Difference between revisions of "Igala Grammar"
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Revision as of 13:03, 17 September 2021
Cultural Information
Igala, known to the Igala people as “àbó ígálâ [àbóogálâ] in their language” is both an ethnic nationality and language (Ẹ̀jẹ̀bá 2016:1)[1]. Certain cultural groups such as the Bassa people maintain an Igala identity while other groups such as the Inoma or Ebu do not view themselves as Igala people (Ẹ̀jẹ̀bá 2016:2). These divergent identities result from different historical interactions between these groups and the Igala people of the Kogi State (Ẹ̀jẹ̀bá 2016)[1].
The Pear Story
Phonology
The phonology of Igala consists of a mid sized inventory of consonants and vowels. Igala is a tonal language.
Phonological Inventory
Consonants
The consonants in Igala are given below.
| Bilabial | Labiodental | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Palatal | Velar | Co-articulated velar labial | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | p b | t d | k g | |||||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||||
| Fricative | h | |||||||
| Affricate | tʃ dʒ | |||||||
| Approximant | w | ɹ | tʃ dʒ | j | ||||
| Lateral Approximant | l |
Vowels
According to Ejeba, there are seven vowels in Igala. [1] The vowels in Igala are given below.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i | u | |
| Mid | ɛ e | o ɔ | |
| Low | a |
Phonotactics
Syllables in Igala are in the form V, VC, or CVC. The maximal syllable in Igala is CVC.[1]
There are distributional restrictions on where each syllable can appear. CVC can only occur in isolated form. CV can occur word-initially, word-medially, word-finally, or in isolated form. V can occur in all cases except for word medially.
Vowel Hiatus
Tone
Main page: Tone
Morphology
Igala is a dominantly isolating language. Igala does not make use of derivational or inflectional affixation.
Nominalization
Reduplication
Syntax
Igala is a largely head-initial language. The basic word order of Igala is SVO (subject verb object)
Verb Phrases
Main page: Verb Phrases
Igala has multiple verb phrase constructions, such as serial verb constructions, split verbs, and cognate objects.
Noun Phrases
Main page: Noun Phrases
The determiner follows the head noun:
| ɔ̋nɛ́kɛ̄lɛ́ | l(ɛ) | a̋ | f(a) | ītébùlù | lɛ́ | ī: | |
| man | DEF.DIST | IPFV | pull | table | DEF.DIST | Q.EMPH | |
| What | does | this | mean | Zoe :) |
Possessives
Possession is not morphologically marked (although may be marked tonally?).
Adjectives and Adverbs
Sentence-Final Particles
As described in Simpson, sentence final particles are “phonologically small elements, most frequently monosyllabic, which typically (and in most instances must) occur in final position.” ” Prior studies of the structural position of SFPs in Mandarin, Vietnamese, and Niger-Congo languages have observed SFPs are head-final elements sentence-finally in otherwise head-initial languages (Paul). This observation challenges the Final-over-Final constraint, first proposed by Holmberg in the year 2000. The FOFC states that a head-initial XP cannot be dominated by a head-final VP.
Example of Negation:
| ű | h(i) | ɔ̀dʒ(e) | àbátʃà | ŋ̌ | |
| 1SG | cook | morsel | cassava | NEG | |
| ‘I didn't cook mashed cassava’ (D:734). | |||||