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- A systemized explanation for vowel phoneme change in the inadmissible
phonological structure /VV/ in Zulu
Authors: Lionel Posthumus
Pages: 9 - 29
Abstract: This article offers a systematic and comprehensive account of vowel changes that take place in the inadmissible phonological sequence /VV/ within a word in Zulu. Instead of discussing vowel changes in terms of vowel coalescence, vowel elision and glide insertion (as is conventionally done) this approach discusses the vowel changes with regard to the position of the two juxtaposed vowel phonemes on the vowel chart. The resultant form is predictable in terms of five basic combinatory possibilities, namely that the first vowel is a higher vowel than the second; the first vowel is a lower vowel than the second; the first vowel is a front vowel while the second is a back vowel; the first vowel is a back vowel while the second is a front vowel or the two vowels in the inadmissible sequence /VV/ are identical vowels. This article furthermore demonstrates that palatalisation is triggered by a semi-vowel generated by the inadmissible phonological structure /VV/ in the case of diminutives and locatives derived from nouns containing a bilabial or alveolar consonant in the final syllable.
PubDate: 2022-12-23
DOI: 10.32690/56.1
- Nominal phrase structure in Ikyaushi (M.402)
Authors: Troy E. Spier
Pages: 31 - 47
Abstract: Linguistic treatments of Bantu languages have traditionally focused on broadly historical/ comparative studies or on prototypical characteristics of the family, such as the nominal class system, the complexity of the verbal TAM system, or the tonal system. Consequently, far less attention has been placed upon the nominal phrase as a syntactic unit. To this end, Rugemalira (2007) proposes greater emphasis on Bantu morphosyntax generally. As such, the present study – situated within a broader discussion of the Bantu NP (cf. Chitebeta 2007, Godson & Godson 2015, Lusekelo 2009, Makanjila 2019, Möller 2011, Ondondo 2015, Rugemalira 2007) – builds upon Spier (2016, 2020, 2021) and introduces the first descriptive account of the nominal phrase in Ikyaushi, an underdocumented linguistic variety spoken in the Republic of Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The data for this study, which arrive from fourteen narratives shared orally by male and female native speakers of the grandparental generation, indicate that seven distinct elements may co-occur with the nominal, but utterances with between one and three co-occurring adnominals are far more frequently attested and more straightforwardly comprehensible to speakers.
PubDate: 2022-12-23
DOI: 10.32690/56.2
- Conceptualizations of head in Dholuo
Authors: Joseph Jaoko Ochieng
Pages: 49 - 79
Abstract: The role of the body in human perception of the surroundings has been continually investigated in the recent past. It has been influenced by the embodiment hypothesis which holds that the human body provides the very first experience that humans have about their environments. This article brings evidence from Dholuo that the head is conceptualized in various ways like metonymic head for hair, head for person, head for character traits, unit of measurement. Metaphorically, the head is extended to mean reason, emotion, container, tool, memory, among others. These findings show that the head is highly polysemous in Dholuo.
PubDate: 2022-12-23
DOI: 10.32690/56.3
- Construction morphology in Yoruba names: Schemas and processes
Authors: Taiwo O. Ehineni
Pages: 81 - 100
Abstract: This article is an attempt to explore how the framework of construction morphology may apply to the analysis of Yoruba names. Following this approach, we show that each Yoruba name is a unique construction involving semantic, syntactic and phonological properties. Hence, this discussion highlights that names constitute a form-meaning pair. Yoruba names may be grouped into categories as distinct constructions with unique SEM, SYN and PHON properties. More specifically, it is observed that PHON properties may include word initial vowel elision, syllable elision, vowel and consonant elongation while SYN features include processes of lexicalization of sentential forms. Furthermore, the article reveals that Yoruba names may show constructional patterns that are deviant from regular processes, observed by previous studies to occur in similar linguistic environments. These patterns, therefore, are part of the unique constructional property of Yoruba personal names in contradistinction to other word formation contexts.
