii LIST OF TABLES Table Page Table 1. Phonemic consonant inventory………………………..…………………..……… 16 Table 2. Distribution of stops…………………………………..…………………..………... 17 Table 3. Distribution of fricatives………………………………..………………..………… 22 Table 4. Distribution of nasals………………………………………..…………….……….. 23 Table 5. Distribution of liquids………………………………………..….…………….…… 24 Table 6. Distribution of rhotic variants………………………………..……………....…… 26 Table 7. Distribution of glides………………………………………………………...…….. 28 Table 8. Phonemic vowel inventory………………….…………..………………………… 31 Table 9. Distribution of vowels……………………………………………...…………….... 34 Table 10. CV shapes…….…………………………………………………………………….. 43 Table 11. Noun word shapes…………………………………………………...……………. 48 Table 12. Tone patterns in monosyllabic nouns…………………………...………..…….. 49 Table 13. Tone patterns in disyllabic nouns………………………………...………...…… 51 Table 14. Tone patterns in trisyllabic nouns……………………………………...……….. 52 Table 15. Plural suffix summary table……………………………………………...….…… 80 Table 16. Examples of finite verb forms……………………………………………………. 89 Table 17. Verb word shapes………………………………………………………...……….. 90 Table 18. Tone patterns in monosyllabic verbs……………………………………………. 92 Table 19. Tone patterns in disyllabic verbs……………………………………...………… 92 Table 20. Tone patterns in trisyllabic verbs…………………………………..…………… 93 Table 21. Subject pronouns…………………………………………………..……………… 94 ix Table 22. Pronominal suffixes…………………………………………………………..… 95 Table 23. Possessive forms…………………………………………………………….…. 115 x ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This research on the Bolgo language would not have been possible without Tom Oumar, Alladjaba Abramane Adoum, Hassip Brahim, Abdoulaye Souleiman, Abakar Mahamat, and Mahmad Haroune, who were willing to share their language with me. I would also like to thank my colleagues in the Fédération des Associations de Promotion des Langues Nationales and in SIL Chad. I would especially like to thank Rineke van Rijn for her kindness and hospitality during my many stays in Melfi, my former housemates Stefanie Seibel, Emma Kuipers, and Caroline Tyler for welcoming me to Chad, and Cindy Trotter for her collaboration in working on the Bolgo literacy materials. Thank you also to Emily Miller; I am so grateful we were able to encourage each other as we worked on our theses. I would like to thank my committee chair, Dr. James Roberts, for his patience and insight as I was working through the drafts of this thesis. The thesis is greatly improved because of his comments and advice. I would also like to thank my committee members, Dr. Albert Bickford and Dr. Mark Karan, for their contributions in the final stages of the thesis. I am very blessed to have family and friends in the U.S. and Finland who have been incredibly supportive of me throughout the process of writing this thesis. I am extremely appreciative of the encouragement from my parents, Ann and Mark, and also from my parents-in-law, Eeva and Kari. A huge thank you to Petri, my husband, who believed in me all along. Rakastan sinua aina. Finally, I am grateful to God for giving me the opportunity to study the Bolgo language and for His love, presence, and guidance throughout my life. xi ABBREVIATIONS ATR advanced tongue root COND conditional DAT dative DEO deontic H high tone INTR intransitive IPFV imperfective IRR irrealis L low tone M mid tone OBJ object PFV perfective PL plural POSS possessive SBJ subject SG singular TR transitive xii ABSTRACT Bolgo [bvo] is a language spoken in central Chad. It is a Bua language within the Adamawa branch of the Niger-Congo language family. This thesis provides an overview of the phonology and morphology of Bolgo, focusing on the underdocumented Bolgo Dugag dialect. The data on which the thesis is based consist of original research; approximately 600 nouns, 350 verbs, and 50 adjectives were elicited, as well as a number of phrases and sentences. A significant aspect of Bolgo phonology is its ATR harmony system, which contains nine phonemic vowels. In this harmony system, words contain either the +ATR vowels /i/, /e/, /u/, and /o/ or the −ATR vowels /ɪ/, /ɛ/, /ʊ/, and /ɔ/. The major exception to this is the −ATR vowel /a/, which may also occur in roots with +ATR vowels. A topic of particular interest in Bolgo morphology is plural formation. Bolgo nouns form their plurals using a variety of suffixes that originated from former noun class suffixes in the language. In accordance with the ATR harmony, sometimes a shift of vowels from −ATR in the singular to +ATR in the plural is also involved.