Historical inferences from traditions of origins of Tarok and some Chadic languages in Central Nigeria

Contact between the Tarokoid languages of Sur, Yangkam, Pe, Vaghat Cluster, Tarok and some Chadic languages found in southeast Plateau State of central Nigeria and its implications for the sketching of a history for the area is the main thesis of this work. A brief outline of oral traditions of origin of the sub-groupings of Tarok language is presented and interpreted in the light of linguistic data to illustrate how the methodology works. The underlying principles of this paper are based on the theoretical premise that oral traditions can shed some light in the interpretation of linguistic data and vice versa. Lexical items found in secondary sources and an Ngas wordlist I took were examined for cognates between the Chadic languages and Tarok proper

Verbal pluralization strategies in Plateau

Pluractional verbs are found in many Plateau (and adjacent Chadic) languages. The present study looks into the distribution of a stock of common markers of pluractionality. These are *s, *n, *k, and *d, all reminiscent of Proto-Bantu verb extensions. While these extensions each function differently in Bantu languages, in the Plateau area they serve a common function: that of expressing verbal pluractional stems. The surface manifestations of pluractionality present a picture of utter complexity in most of the languages studied. The study endeavors to reconstruct the strategies different languages have followed to create a synchronic chaos from a relatively clear picture in the proto-stage. Phonological changes and morphophonemic constraints are the major cause of surface differences. It is argued that the similarities observed between the pluractional forms of the languages treated here are due to internal developments rather than to language contact

“Behold, I have written it on parchment…” Two Early Amharic Poems from Ms. Ef. 10 (Koriander 2), St. Petersburg

The article deals with two short poems in Amharic from Ms. Ef. 10 kept in the Library of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg. Amharic, a Semitic language of Ethiopia, came to function as the second written language of Ethiopian Empire in the course of the 19th century. Samples of Amharic texts prior to this period are scanty and worthy of special study. The poems in question can be dated to the period end of the 17th – beginning of the 18th century. The article provides the texts of the poems with translation and linguistic and philological commentary, accompanied by a short description of Ms. Ef. 10

"Long live our tribal jujus" - The range of meanings of the word juju in Cameroonian English

Im Folgenden wird das Bedeutungsspektrum des generischen Begriffes juju im Kamerunischen Englisch auf der Grundlage von Aufsätzen, die 1968 von Studierenden aus verschiedenen südwestkamerunischen Gemeinschaften über jujus verfasst wurden, untersucht. Die Analyse zeigt, dass der Begriff juju ein sehr weites Bedeutungsspektrum hat. Er kann folgende semantisch miteinander verbundene Phänomene beschreiben: 1. einen Geheimbund, 2. eine übersinnliche Kraft, 3. eine Maske, die eine Gottheit personifiziert, 4. eine Darbietung, in der eine Gottheit (als Maske) auftritt, oder in der einer Gottheit gehuldigt wird, 5. ein Objekt, das mit Kräften einer Gottheit ausgestattet ist.In the following I analyse the range of meanings of the generic term juju in Cameroonian English based on short essays which were written by students from different South-western Cameroonian communities in 1968. The analysis shows that juju has a wide range of meanings, if can denote several semantically connected phenomena: 1. a secret society, 2. a supernatural power, 3. a mask which personifies a deity, 4. a performance, in which a deity occurs (in the form of a mask), 5. an object which has supernatural powers

Contact-induced disturbances in personal pronoun systems in the Chadic – Benue-Congo convergence zone in Central Nigeria

The paper looks at personal pronoun systems in languages of the convergence zone on both sides of the borderline between Benue-Congo and Chadic. Focus is on inventories and systems, meaning the overall interrelationship of pronoun shapes across the categories of person, number, grammatical gender and noun class (3rd person concord). The issues to be explored are (i) whether the personal pronoun systems as such provide any further indication towards the Sprachbund idea implied in Wolff & Gerhardt (1977), and (ii) whether one can identify some unusual features of or patterns within the systems, which are shared by languages on both sides of the line separating Benue-Congo and Chadic, and which are of such nature as to strengthen the hypothesis of a cross-genetic convergence zone. The answers provided are affirmative: In addition to cross-genetic borrowing of pronoun shapes, which is generally considered rare and/or at least remarkable, pronoun systems as such and across the convergence zone show at least two rather quirky disturbances of the expected pattern that can hardly be explained but by rather surprising instances of cross-language interference. These two kinds of disturbance within systems will be discussed under the headings of “category shifting” and “circumfix conjugational pattern” emergence.Given the present state of knowledge, the paper can only point out promising lines of detailed historical research: Any attempt to provide final answers would be premature at this stage

Préliminaires à une étude du saba, langue tchadique orientale du Tchad (région de Melfi)

The article provides first information on Saba, an Eastern Chadic minority language spoken in the Melfi district of the Guéra region, northeast of Melfi by some 1,500 speakers. The main focus is on the grammatical structures of the verb, which are based on a binary aspect system, i.e. a perfective – imperfective distinction. A considerable percentage of verbs are “strong” in that they display internal ablaut, e.g. the verb meaning ‘to kill’: perfective: dèegè (past), imperfective: díggà (present) and dàagà (future). According to the different vocalic patterns, seven classes of strong verbs may be distinguished. Phonologically, Saba belongs to the rather small group of Chadic languages which display two centralized vowel phonemes, i.e. ə and ʌ.L\u27article fournit les premières informations sur le saba, une langue minoritaire tchadique de l’Est, parlée par environ 1500 locuteurs dans le district de Melfi, région du Guéra, au Nord-Est de Melfi. L\u27accent principal est mis sur les structures grammaticales du verbe, qui sont basées sur un système aspectuel binaire, c\u27est-à-dire avec une opposition perfectif-imperfectif. Un pourcentage considérable de verbes sont «forts» dans la mesure où ils affichent des alternances vocaliques internes, par exemple le verbe signifiant «tuer»: perfectif: dèegè (passé), imperfectif: díggà (présent) et dàagà (futur). Selon les différents systèmes vocaliques, sept classes de verbes forts peuvent être distinguées. Phonologiquement, le Saba appartient plutôt au petit groupe de langues tchadiques ayant deux phonèmes vocaliques centralisés, c\u27est-à-dire ə et ʌ