PubDate: 2022-12-13
DOI: 10.32690/56.4
- Forms and functions of “impossibility” expressions in Yoruba
informal interactions
Authors: Temitope M. Ajayi
Pages: 101 - 126
Abstract: This study investigates the forms and pragmatic functions of “impossibility” slangy expressions in Yoruba informal interactions, within the framework of Mey’s pragmatic acts (2001). Data comprised ten informal interactions randomly sampled from thirty interactions observed among the Yoruba in different contexts. Findings revealed “impossibility” slangy expressions in Yoruba trifurcate into function‑oriented, structure‑function‑oriented, and danger‑oriented types. They are deployed to express rejection, rejection with warning, caution, discountenance and disapproval, rebuke with dare, challenge and threat in Yoruba informal interactions. Participants in Yoruba informal interactions make recourse to facial expression (physical act), and contextual elements: shared cultural knowledge (SCK), shared experiential knowledge (SEK), voice (VCE), inference (INF) and relevance (REF) to deconstruct the pragmatic imports of impossibility expressions.
PubDate: 2022-12-23
DOI: 10.32690/56.5
- Metaphorical euphemisms in death-discourse among the Nzema
Authors: Mohammed Yakub, Kofi Agyekum
Pages: 127 - 153
Abstract: This article seeks to deepen our understanding of the cognitive processes in death euphemisms in Nzema, a Kwa language of Ghana. The article highlights the metaphorical “mappings” across conceptual domains, where the concept of death (target domain) is well understood in terms of more physical events such as journey, departure, return, invitation, continuous sleep, lose a fight, etc. (source domain). It is demonstrated that the Nzema conceptualise death also as retirement, subtraction, bereavement as living in darkness, being missing at the crossroads, burial as hiding/preserving, burying as sowing a seed, coffin as house for an individual, cemetery/grave as better place, place of rest, and corpse as a thing among others.
PubDate: 2022-12-23
DOI: 10.32690/56.6
- Convergence of form and content between indigenous and Christian songs and
beliefs of the Yoruba in southwestern Nigeria
Authors: Oluwole T. Okewande
Pages: 155 - 182
Abstract: Beginning and the development of Yoruba written poetry was believed to be influenced by the Christian songs and hymns. However, this study demonstrates the impact of Yoruba traditional poetry and beliefs in the development of local Christian religion and beliefs in the present time. Relevant data on both Christian and indigenous Yoruba beliefs were sampled through observation as well as extracted from written texts such as songs, hymns and poems in the Yoruba language. On the basis of the ethnographic and empirical materials and texts examined, the study found out that there are many parallel elements relating to form and content in traditional Yoruba and contemporary Christian songs and beliefs. It is stated that the Yoruba religious poetry and songs are valuable cultural elements in contemporary time and actively participate in propagating the Christian beliefs in the Yoruba society. This study concludes that impact of Yoruba religious poetry and beliefs is felt on the Christian religion in the contemporary time just as the Christian religious songs contributed to the development of Yoruba poetry in the past.
PubDate: 2022-12-23
DOI: 10.32690/56.7
- Stefan Strelcyn and his archival recordings of oral tradition of Ethiopia
made in 1957/58 (including four Amharic love songs)
Authors: Ewa Wołk-Sore
Pages: 183 - 200
Abstract: Stefan Strelcyn – a Polish scholar whose achievements were acknowledged by the Emperor Haile Selassie I in 1967 with a Haile Selassie Award for Ethiopian Studies – initiated African studies at the University of Warsaw. His main field of scholarly activity covered cataloguing manuscripts in various European library collections as well as studying traditional Ethiopian medicine and medicinal plants. However, during his field trip to Ethiopia in 1957/58 he recorded 26 tapes of various examples of Ethiopian orature in Ethiopic classical Ge’ez language and five other languages of Ethiopia: Amharic, Oromo, Tigrinya, Gurage, and Harari. These recordings have been recently digitized. The first attempt to present their content, as well as a sample translation and literary analysis of four Amharic love poems recorded by Stefan Strelcyn, is undertaken in this article.
PubDate: 2022-12-23
DOI: 10.32690/56.8
- Paul Newman & Roxana Ma Newman. Hausa Dictionary: Hausa‑English /
English‑Hausa, Ƙamusun Hausa: Hausa‑Ingilishi / Ingilishi‑Hausa.
Kano: Bayero University Press 2020, 627 pp. ISBN: 978-978-98446-6-1
Authors: Nina Pawlak
Pages: 201 - 205
Abstract: Review of Paul Newman & Roxana Ma Newman. Hausa Dictionary: Hausa‑English / English‑Hausa, Ƙamusun Hausa: Hausa‑Ingilishi / Ingilishi‑Hausa. Kano: Bayero University Press 2020, 627 pp. ISBN: 978-978-98446-6-1.
PubDate: 2022-12-23
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